"...he (Bowe Bergdahl) walked off without his weapons, body armor, etc..."
By Noah Shachtman
...America has fought (click here) in its fair share of insurgencies and counterinsurgencies — from our own revolution to Iraq. But in Afghanistan, the U.S. military is trying something different. In a rather unorthodox approach, commanders there are radically de-emphasizing the “kinetic,” bombs and bullets fight, and instead putting a premium on persuading the people to side against the Taliban. That may sound similar to the strategy General David Petraeus executed in Iraq, and helped postulate in the military’s counterinsurgency field manual. But General Stanley McChrystal has taken the approach several steps further in Afghanistan — discouraging cordon-and-search raids, all-but-banning air strikes, directing troops to consider retreat rather than attacking a town. “It’s not the number of people you kill, it’s the number of people you convince. It’s the number of people that don’t get killed. It’s the number of houses are not destroyed,” McChrystal told his troops recently....
I'm just sayin.
Bergdahl wasn't an Imam, right? He didn't become a new prophet to the Taliban, right? He was a POW. I just thought some folks might have missed that point. He didn't pull the trigger when others died while carrying out searches for him. They were killed by the enemy. Bergdahl wasn't the commander when the Americans honorably died. Oh, he was the reason they died. He was a prisoner. I suppose he was the reason. They rescue efforts would have been carried out under the new McCrystal command. Was he correct to search? Yes.
McCrystal didn't take command of the Afghanistan theater until June 2009, the very same month Bergdahl was captured. I think it was days apart from his capture and the arrival of General McCrystal, but, his strategies were well known long before his arrival.
General McCrystal was asked to resign his command because of a magazine article not his application of strategies. As a matter of fact he was kicking ass at the Officer's lounge in Kabul. He thought the officers were too leisure rather than being leaders. So, McCrystal saw a balance between being an officer and being a soldier that happens to be a leader.
"We train them by taking them out and engaging the Taliban," (click here) said Maj. Kevin Reilly, a New York Army National Guardsman in charge of a U.S. police training team in Maiwand, a rural district two hours west of Kandahar.
I thought the statement was 'out there,' "We don't know what he was doing, engaging the enemy or abandoning his post."
This is ridiculous. The military leadership is looking at Bowe Bergdahl's actions as a soldier. Short of being a mind reader, which I don't think the CIA has mastered yet, that's enough of this bullshit.
By Noah Shachtman
...America has fought (click here) in its fair share of insurgencies and counterinsurgencies — from our own revolution to Iraq. But in Afghanistan, the U.S. military is trying something different. In a rather unorthodox approach, commanders there are radically de-emphasizing the “kinetic,” bombs and bullets fight, and instead putting a premium on persuading the people to side against the Taliban. That may sound similar to the strategy General David Petraeus executed in Iraq, and helped postulate in the military’s counterinsurgency field manual. But General Stanley McChrystal has taken the approach several steps further in Afghanistan — discouraging cordon-and-search raids, all-but-banning air strikes, directing troops to consider retreat rather than attacking a town. “It’s not the number of people you kill, it’s the number of people you convince. It’s the number of people that don’t get killed. It’s the number of houses are not destroyed,” McChrystal told his troops recently....
I'm just sayin.
Bergdahl wasn't an Imam, right? He didn't become a new prophet to the Taliban, right? He was a POW. I just thought some folks might have missed that point. He didn't pull the trigger when others died while carrying out searches for him. They were killed by the enemy. Bergdahl wasn't the commander when the Americans honorably died. Oh, he was the reason they died. He was a prisoner. I suppose he was the reason. They rescue efforts would have been carried out under the new McCrystal command. Was he correct to search? Yes.
McCrystal didn't take command of the Afghanistan theater until June 2009, the very same month Bergdahl was captured. I think it was days apart from his capture and the arrival of General McCrystal, but, his strategies were well known long before his arrival.
General McCrystal was asked to resign his command because of a magazine article not his application of strategies. As a matter of fact he was kicking ass at the Officer's lounge in Kabul. He thought the officers were too leisure rather than being leaders. So, McCrystal saw a balance between being an officer and being a soldier that happens to be a leader.
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 10, 2009"We train them by taking them out and engaging the Taliban," (click here) said Maj. Kevin Reilly, a New York Army National Guardsman in charge of a U.S. police training team in Maiwand, a rural district two hours west of Kandahar.
I thought the statement was 'out there,' "We don't know what he was doing, engaging the enemy or abandoning his post."
This is ridiculous. The military leadership is looking at Bowe Bergdahl's actions as a soldier. Short of being a mind reader, which I don't think the CIA has mastered yet, that's enough of this bullshit.
