MohawkWeekend wrote:More airstrikes over the weekend. Does anyone know what packages are being used for these airstrikes and where they may be from?
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... he-horizon
Happy reading
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MohawkWeekend wrote:More airstrikes over the weekend. Does anyone know what packages are being used for these airstrikes and where they may be from?
MohawkWeekend wrote:Thanks for posting. Interesting read for anyone following the recent developments.
Article validates the need to re-engine of the BUFF, order new F-15EX and long range strike drones.
MohawkWeekend wrote:One could argue that this new "no boots on the ground" is what America was successful doing for a brief period back in early 2002. Around 100 Special Forces acting mainly as forward air controllers accomplished our "mission" - deny bin Laden freedom of movement and operation. Shutting down al-Qaeda.
Aren't we sending a message now? Act in a way contrary to US interests - e.g. executing our friends we have trained and we will rain destruction on your leaders personally. And the Taliban can't readily strike back because there are no American's in country. Vietnam, Somali, Afghanistan, and Iraq showed you don't really want a protracted ground presence. Syria and early Afghanistan showed our adversaries what American airpower and war fighting technology coupled with local forces allied with our more limited goals can accomplish.
MohawkWeekend wrote:I see our policy morphing into what the Israelis do. A shadow war with strong intelligence gathering, striking at anytime, in any conditions, and leaving the enemy with no effective counter-measures.
MohawkWeekend wrote:I would hope that in the future we set a high bar for those strikes. But having that ability does serve as a deterrent to even the most suicidal fanatic.
As our young friends say "Haters gonna hate" America will always be a target.
TheF15Ace wrote:MohawkWeekend wrote:More airstrikes over the weekend. Does anyone know what packages are being used for these airstrikes and where they may be from?
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... he-horizon
Happy reading
MohawkWeekend wrote:Recent news reports are that airstrikes are hitting pretty hard. Not Hanoi in December of 72. but as long as the Tailban thinks more can be coming. We'll see if their advances stall.
LyleLanley wrote:TheF15Ace wrote:MohawkWeekend wrote:More airstrikes over the weekend. Does anyone know what packages are being used for these airstrikes and where they may be from?
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... he-horizon
Happy reading
Sigh.
Not bad for a Drive article. Maybe it'll be a trend.
Spacepope wrote:Wow, it's a good thing we're retiring all these KC-10s now. They seem to be pretty useful for this sort of fight.
MohawkWeekend wrote:Long range loitering systems work well in this low threat environment. Think how long a re-engined BUFF could work with a flying gas station nearby.
MohawkWeekend wrote:Long range loitering systems work well in this low threat environment. Think how long a re-engined BUFF could work with a flying gas station nearby.
MohawkWeekend wrote:When we've used short range aircraft in a conflict, that requires basing assets in country. The first large scale deployments of US ground forces in S. Vietnam were to try and stop attacks on US airbases in country. That started a vicious cycle that played into the VC/NVA strengths. I also see the Taliban are taking a page out of the the VC handbook with targeted assassination inside Kabul
If the aircraft are at 35,000 feet and based 1000 miles away, what can the Taliban do?
FlapOperator wrote:MohawkWeekend wrote:Thanks for posting. Interesting read for anyone following the recent developments.
Article validates the need to re-engine of the BUFF, order new F-15EX and long range strike drones.
Or it validates the need for a coherent strategy.
The tools or talent for killing people has never really been in doubt. The questions were always “where are we going with this?” and “Does this represent the will of the American people?”
MohawkWeekend wrote:I agree with what all you are saying. Our mistake was staying past Bin Laden's escape to Pakistan.
We need to remember how this started in the first place. They were providing safe harbor for a group of people intent on killing us. America needs the ability and will to do more than what Clinton did when he had intelligence about Bin Laden's whereabouts. Had the right response been used then think of how history would have been changed.
Right now our airpower should be used to send a msg to the Tailban. Act like the Khmer Rouge and none of your leaders will be able to sleep at night.
MohawkWeekend wrote:Agreed. But what do we do now?
FlapOperator wrote:So a million dollars a sortie to maybe kill 9 or 10 $25/day rent-a-Taliban?
Sounds like the war that is perfect for is the one on the taxpayer.
bajs11 wrote:
In Taliban's case it has way more to do with determination and conviction than getting paid peanuts.
The Vietcong was just as determined and look at all the Big Macs they are eating now.
Though I doubt Afghanistan will ever become like Vietnam maybe at best a poorer Islamic republic of Iran.
Forgive my ignorance but isn't the reason behind the withdrawal to shift their focus to a certain emerging super power in East Asia?
You know the super power that every liberal democracy helped to create.
But the real question is how much would it cost per year to keep using drones like the MQ-9 to hunt down and kill Taliban commanders and provide air support to the government forces.
What about basing those drones and a few attack aircraft in neighboring friendly countries?
Phosphorus wrote:The trouble with continuing to use "drones like the MQ-9 to hunt down and kill Taliban commanders and provide air support to the government forces." is that you basically lay the groundwork for gradual takeover of the country (with a possible exception of Kabul) by Taliban "night government". Central government remains a figurehead, governing the central government district, during the day. Real power, as in money flows, and monopoly of violence, shifts to the "night government". Once that happens, Taliban has no need to deploy in the field. Will you bomb buildings in cities in towns, known to house Taliban officials? And if those same buildings are actually courthouses, or registrar offices, or notary public offices? At some points, "night government" will infiltrate officialdom...
