{"id":328615,"date":"2021-08-21T15:06:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T12:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/afghanistan-proves-failed-generals-no-longer-care-about-winning\/"},"modified":"2021-08-21T15:06:52","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T12:06:52","slug":"afghanistan-proves-failed-generals-no-longer-care-about-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/afghanistan-proves-failed-generals-no-longer-care-about-winning\/","title":{"rendered":"#Afghanistan proves failed generals no longer care about winning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Afghanistan proves failed <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>s no longer care about winning<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n        <\/aside>\n<p>To the surprise of only the Biden administration and its top brass, the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan last week after 20 years of frivolous American adventurism. It was a spectacular failure of American diplomacy, statecraft, intelligence and, most of all, military capability. In short, mission very much not accomplished.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s pretty much standard operating procedure for the nearly useless behemoth called the Pentagon, which hasn\u2019t won a war since the kinder, gentler American government changed its name from the War Department to the Defense Department shortly after World War II. If you\u2019re always on defense, you\u2019re losing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Largely thanks to the CIA and special forces, the punitive expedition against the launching pad of 9\/11 was swiftly completed, the primitive Taliban scattered, and an example made. But then that soft-headed American notion of mission creep and \u201cnation building\u201d took hold, abetted by a succession of weak presidents and a careerist military utterly unfamiliar with the sweet smell of victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The result? Thousands of dead Americans and trillions of borrowed dollars down the drain. The demise of a sham \u201cnation\u201d that never existed in the first place. And another military humiliation as the world\u2019s major superpower piteously is reduced to begging Islamic fundamentalists not to abuse our nationals tr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ed in the country and please, pretty please, don\u2019t be beastly to the Afghan women and, by the way, please put one or two in your cabinet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to blame the craven civilian leadership that pushed us into this morass, starting with the na\u00efve and weak-willed George W. Bush; the feckless Barack Obama, and now the senile Joe Biden; only Donald Trump, who rightly criticized the \u201cforever wars\u201d and had put into place a carrot-and-stick approach to resolve the situation, had any grasp of the problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the real villains here are the throne-sniffing Pentagon brass who failed in the one mission every commanding general has: to win the damn war. The argument is made that \u2014 in Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan \u2014 the politicians wouldn\u2019t let them win. But, throughout history, generals who understood the larger strategic situation even when their nominal superiors didn\u2019t \u2014 or couldn\u2019t admit it for political reasons \u2014 went ahead and won anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During the Civil War, Lincoln cycled through general after general until he found Ulysses S. Grant, who frequently rejected his commander in chief\u2019s tactical suggestions, for which Lincoln was ultimately grateful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In World War I, the American Commander \u201cBlack Jack\u201d Pershing ignored British and French insistence that his men serve in a supporting role. Under Pershing, the US First Army smashed through the German defenses at Saint-Mihiel in September 1918; two months later, the war was over.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/mark-milley.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Mark Milley \" class=\"wp-image-19196494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/mark-milley.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/mark-milley.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/mark-milley.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Milley would have been sacked by now if a concept like honor still existed among our military brass.\u00a0<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With America reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army and Navy came up with an audacious plan to attack Tokyo, and in April of 1942, Jimmy Doolittle\u2019s B-25s were raining bombs on the Japanese homeland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, the Failure Generals in Iraq and Afghanistan such as David Petraeus, Jim Mattis, Stanley McChrystal, and Mark Milley (currently the embarrassing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), have consistently failed upward despite <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/05\/29\/fashion\/david-petraeus-paula-broadwell-scandal-affair.html\">divulging classified information<\/a> to their mistresses, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2018\/09\/trump-mattis-kelly-new-york-times\/569416\/\">sabotaging President Trump\u2019s military policy<\/a>, and fretting about \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/powerpost\/republicans-joint-chiefs-chairman-critical-race-theory-congress\/2021\/06\/23\/84654c34-d451-11eb-9f29-e9e6c9e843c6_story.html\">white rage<\/a>\u201d in the ranks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Just last month, Milley was <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/07\/21\/mark-milley-top-general-afghanistan-taliban-500445\">airily <\/a><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/07\/21\/mark-milley-top-general-afghanistan-taliban-500445\">dismissing<\/a> reports of an imminent Taliban victory in Afghanistan, where he once served: \u201cI don\u2019t think the end <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> is yet written,\u201d the clueless commandant said. He would have been sacked or tendered his resignation by now if a concept like honor still existed among our military brass.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the \u201cdefense\u201d industry\u2019s addiction to taxpayer dollars has ensured there will be no end to low-level \u201cunwinnable\u201d conflicts as long as victory is always secondary. Amazingly, losing has become our official war-fighting strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/patton-grant.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"George S. Patton Jr. and Ulysses S Grant won their stars on the battlefield and not in the halls of Congress.\" class=\"wp-image-19196506\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/patton-grant.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/patton-grant.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/patton-grant.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>George S. Patton Jr. and Ulysses S Grant won their stars on the battlefield and not in the halls of Congress.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images (2)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>What\u2019s needed now is a wholesale rethinking of the uses of the military that returns us to first principles. As William T. Sherman famously said, \u201cWar is cruelty. There\u2019s no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was another American fighting man, the great George S. Patton Jr. \u2014 who won his stars on the battlefield and not in the halls of Congress \u2014 who best exemplified how winners think.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ordered in March 1945 to bypass the historic city of Trier in the Third Army\u2019s lightning thrust into Germany because it was likely to take at least four divisions, Patton seized the town anyway: \u201cHave taken Trier with two divisions. Do you want me to give it back?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Until we return to prizing our Shermans and Pattons over Milleys, expect more Afghanistans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Michael Walsh is the author of \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Last-Stands-Fight-When-Lost\/dp\/1250217083\/?tag=nypost-20\">Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All Is Lost<\/a>\u201d (St. Martin\u2019s Press).<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/08\/21\/afghanistan-proves-failed-generals-no-longer-care-about-winning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Afghanistan proves failed generals no longer care about winning&#8221; To the surprise of only the Biden administration and its top brass, the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan last week after 20 years of frivolous American adventurism. It was a spectacular failure of American diplomacy, statecraft, intelligence and, most of all, military capability. In short, mission&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/pataeus-mattis-austin-mcchystal.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[114672,72315,70409,70376,4947],"class_list":["post-328615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-8-21-21","tag-afghanistan","tag-diplomacy","tag-military","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}