[Basenshukai]

It's true. No one wants to say it openly, but this small article is absolutely right on.

I've been in that very region and fought those very people. Sadly, we could definitely defeat the resurging Taliban with what we have in place now. But our hands are being tied from above and I don't understand it. A very high ranking SF officer in the region came over to our memorial wall one day and drew an imaginary line across the names of the casualties we (Special Forces) had taken when we first inserted teams into country. "From here up, we were doing truly decentralized, unconventional, special operations. We had the rotary wing support we needed and were able to get mission approval within minutes via a radio call." There were about six total casualties from that imaginary line and up; a significant number of them were from a friendly fire incident. "From here down 'Big Army' got involved and we were prioritized lower on the list and our mission approval process became layered and strung by bureacracy within our own military" He motioned down to the casualties below that timeline; it numbered well above 25 men. "Interesting how the Taliban was actually in power back then and actually controlled many of these key cities. Oddly enough, only a handful of SF men literally set the conditions for our initial victory." The truth is that we are loosing the bubble over in Afghanistan because we are not being smart there. We are the best military in the world with a World-Class special operations capability. Yet, we are failing to do in Afghanistan what we did in El Salvador. We are our own worst enemies. Yes, I'm frustrated (in case you have not guessed).

My proposed solution: 1) Put teams on the ground and let them develop the situation; 2) Support the requirements of the teams; 3) Let intel drive ops and ops drive the need for logistics; 4) Let the Battalion Commanders and Company Commanders plan and execute the overall strategy for the JSOA; 4) Put a general with a pair of brass ones - like the ones the SECDEF carries around - in place to protect SOF from external stupidity while we get in there and kill a bunch of bad guys. Oddly enough, this sounds like a review for a test in the Q-Course. Go figure.