More U.S. Combat Soldiers in Afghanistan?
Is the United States prepared to send more combat troops in Afghanistan?
This is in support to the new counterinsurgency plan to help fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces operating in Afghanistan and along the Pakistan border and to stop the killing of more Coalition and U.S. Forces.
Questions asked by many Americans, should we send more U.S. combat troops and Why? We have been there over seven years and Afghanistan is still having major problems.
For some, Afghanistan has been a forgotten war within the last several years due to the total focus on the War in Iraq. I do believe this has given the insurgents more time to prepare and plan for their attacks on U.S. and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan.
During my experience and tour of duty in 2002-2003, as an Army Special Forces sergeant embedded with the Afghan National Army, we encouraged them to operate proactively against the Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents.
As U.S. combat advisers we did helped the Afghans National Army in establishing security at the local level and help build government reconstruction in certain areas where we as U.S. Special Forces soldiers were operating.
We worked closely with the Afghan National Army, and with the village population, and we were able to build a good relationship and trust with the village natives. Afghan natives at times were able to warned us of potential threats from Taliban or Al Qaeda operatives in the area. As we executed in joint patrols in the areas, we were also able to disrupt attacks against Afghan villages, Afghan soldiers and U.S. Forces. We were also able to recovery large Taliban, Al Qaeda cache sites of weapons and ammunition that would potentially be used towards Coalition and U.S. Forces
The problem is there aren’t enough combat U.S. special forces soldiers to be embedded through out Afghanistan in using this strategy. It takes time and effort, up to seven months or more to build up and get results.
In my opinion in order for this counterinsurgency strategy plan to work, more U.S. combat troops have to be embedded with the Afghan National Army.
The question is: do the Americans want to continue this effort?
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