Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Fighting a losing war

Great. Just hours after John Key announces that the SAS are in Afghanistan, the US general in charge of American forces in the area warns that the war is lost:

The US mission in Afghanistan will "likely result in failure" unless troops are increased within a year, the top general there has said in a report.

[...]

In his latest assessment, Gen McChrystal is quoted by the Washington Post newspaper as saying: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term [next 12 months]... risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible."

He warns that "inadequate resources will likely result in failure".

"Additional resources are required," the general states in the summary of the report.

The US doesn't want to send more troops, Europe - where the war is increasingly seen as unnecessary and governments face a real risk of falling in consequence - simply won't, meaning that the war is lost already. So why are the SAS going? Do we really think its worth fighting a losing war?