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CIA’s turn to admit to its fiasco
- playguardin 5y agoThe US military and the security services are a corrupt joke. Their humiliation is glorious.
- jl2718 5y agoI have a little bit of history suggesting alternative COIN strategies to top brass. It’s been 60 years now. Maybe time to rethink.
- jelling 5y agoIs there evidence that the CIA as of recent had an inaccurate view of the situation in Afghanistan? I couldn’t find it in the article but it could be. What happened in Vietnam was that the CIA had a very accurate view of the situation but the military loudly and repeatedly claimed everything was going well. Depending on the day, LBJ either wanted to believe that or felt he had to maintain the fiction in order not to lose in ‘68. I wouldn’t be surprised if history rhymes here.
- jl2718 5y agoSo… I worked for the commander on a different deployment, and with many of his intel people. I can tell you that he is extremely conscientious about everything that he gets briefed with. The OGA reports were very detailed, and portrayed the full complexity of the situation, often lacking specific and actionable tactical recommendations. He would press on how to make them so. The subordinate command reports required immediate action. Hopefully you can understand what I’m getting at.
- teclordphrack2 5y ago"the CIA had a very accurate view of the situation but the military loudly and repeatedly claimed everything was going well." That is what happened here. The CIA has not been saying that afghanistan would not be able to stand on its own.
- redis_mlc 5y agoIf an analyst doesn't understand Islam, then they would get fooled. If you understand that the Taliban are a local army that follows the Koran literally, then there's no confusion. As an example, several Western female journalists are demanding "gender rights" for Afghani women. In Islamic practise, women have normal rights inside the home, but not outside.
- jmpman 5y agoWhy didn’t the US pursue a different avenue - carve the country up, and give parts to the neighboring countries. Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran could each have taken a slice, incorporated the new areas under their control, and provided the stability the world is trying to achieve.
- jiinga 5y agoNo one is trying to create stability.
- CountSessine 5y agoWhy would Pakistan’s majority Punjabi people want to absorb more Pashtuns into their country? Pakistan is a democracy after all. Why would other countries do the same?
- samvega_ 5y agoWhy is this almost article entirely about KGB and not the CIA? I'd like to know more about CIA's involvement, which is mentioned as well as being in the title, but rather this is all about a story from a different era. Looks to me like whataboutism at its finest.
- LfLxfxxLxfxx 5y agoIf the title says it's the CIA's "turn", then of course the article should be expected to draw a parallel with similar events in the past.
- samvega_ 5y agoBut it doesn't explain the similarity. Why are they similar? Do they take for granted that the reader already knows CIA's role in the Afghanistan war?
- a0-prw 5y agoThe strident media voices decrying the events in Afghanistan are hypocrites: The Taliban were going to return to power sooner or later. If it had taken 90 days, far more people would have died. The Afghan soldiers who exchanged their weapons for 150 bucks did the right thing. The lightning fast, relatively bloodless takeover was the best possible outcome, given the reality on the ground. The West has collectively lost contact with reality.