That War in Afghanistan

The incomperable Ralph Peters has been arguing of late that our effort to build a democracy in Afghanistan was a mistake. Rather, he says we should have gone into Afghanistan in 2001 with the object of destroying the Taliban and al Qaeda, leaving a smoldering ruin in our wake (note, unable to find the link at this time).

This seems fundamentally right. Afghanistan is a patchwork of ethno-tribal groups without a unifying language or culture, and no tradition of good government. We are now the fourth (at least) great power to try to tame it, the other three being the USSR, Britain, and Macedonia.

American forces in Afghanistan are now commanded by General Stanley McChrystal, who oversaw special operations in Iraq for five years. In this effort, he helped form a special operations task force known by many names. When this outfit was called Task Force 145, it inflicted a series of devastating defeats on al Qaeda in and around Baghdad, culminating with the killing of the notorious abu Musab al Zarqawi.

Perhaps this was the strategy the United States should have employed in Afghanistan all along. Rather than send several brigades to the country, a much smaller force based around special forces groups, backed by say, a few air assault battalions, waging a brutal shadow war could have done the job better.

For more about Will, visit http://www.gulfwarone.com/. His novel, 'A Line Through the Desert' can be purchased here.