Phosphorus wrote:The trouble with continuing to use "drones like the MQ-9 to hunt down and kill Taliban commanders and provide air support to the government forces." is that you basically lay the groundwork for gradual takeover of the country (with a possible exception of Kabul) by Taliban "night government". Central government remains a figurehead, governing the central government district, during the day. Real power, as in money flows, and monopoly of violence, shifts to the "night government". Once that happens, Taliban has no need to deploy in the field. Will you bomb buildings in cities in towns, known to house Taliban officials? And if those same buildings are actually courthouses, or registrar offices, or notary public offices? At some points, "night government" will infiltrate officialdom...
FlapOperator wrote:
Well north of 80% of the Viet Cong alive before Tet were dead afterwards. I've spoken with former main force VC officers who were down to their RTOs after Tet. Many of them shared that they felt that Tet was designed to fail; the destruction of the primarily southern Vietnamese cadres ensured that there was no real counter-revolutionary force to face the NVA after the NVA would start invading the South. Pretty Machavellian, but completely plausible. They pointed to Stalin allowing the Warsaw Uprising to be defeated in detail as a similar dynamic.
There is really no one "Taliban." There are the rent-a-Taliban, there are families/clans supporting the Taliban to preserve their independence, there are the committed ideological Taliban, Pakistani stooge Taliban, and Pashtun patriotic Taliban. Funny thing is an Afghan Taliban can be any or all of these things, at any given time. Its complex, and there are many pretty logical reasons why.
Ultimately under the Taliban, it will take decades (under in my opinion all optimistic scenarios) for Afghanistan to look like 1980s Afghanistan, let alone 1950s Afghanistan. For many of the reasons why, both at the local power level and as a function of inter-state political factors, I'd recommend a book "The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System" by Barnett Rubin.
As far as confronting the rising Chinese threat to much of East and South Asia, yeah. There was a near religious hope that the McDonalds Theory of international conflict, along with a rising Chinese middle class, would both integrate and liberalize China. These assumptions are nearly all but dead, but many in the West were still committed to failed policy for a variety of reasons.
MohawkWeekend wrote:Watched a show on aljazeera on the assassination of Iran's Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani. If you get a chance it's well worth watching because it highlights US ability and the fact that human intelligence on the ground in Syria is what gave him up.
America has only used decapitation strikes a few times that the public is aware of - Yamamoto and bin Laden being obvious successes. The British were better at it during WWII chasing down German officers and conducting strategic pin point raids. The Israeli's have taken it to a whole new level. I believe you'll see the US utilize this tactic if the Taliban go khmer rouge on the Afghan people.
tu204 wrote:What was accomplished by Russia attempting to assassinate several people in Western Europe?MohawkWeekend wrote:Watched a show on aljazeera on the assassination of Iran's Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani. If you get a chance it's well worth watching because it highlights US ability and the fact that human intelligence on the ground in Syria is what gave him up.
America has only used decapitation strikes a few times that the public is aware of - Yamamoto and bin Laden being obvious successes. The British were better at it during WWII chasing down German officers and conducting strategic pin point raids. The Israeli's have taken it to a whole new level. I believe you'll see the US utilize this tactic if the Taliban go khmer rouge on the Afghan people.
What has been accomplished be this assassination? Questioning Iranians/Iraqis now hate the US for a reason, any US citizen and especially someone in the armed forces is now seen as fair game (and rightly so) for any attacks.
And of course the US will do little if nothing to support the Afghanistan that they destroyed for over 20 years and then abandoned in a night.
And of course the US will do little if nothing to support the Afghanistan that they destroyed for over 20 years and then abandoned in a night.
johns624 wrote:What was accomplished by Russia attempting to assassinate several people in Western Europe?
Zeppi wrote:johns624 wrote:What was accomplished by Russia attempting to assassinate several people in Western Europe?
And: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58009514
It's actually quite hilarious how clumsy and diletantic russian operatives have become in the last decades. I mean, in the soviet era they were still a somewhat formidable force, but nowadays they're really little more than a bad joke.
It's almost as if they're not even trying any more.
tu204 wrote:MohawkWeekend wrote:Watched a show on aljazeera on the assassination of Iran's Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani. If you get a chance it's well worth watching because it highlights US ability and the fact that human intelligence on the ground in Syria is what gave him up.
America has only used decapitation strikes a few times that the public is aware of - Yamamoto and bin Laden being obvious successes. The British were better at it during WWII chasing down German officers and conducting strategic pin point raids. The Israeli's have taken it to a whole new level. I believe you'll see the US utilize this tactic if the Taliban go khmer rouge on the Afghan people.
What has been accomplished be this assassination? Questioning Iranians/Iraqis now hate the US for a reason, any US citizen and especially someone in the armed forces is now seen as fair game (and rightly so) for any attacks.
And of course the US will do little if nothing to support the Afghanistan that they destroyed for over 20 years and then abandoned in a night.
US sending 3K troops for partial Afghan embassy evacuation
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said one Army and two Marine infantry battalions will enter Afghanistan within the next two days to assist at the Kabul airport with the partial embassy evacuation. State Department spokesman Ned Price said diplomatic work will continue at the Kabul embassy.
...
The United States continues to support the Afghan military with limited airstrikes, but those have not made a strategic difference thus far and are scheduled to end on Aug. 31.
U.S. Asks Taliban to Spare Its Embassy in Coming Fight for Kabul
American negotiators are trying to extract assurances from the Taliban that they will not attack the U.S. Embassy in Kabul if the extremist group takes over the country’s government and ever wants to receive foreign aid, three American officials said.
GalaxyFlyer wrote:We’re gonna offer foreign aid to the Taliban government?
mxaxai wrote:GalaxyFlyer wrote:We’re gonna offer foreign aid to the Taliban government?
Why not? Foreign aid goes to many countries with very questionable governments, even to usually shunned countries like North Korea. (Though I suppose this topic would take us to non-av)