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**Reafnartefs** · 02-08-2010, 07:39 AM

The Taliban thrive on chaos, so long as they can move themselves, and more importantly, arms, around, they will continue to pop up in inconvenient places, forcing us to re fight battles all over the country, greatly impeding the political, economic and social progress necessary for a cohesive state.

Until we fortify and build up the cities, the population will say at arms length, both because they fear the Taliban lurking, and out of anger for us chasing them around.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the soviets controll and fortify all major settlements in Afghanistan for years? Not to mention that probably on a small part of the population actually lives in the "big" settlements. I also heard about recent surveys turning out that already in some areas, the population considers the Taliban to be the good guys.

The way I see it, we're losing both the ideological war and the war on the battlefield. Also, in all western countries, support for this war is crumbling. In nations like Germany, the majority of the people are already in favour of an unconditional, immediate retreat.

Unless we implement a significant change in strategy, combined with a massively increased effort to rebuilt the country and an "diplomatic offense" against the Taliban in Afghanistan, I consider a success of the mission to be impossible at this time.

02-08-2010, 07:39 AM	#7
Reafnartefs Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 408 Senior Member	The Taliban thrive on chaos, so long as they can move themselves, and more importantly, arms, around, they will continue to pop up in inconvenient places, forcing us to re fight battles all over the country, greatly impeding the political, economic and social progress necessary for a cohesive state. Until we fortify and build up the cities, the population will say at arms length, both because they fear the Taliban lurking, and out of anger for us chasing them around. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the soviets controll and fortify all major settlements in Afghanistan for years? Not to mention that probably on a small part of the population actually lives in the "big" settlements. I also heard about recent surveys turning out that already in some areas, the population considers the Taliban to be the good guys. The way I see it, we're losing both the ideological war and the war on the battlefield. Also, in all western countries, support for this war is crumbling. In nations like Germany, the majority of the people are already in favour of an unconditional, immediate retreat. Unless we implement a significant change in strategy, combined with a massively increased effort to rebuilt the country and an "diplomatic offense" against the Taliban in Afghanistan, I consider a success of the mission to be impossible at this time.
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