Opening Salvo:

This is the 'Maiden Voyage' of this site dedicated to informing the citizens of the United States of America of our current war fighting philosophy in Afghanistan. The Hope is that with the information gleaned from these pages, the citizens of this Nation will become motivated and tell their elected representation in Washington DC to place the War Effort at the top of their docket. Presently, The ROE (Rules of Engagement) have contributed to many US deaths and will continue to do so until we can twist the arms of elected officials and force them to lift these restrictions on our fighting forces. If not; they need to bring them Home!

The new assessment released by General McChrystal, demands another 40,000 troops and a tighter ROE (Rules of Engagement) than is currently in place. He further states he understands this will contribute to more US casualties. The premise is that by showing the Afghan civilian population that we are willing to waste the precious blood of our Warriors in defense of Afghan civilians, we will engender their support and friendship in our effort. This is naive at best because our view of Afghan society and culture is incorrect. The underlying belief is that all peoples around the world are fundamentally the same and want the same things. It also assumes that all people are basically good and only sometimes stray. Applying this belief to the conditions in Afghanistan, then, allows you to see the three main factions in Afghanistan as either good or evil. It follows this way:
1. Taliban, bad because they oppress the civilian population and live and teach a version of Islam that requires the killing of all non-muslims.
2. Afghan civilians, good because they are just largely a population of poor people who only want to carry on in their lives, peacefully.
3. ANA and AP (Afghan Nation Army and Afghan Police), good because they are the national guardians of the nation and the civilian population.

The single element missing in this discussion is the ideology which is the underpinning of the entire society and the Taliban and that is the version of Islam that is followed there. There is no significant difference. All parties ascribe to the same belief. The difference is the level of comittment to the ideology each group is willing to bring to the table.

The Taliban, which is largely Pashtun in make-up, is dedicated to the point of being totally sold out to it. They are the 'Warrior Monks' of the ideology that are in the process of purifying the faith by destroying all non muslim and apostate believers. Apostate believers are first on the hit list because they have known the truth and strayed. They are largely unrecoverable, in the eyes of the Taliban and a scourge to the religion. That is why you see many more bombings in civilian bazaars and public areas than you do against US troops. They do not kill the entire population of apostates for practical reasons. They use them as they see fit until they are of no further use.

The Civilian population is more complicated. They are largely Apostate believers but there are the true adherents as well. It is in part from this group where one could expect to find treachery and recruits as the apostates move toward the core of their ideology. Because there really isn't any way to 'measure' a persons inner sense of comittment to the faith, you can't 'vet' them with any measure of confidence. If you cannot vet them confidently, how can you trust them?

The ANA and AP are at the least, incompetent and from the civilian population. This means their willing adherence to the tenets of the faith can not be determined either. They display incredible corrupt personal behavior and have been said to be 65%-80% drug infested. We also know there are moles among their number. Are these then the people that General McChrystal expects to attach to operational American Combat Units?

After Apostates you have the Infidel community which is broken into the 'Crusaders' and the 'Zionists'. The Crusaders are people with largely Christian heritage and the Zionists are Jews. These two groups are largely to be destroyed as part of this purification plan.

Knowing all of this; exactly where is the common ground upon which we will build confidence, friendship and alliances which is what this assessment says we need to do? And if we launched this war 8 years ago with the specific mission of bringing Al Quaida to justice and any who would aid, abet and harbor them (Taliban) as well as to deny them safe harbor for training and to deny them battle space; why would we even care? The reason is that the mission has morphed into a broader COIN operation (Counter Insurgency) where one focus is to defend the civilian population and here lies the muddy water. We are now no longer interested in defending United States Citizens and US property, we are now nation building. We are going to re-create Afghanistan into a democracy and lift the Afghan people from their plight. The problem is two-fold; the Afghans see us as the Infidel and everything we are as evil. So what makes anyone think they want what we have, even if you buy into the nation building mission? Secondly; we are by General McChrystals own words requiring our men to die for another country of people who, by the way, hate us ideologically. Our men did not swear an oath to support and defend the shores or people of another nation and our elected officials were not given the mission of shoring up another nation on the blood of our sons and daughters!!

I will continue to build the case and forward the growing list of articles, blogs and sites that are dedicated to this subject in the following days and weeks. I invite everyone to participate in this Blog. We all need, as a Nation to become more informed on this and to hold our elected officials collective feet to the fire.
Semper Fidelis;
John Bernard