Click pic to embiggen
The graphic from the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff looks like a tangled ball of multicolored yarn, or perhaps it is the military’s depiction of the all-powerful, all-knowing Flying Spaghetti Monster…
Whatever the case, it documents the complex relationships between Tribal leaders, soldiers, aid workers, drug dealers, militants, ethnic groups, government leaders, etc.
“For some military commanders, the slide is genius,” wrote NBC’s Richard Engel, “an attempt to show how all things in war – from media bias to ethnic/tribal rivalries – are interconnected and must be taken into consideration. It represents a new approach to war fighting, looking beyond simply killing enemy fighters. It underscores what those fighting wars have long known, that everything matters.”
“But for others,” Engel writes, “the diagram represents a fool’s errand that the United States has taken on in the name of national security. Detractors say the slide represents an assault on logic, an attempt to jam a square peg into a round hole. They say the concept of occupying a foreign nation to protect security at home is expensive, time consuming, ineffective and ultimately leads to the ‘spaghetti logic’ of the slide. They say this slide is what happens when smart people are asked to come up with a solution to the wrong question.”
In my book, we won in 12 months and then will start the pull out. What’s the problem?
I disagree, victory is assured. At some point, possibly when substantial popular opposition has gathered, whoever is in charge (Obama or his successor) will “declare” victory and exit, regardless of the situation on the ground.
The US government is not intent on winning any war. They want to fight wars for as long as possibles and keep war profiteers happy.
I wonder what the “American Stability” Slide would look like?
What a bunch of analysis hogwash. Wars are won by conquering land. Period. Anything less is political games and nothing else. The US is in Afghanistan for a pipeline contract, in effect an army by and for some global conglomerates, the Taliban are a convenient excuse.
Is there gonna be a quiz on this shit, or do we just pay a bazzillion dollars to the military-industrial complex, or what?
I suspect the simplest computer program flow charts are more complex suggesting technology is doomed.
RBG
OK,
Even in this..
It doesnt show 1 interesting Stat.
How many Military Stationed THERE and THERE and THERE and THERE the USA has..
Im talking about the amount of people in AREAS not in Afghanistan or IRAQ. or FLOATING around waiting for something to happen.
over 2/3 of our military ISNT in a fighting theater. WE are paying CONTRACTORS. why?
WE ARE a nation that can not keep 1% of its people in the military.
So let me get this straight. They are going to mount this chart on the head of a missile and fire it at the Afghan-Pakistan border hoping the area of destruction will kill the Taliban?
We should have pulled out months ago but our stigma of Viet Nam is preventing us from doing this. We somehow feel we must finish the job at least to the point that we won’t be accused of abandoning the country. What is sad is that we have had eight years to train and support the Afghan’s and we still are not their. What does that say about us and about the Afghans.
RBG
# 7 ‘I suspect the simplest computer program flow charts are more complex suggesting technology is doomed.’
Well you don’t really understand how such technology works then. Yes the flow chart for all but the simplest programs would be more complex than this.
But we are talking about a computer program. Where BY DESIGN every part is GUARANTEED to behave in a deterministic and well defined manner. And it must be that way otherwise the program cannot and will not work.
So how does that relate to the flow chart presented here? I’ll help you out – nowhere.
Define WINNING.
What gives? I don’t see anything wrong with this chart. Plain as day. I found Waldo in 15 seconds.
There’s enough spaghetti there to feed all of Afghanistan!
That looks like a flow chart of how a woman thinks when in a mall.
A nuke or two could straighten that out.
As was said on Washington Week (or whatever), that until THEY DEMAND PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, this “war” will never end.
We can not bring peace through our war.
We can not increase security through our armed combat.
We can not enforce democracy through our puppet leadership.
We can not reduce fear through our aggression.
They must decide what they want, and take their own risks to obtain that life. This is the story of our Revolution, and the story of Egyptian and Israeli peace.
Unless you go totalitarian, communistic and imperialistic on these type of religious fanatic countries you’re not going to do a thing. US is NEVER going to be able to change things with it’s democratic system.
These extreme fanatic types won’t change. They should be kill, no matter what. They preach and kill at the same time. They can’t be trusted. I say we nuke the whole place but that’s just my opinion. Otherwise we’re wasting time, resources, money and simply having our kids die for no fcking reason.
Some asian countries are the same way and they’re no different. Sure they’re different but oppression is still rampant.
Nuke. I don’t care if it kills innocents anymore. I’m tire of the Bush wars and now on-going to the Obama admistration. Family is tire of fighting these stupid wars too.
# 11 freddybobs68k
Obviously you missed the “subtle” criticism of the above flow chart only because it had lots of pretty arrows.
As for “every part is GUARANTEED to behave in a deterministic and well defined manner” even the hardest science uses probabilities.
RBG
I wonder whether we would better served by investing our war dollars on domestic industries that cut our dependance on foreign imports, and also invest in a hardened impervious boarder. I would submit to closer inspection at the airport if it would save innocent Afganie lives.
These wars are supposed to help defend us against the terrorists, but why not just build a better means of keeping the terrorists away. Leave the rest of the world to its own devices?
Or we could put the Bush Doctrine on steroids and really act like we are at war. Remember, we firebombed the bejesus out of the Germans and Japaneese in WWII.
I hope I’m not reading too much into this, but is there no ending state?
20 Father. The danger in your plan is that we could end up fighting the war on US soil instead of completely ignoring the war over there.
RBG
This is the String Theory of Afghanistan. I’ll wait till tidy it into a nice ball.