Minimalist will love this one...

[Minimalist]

An army of "soldiers" failed in Iraq....and will fail in Afghanistan.

[DramaQueen]

What should Iraq do?
And how could Costa Rica survive without an army?

[Anomalocaris]

An army of "soldiers" failed in Iraq....and will fail in Afghanistan.

Well, the soldiers need to be well led too.

When a 4 star soldier who happen to have been the army chief of staff said before congress that a proper war in Iraq requires several hundred thousand soldiers on the ground for years, and an deputy secretary of defence without a single day's military service, to say nothing of having attended any general staff college, laughed condescendingly and said it was "wide of mark" before national television, you knew for certain we were going to lose this war.

[Minimalist]

Always remember:

Nervos belli, pecuniam.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

"The sinews of war is unlimited money."

We spend $1,000,000 per man to equip, pay and train a soldier. Meanwhile they hand some fuckhead a garage door opener and tell him to press it when one of our super expensive vehicles goes by.

You can't win that.

[Tonus]

I dunno, old Bill might be on to something. Find a bunch of mercenaries on the other side of the world, send them a shitload of money, and wait for them to do your dirty work. What could go wrong?

[The Grand Nudger]

We spend $1,000,000 per man to equip, pay and train a soldier. Meanwhile they hand some fuckhead a garage door opener and tell him to press it when one of our super expensive vehicles goes by.

You can't win that.

We spend even more, thats an average. Some MOS cost more than others, and some specializations within an MOS are even more expensive still.

Bring every fuckhead with a garage door opener my way. Eventually, they'll get me, it's just a matter of time - but I'll get so many of "them" that it will be difficult to find someone capable of operating the garage door opener and also...willing to do so. We can win, it's just that it's difficult to do so when your "leadership" keeps shooting you in the damned feet.

Soldiers are worth many times their own number in zealots, warm bodies, etc....
(that's why we spend the extra money..it doesn't always take....but there it is)

[Aoi Magi]

Why fight when just some diplomatic pressure on their government can work wonders?

[Anomalocaris]

Always remember:

Nervos belli, pecuniam.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

"The sinews of war is unlimited money."

We spend $1,000,000 per man to equip, pay and train a soldier. Meanwhile they hand some fuckhead a garage door opener and tell him to press it when one of our super expensive vehicles goes by.

You can't win that.

Don't forget in the early days of the war, we outnumbered the insurgency by 10 to 1. If we had handled the initial phase of occupation right, the number of insurgents should go down from there, not up. We squandered the chance.

Even today, if we mount a real military operation against ISIS, we would still easily outnumber them 10 to 1.

Basically, in most real counter insurgency opeartions, soldiers are not really there mainly to hunt down the insurgency. They are mainly there to take casualties while keeping civilians from being coerced by the insurgency. If they kill insurgents, that's just a bonus, but it won't be decisive.

If you can keep the insurgency from coercing the civilians, and provide the civilians with an enlightened administration, and keep the civilians from each other's throats, the insurgency will wither. Else you will lose.

It's that simple.

[Lemonvariable72]

An army of "soldiers" failed in Iraq....and will fail in Afghanistan.

Well, the soldiers need to be well led too.

When a 4 star soldier who happen to have been the army chief of staff said before congress that a proper war in Iraq requires several hundred thousand soldiers on the ground for years, and an deputy secretary of defence without a single day's military service, to say nothing of having attended any general staff college, laughed condescendingly and said it was "wide of mark" before national television, you knew for certain we were going to lose this war.

Wasn't ww2 enough to teach that when politicians take the place of generals you lose?

[Minimalist]

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.

--Georges Clemenceau

---

Even today, if we mount a real military operation against ISIS, we would still easily outnumber them 10 to 1.

Ultimately irrelevant. We overran the whole fucking country in 3 weeks and then stood around for 8 years with our thumbs up our asses getting blown up one humvee at a time because we had no plan.