More Troops, Then What?

It appears that the Obama Administration will deploy up to 17,000 additional Soldiers and Marines into Afghanistan (up from a current total of 30,000).

If we continue to fight the war that we've been fighting, then an additional 17,000 troops will not solve the issue.

During the insurgency against the former Soviet Union, the modus operandi of the resistance was to refit during the winter in Pakistan. There would be the sporadic attack to keep the Soviets on their toes, but most of the violence occurred in the late spring, summer, and early autumn. It can get mighty cold in those mountains. We see the same cycle of violence twenty years later.

Since the war started, more than seven years ago, the Taliban and their cohorts have learned a thing or two. For starters, they know that when they mass their forces, they will lose. So, we're unlikely to have a set-piece battle with them anytime soon. Rather, they have resorted to terrorism -- IEDs and suicide attacks -- to instill fear in the populace. More, importantly they are demonstrating the impotence of the regime in Kabul and their NATO protectors. (It doesn't help much when the U.S., Canada, and the United States is doing most, if not all, of the heavy lifting of actually fighting the Taliban.) It can be said that the Taliban's goal is to provoke the people into preferring the dark days of the Taliban rather than the uncertainty of today.

One thing hasn't changed -- the use of Pakistan as a relative sanctuary.

We've been fighting a war of opportunity ever since 2001. During my hitch there, we would set up elaborate plans based on sketchy intelligence. Only to be stood up by the enemy. Our brigade's biggest firefight was when we came across a an insurgent group by surprise. We have conceded the initiative to the enemy. More importantly, coming from my limited perspective, they seemingly copped on to our tactics, techniques, and procedures, and have developed ways to counter them.

So, if we are to send an additional 17K into theater (and don't even get me started on our ever-tightening supply line) they will have do something other than execute the same defensive type war that we've been doing since 2002. If there is a new strategy, it's a top secret.

More troubling, however, is this influx of troops demonstrates an already identifiable trait in President Obama -- to do something. The economy is in a mess -- legislate a dubious stimulus bill. The world's lefties want us to close Gitmo -- let's close it down and oh, by the way, come up with a plan to house those detainees elsewhere. Violence spiraling out of control in Afghanistan -- send a brigade or two. It's a troublesome act first, think later approach.

Then again, if this were easy, we wouldn't be in Afghanistan for seven years now.