This gentleman is retired and therefore has no need to worry about what the President can give or take away from his career opportunities. This makes him uniquely different from Admiral Mullen and General Petraeus, and in my view; his voice more likely to be honest and open. But, as always, you are free to form your own opinion as to whether the move is the correct military move, or just something President Obama has opted to do to appeal to his base and to go hand in hand with his reelection campaign.
Obama Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan from A Retired General’s Perspective
25 Saturday Jun 2011
Posted in Politics
Kestrel said:
The decision by the President is political. A military victory in Afghanistan is not an option. It never was — I am not supporting the Presidents position because it means nothing, and I agree that it does put our troops at greater risk. However, Gen. Keane has an iron in the fire because he sits on the board of several corporations that are involved in DoD business. His is not an unbiased source, his opinion and recommendations should not be accepted. If he was a true patriot he would be calling for a complete withdrawal. We went into Afgahnistan to get Osama and soon changed the mission to regime change and nation building — This guy served in Vietnam and should know better than to take sides in a civil war. We could fight there for the next 50 years and never accomplish a thing — other than expending treasure we do not have and getting a lot of people killed
--Rick said:
Victory depends upon how you define it. In this case, victory amounts to sufficiently suppressing and limiting the ability of the Taliban to retake the country and return to a haven for terror groups. All General Keene (as well as Petraeus and the milquetoast Mullen) is stating is that it would make more sense militarily to maintain the surge level of force until the battle for the northeast sector is made more secure during the next season of fighting. We have made significant gains in the south and need to continue holding them until the Afghans at least have a chance of defending their own territory. That mean keeping forces where they are during this fighting season and delaying necessary nullification operations in the northeast for now.
As to General Keene, the fact that he sits on boards means nothing. He, in fact, does sit on three boards – two deal with defense issues: General Dynamics and Allied Barton, Boston (Jack is from Massachusetts). He also serves on the board of Metropolitan Life Insurance. These board positions and their relationship to combat operations are far cries from organizations such as Blackwater, and as such mean very little in terms of defense policy and spending for security forces.
Almost all senior career military leaders of this stature or greater get board positions because of their expertise and familiarity with the military industrial complex or because they are seen as tools that can help generate government contracts. For example, almost every senior officer I served or had association with through one of my former commands, U.S.S. Richard B. Russell, SSN687 have moved from military careers to jobs in the private sector with board memberships within the industrial military complex. Admiral Giambastiani (former Russell skipper and Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff), is a member of several boards including Mitre Corporation which has a unit in Bedford on the Middlesex Turnpike. He also serves with General Dynamics and other enterprises that develop weapons platforms, including submarines. Former Commander, U.S. Submarine Forces, Vice Admiral Charles L. Munns, oversaw the development of complex computer systems tied to weapons and strategy uses today, particularly with the United States Marine Corps. He too sits on multiple boards of companies that focus on this area as well as those that focus on submarines and littoral battlespace strategies and warfare evolutions.
I could go on and on, but they are easy to look up. Simply go to the Russell website (which I also run), click on the Commanding/Executive Officer pages to get their names and then google their current activities. While they may serve to help companies make money, I can tell you that the group of men I am familiar with serve on these boards because they still have a lot to give and are genuinely concerned with national security issues and policy far beyond their own compensation.
Were you aware that Jack Keene was one of those who developed the Iraq surge policies that suppressed al Qaeda and made heroes of Senator Juan McCain and General Petraeus? It was also the same surge policies and tactics used in Iraq that were carried over successfully in the Afghanistan surge. It is important to note that while we have been in Afghanistan for 8+ years, most of the battle has taken place early on with our arrival and in the last three years. Afghanistan was given a second seat to Iraq in the early years. It was only after the Iraq surge that Afghanistan got the troop levels needed for an all out assault in the south (as opposed to dealing with the Taliban on two Afghanistan fronts simultaneously).
The fact is that there was a significant period where minimal troop levels and actions kept the country of Afghanistan relatively calms as we battled in Iraq. That fact alone makes Afghanistan much different than Vietnam. There is no doubt in my mind that Obama is using the blood of American troopers to gain political advantage and Jack Keane is a patriot for making the case to the public; unlike his colleagues who are still in uniform but lack the guts and the grace of a Patton or MacArthur to speak out. There is no military, diplomatic or economic reason for a sudden draw down and withdrawal.
