Americans tune out as Afghan war rages on

[AF6872]

"Salting the Earth". How many know that historical context

"War is Hell" = Sherman = spent a few years proving it.

Gatling = Gun

Isandlwana could have used a few more Gatlings.

[AF6872]

"Theoritical and moral war ain't the real thing".

[AF6872]

Carthage was too big a hint. Salt on the fields was enough.

[flieger83]

Originally Posted by AF6872

"Salting the Earth". How many know that historical context

"War is Hell" = Sherman = spent a few years proving it.

Gatling = Gun

Isandlwana could have used a few more Gatlings.

Not sure the Brit's had any there...if they did, I'm sure there were never uncased as the slaughter was pretty serious!

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
(No, I didn't WIKI that, I know the battle)

[AF6872]

No Gatlings as they were later deployed to South Africa. Over 1,300 Brits KIA in hand to hand. Must have been brutal. Pyrrhic since England then determined to crush the Zulu empire after the devestating defeat.

[AF6872]

"Punic Wars" was a great reference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punic_Wars

[Hurricane12]

I am so baffled by the direction this thread has taken.

[AF6872]

As am I. But play on You weren't baffled by the Kardashians??

[AF6872]

Rorke's Drift. Great movie.

http://www.britishbattles.com/zulu-war/rorkes-drift.htm

[EDelahanty]

The original focus of this thread was the inattention and ignorance of our fellow citizens about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Even this thread was unable to stay on subject, instead diverging to themes of Yer Either With Us or Against Us, Blow em Back into the Stone Age, and British Military Disasters Against Pre-Industrial Opponents (Rorke's Drift excepted).

After the thrills the public enjoyed in November and December 2001 over the use of the devastating weapons known as daisycutters, all that remained to engage our interest was the 2002 Afghan assembly with the exotic appellation of Loya Jurga, at which Hamid Karzai was declared the country's leader. Karzai was introduced to those paying attention at the 2002 State of the Union speech. The subject of Afghanistan largely disappeared until briefly resurfacing in the 2008 election when it was cited by some as a good war in contrast to the bad war in Iraq.

This loss of national focus should not be surprising if you understand that the country's favorite attention grabber is stories about Missing White Girls, especially if the media can pick a scoundrel we can direct our hatred at as the likely cause of the disappearance. You may recall in late August and early September 2001 the country was raptly focused on the whereabouts of vanished Chandra Levy and the hounding of her lover Rep. Gary Condit. Oh, and don't forget American Idol, which debuted in 2002. Maybe we should have required that anyone voting for their favorite performer would have to have voted in a political election. On the other hand, maybe not.

The other problem is that Afghanistan and its history are complicated, which is not our strong suit. You will know more than 99+% of the country merely if you read a few Wikipedia or Free Dictionary articles about subjects such as the Anglo-Afghan Wars (the first of which was linked to earlier on this thread); the Durrani Empire; the Soviet war in Afghanistan (the Soviets arguably had a more justified - that's not to say legitimate - interest in what was going in Afghanistan than the U.S. had in Vietnam); the Hazara people; Hamid Karzai; and Ahmad Shah Massoud (the anti-Soviet, anti-Taliban leader assassinated by al Quaeda in the days before 9/11).

The worst thing is that there is no ready solution (well, there is one, actually: the Mongols used it in Herat nearly 800 years ago after the populace revolted. Those who didn't die during the successful siege were later marched out into the desert and slaughtered). We have few reliable friends in the country or region and lots of ill-wishers, the best government we can find is demonstrably corrupt, the enemy is not a single force or ethnic group (the Taliban is simply the largest but by no means the only opposition), the enemy is patient and willing to engage in a despicable level of brutality to achieve its ends, and after over ten years of our trying it is doubtful a motivated national army can hold the country. Yet if we leave, chances are the country will revert to civil war and could once again house the relics of al Quaeda. Finally, whatever we end up doing will be used as political fodder by whichever party is not in power.