I know it sounds like a doomsday pronouncement, but our policies (such as they are) in Middle East have proven to be completely ineffective and the region is unravelling. It is not surprising. If anyone is surprised at what is happening in Afghanistan and what has already happened in Iraq, then they have not been following our policies or non-policies in that region. The writing was on the all when White House announced that all U.S. troops will be gone from Afghanistan by next year and when we also pulled out all our combat troops from Iraq. You may have notice that I did not include Syria in this. That is because Syria is lost!
The latest news from Afghanistan is that Kunduz has been taken over by Taliban and the Afghan National Army (ANA) is unable to retake the place. Reinforcements are unable to reach the city because the road leading to the city is blocked by Taliban! My question is, why isn't the ANA fighting the Taliban blocking the highway? Besides, whatever happened to all of those helicopters that we gave to the ANA? Can't they airlift the troops to Kunduz? Apparently not, apparently the ANA is not trained well enough to execute such an air lift/ air assault operation and it is not capable of removing (knocking out) the Taliban that are blocking the highway.
All of our billions upon billions of dollars worth of equipment and training that we showered upon the ANA was for naught. "Experts" in Washington are saying that it will take another two years to a whole generation to get the ANA up to speed! Give me a break! We've been at this for over a decade now and still no viable army? In the meantime, we are conducting air strikes, dropping tons of bombs that are apparently not doing any good. Why are we wasting all that money? The simple answer to all this is that without U.S. ground troops, the Taliban will retake the country just as ISIS will take over Iraq. No amount of "shock and awe" air war by us will solve the problem without American boots on the ground. Why? Because neither the Afghan nor Iraqi government is capable of fielding a viable army to fight the Taliban and ISIS. The governments in both countries are corrupt, run by corrupt officials, and that extends down to the armed forces.
Washington "experts" keep saying not to make comparisons with Vietnam. Why not? Vietnam-ization brought about the same results that "Afghan-ization" and "Iraq-ization" has thus far! You can't expect a corrupt government to carry out "our" plan and fight the war. Those corrupt Afghan and Iraqi officials are only interested in lining their pockets, just as it happened in Vietnam!
Syria is a different story. We never really got involved directly until fairly recently when we started air strikes on known ISIS locations. As far as ground war is concerned, we really have done zilch! Supposedly we trained about 50 or so "good guys" to fight ISIS....that's fewer fighter than ISIS recruits in a week, possibly a day! Now White House is in a tizzy because Russians have started bombing indiscriminately towns that are supposedly under "good guys" control. Russia is in this for one thing only, to support Al-Assad's regime and to beef up their own standing in the Middle East! To that end they have accomplished their goal when they sent troops and planes and established two bases around Damascus. Russia will essentially carry out the war as Al-Assad did on his own. Now he has an ally with more planes and bombs, and ground troops!
It appears now that if we counter Russia's strikes, then we will be engaging Russian planes and troops. Do we want to do that? Are we ready to go to war with Russia?
Putin is nothing but a former KGB thug who thinks and acts exactly as most former Soviet leaders. He has "figured out" our current leadership in the White House and knows that he can push to the limit without any consequences. Oh, there will be other "sanctions" such as the ones we imposed after his Ukrainian adventure, but nothing more serious. Our leaders in Washington have to realize who they are dealing with! They are not dealing with someone interested in negotiating any sort of a settlement or agreement, unless it is in Russia's favor!
Putin does not fear our current leadership, and unfortunately, fear and strength are the only things that he understands. Putin would not risk an all out war with us, because he knows he cannot win. But he knows also that he can chip away and twist our nose and get away with it. Our leaders have to realize that they are dealing with someone who has an almost a pathological hatred for the United States, for our system. He blames all of Russia's current problems on the U.S., and like all his predecessors with the exception of Gorbachev, he is very heavy handed. There is no finesse with Putin! The only way to deal with Putin is to respond in kind. If he bombs "our" allies territory, we bomb Al-Assad's military strongholds. He shoots down our plane, we shoot down his. I know it sounds simplistic and crude, but that is what he understands, that is what the Soviets always understood. However, it is highly unlikely that we would counter his actions in such manner, so, in the end he will get his way. That is why I said earlier that Syria is lost, and is now a Russian foothold in the Middle East.
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