It is my understanding from Jack, however, that a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan of “combat” forces is part of his vision (end of 2014), and those of the majority of his peers, after the Taliban have been dominated and left with ltttle chance of making a comeback; both because of the damage we will inflict on them, and the time that would have been bought to bring Afghanistan fighters up to speed to secure their own nation as we did in Iraq. That is the current definition of victory; a transition to Afghani control – not 50 years of occupation and nation building. We will be stuck with paying to repair war damage regardless of whether we stay or leave; so that is not part of the discussion. We will have need of using special forces and asymetrical counter measures for decades to keep the snake from reconstituting; so, that is also not a significant area of concern. This all begs the question; why the rush to leave when most military experts feel we are close to gaining stability if not to help his own reelection by soothing his base and playing to uninformed public sentiment.
We went to Afghanistan to get Bin Laden and to strip away terror bases from the country by demolishing the Taliban. We had swift and great success on the battle space against the Taliban early on only to have it eroded by talks of time tables for withdrawal that the Taliban and Al Qaeda then used to sit out the battle until they could rearm and regroup. That time came about nearly three years ago and is ongoing. The Taliban are again being bolstered by the announcement of yet another arbitrary time table for withdrawal regardless of the situation on the ground or the advice of the President’s general officers and field commanders. In his mind, after 10 years of hunting, Bin Laden is dead, and the President’s bounce in the polls for killing Bin Laden is also dead. And unless Obama pulls out troops and does some other crazy things, like releasing SPR supplies or getting Republicans to cave and agree to raise taxes on a debt limit deal to appease his base, his chances for reelection are also nearly dead. He is trading on the blood of our wounded and fallen for votes, and that is despicable.
Lastly, I think we owe those who have fallen and those who have sacrificed a great deal of their lives and family welfare to at least get to a point where the Afghanistanis have a chance to know liberty and to keep the Taliban and similar groups at bay and beyond their borders. We owe that to our fallen and wounded heroes and to those who loved and supported them from diapers to cammies and back to civies and a somewhat normal life again. Obama’s “plan” does none of these things.
We also need time to develop a better plan for dealing with asymmetrical war fighting (using CIA and other special operators in place of ground troops) in this new age of pocketed or individual terror groups or operators. The surge beating back the Taliban was going to give us added and needed time to develop strategies toward that end, but with the second fighting season in jeopardy, everything done up to this point, including all of the blood and treasure spent over the past ten years will most likely be for naught if President Obama gets his way and Petraeus can’t manage to keep his mistake from morphing into a catastrophic disaster. In my mind, we can’t afford to let that happen, and General Keane is making a good case to reject this dangerous political maneuver.
At any rate, you have my full view and the basis for that opinion to consider. I hope you have a fabulous Sunday with friends and family as that strange object called the sun begins to creep our from behind the cloud of our homeland fog.and murky sky.
Kestrel said:
I am well aware of the issues you have addressed. Sorry, I will have to disagree with you. The corrupt government we placed in power will be defeated just as the one that the Soviets put in place before they left. We will learn, as the Soviets did that we cannot afford to continue to support the puppet government. The mistakes have long since be made and many innocent lives have been lost because of these mistakes. Have things actually gotten better? Our relations with Pakistan are deteriorating. We are involved in combat operations in 5 countries in the middle east and North Africa — This will grow to at least 6 before the end of the year. The whole Middle East in turmoil and even the Saudi government is at risk — and will probably fall within the next 24 months. The arrogance and hubris of this administration and past administration have led us to near chaos in the Middle East.
Gen Keene may be patriotic — but, his job was to develop a way to achieve the policies of the US – he did not necessarily make that policy. As a board member he is employed by GD and Allied Barton –both are DoD contractors… does the fact that he is employed by companies doing business with DoD taint his advice?? Not sure — but, he is vested in his original plan to achieve US policy through Nation Building.
I do agree with you that the current administration’s motivation is political and the decisions do put our soldiers at greater risk.
Anyway — time will tell. Unfortunately, lives are on the line.
Two U.S. troops die in Iraq; 11 total this month
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/26/501364/main20074517.shtml#ixzz1QRGE7vCk
--Rick said:
Thanks for the comments. We certainly have a lot to think about regarding our government and what seems to be an almost vampiric thirst for blood. We also need to consider and remember always the sacrifices of our warfighters and respect and honor our war dead and maimed by successfully concluding their mission – a handover with a chance, no matter how modest, for those who helped us to gain some form of freedom. Let’s not forget, there are those in both Iraq and Afghanistan who put their lives and the security of their families on the line to help us with the war and to find and kill Bin Laden. They’ve also paid a significant price and at the very least, they’ve earned the right to expect us to keep our promises. Be well, shipmate.