re: "The Unraveling"

George Smiley at In From the Cold (" MUSINGS ON LIFE, LOVE, POLITICS, MILITARY AFFAIRS, THE MEDIA, THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY AND JUST ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE THAT CAPTURES OUR INTEREST") expressed some skepticism and doubt.

Money quote(s):

"The situation in Afghanistan has entered the realm of the bizzare."

Haven't seen a warzone yet that didn't seem like Bizarro-World, especially at the wonky interface between combat troops and the garrison mentality we take with us.

"(A) stolen vehicle, driven by an Afghan, rolls onto the ramp just as the SecDef's plane was landing, but it wasn't an attack. True, no explosives were found in the truck, but a vehicle slamming into a jet aircraft (with a large fuel load) can certainly cause a lot of damage, and possibly kill the crew and passengers.

And, no one's bothered to explain how the truck got past security and onto the flightline in the first place. Incidentally, the ditch where the vehicle came to rest was alongside the same ramp where Panetta's plane was scheduled to park. Coincidence? You decide."

See the ADDENDUM below. That, at least, has the distinction of seeming somewhat plausible.

"(A)fter surviving the "non-attack," Panetta's visit grew even stranger. Before his speech at Camp Leatherneck, Marines in attendance were asked to leave their weapons outside. It was the first time U.S. military personnel had been asked to disarm during an appearance by a senior official."

Disarming. American. Marines. In Combat.

Does. Not. Compute.

"Did someone in the chain of command think a Marine was going to take a pot-shot at Mr. Panetta?"

Apparently someone did.

"They represent the line between hope and chaos in Helmand, but their leaders aren't comfortable with them being armed in the same tent as the SecDef. It was an insult of the first order, putting brave men and women on the same level as the soldier who murdered Afghan civilians and the various Afghans who have killed Americans because of some perceived slight.

As Victor Davis Hanson observed on John Batchelor's radio show last night, we are witnessing the rapid unraveling of the American mission in Afghanistan."

CAA wouldn't go as far as Prof. Hanson, with all due respect to him as a scholar of warfare. But the top-down political correctness can sometimes reach down so far, as with ROEs, that it interferes with the reality of combat operations.

"To be fair, the situation in Afghanistan could be described as beyond repair. But an equally fair question is now the "good" war got that way."

Another question is why the U.S. military is in the "repair" business in the first place.

"There is no doubt we will be out of Afghanistan in 2014, but that timetable sets the stage for something even worse: the full-fledged return of the Taliban and their Al Qaida allies. As Dr. Hanson observed on the radio, the terrorists apparently learned more from their defeat in Iraq than we learned from our victory."

Ouch.

That being said, the terrorists learned they couldn't win against us in a country as relatively (compared to Afghanistan) easy for us to operate in, where they didn't have the terrain advantages (including human terrain) and the sanctuary country right next door.

"ADDENDUM: Two days after the fact, the Pentagon has changed its tune on the Camp Bastion incident, describing the stolen truck (and its burning driver) as an attempted attack against a group of VIPs waiting for Secretary Panetta. They also told the Washington Post they could not rule out the possibility that the incident was aimed at the Defense Secretary."

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