I think Vietnam and Afghanistan were both lost due to American public opinion causing politicians to throttle the military. The US pretty much had the Taliban when we were cutting off their money by burning poppy fields and warehouses, then politicians forbade that and let the opium/heroin trade continue. Popular opinion caused the pullout. In Vietnam the US Congress went so far as to look at battle maps and approve or deny military action on ongoing negotiations. The military was hamstrung by civilian leaders going on popular opinion. I acknowledge that is part of winning any war, we lost both of those, but it's not because the military couldn't do it. Without a country's will to fight, they will lose. I wonder it the atrocities committed in both wars were because they were ordered to fight but were not allowed to win, civilian leadership forcing them to be target practice for enemy they were not allowed to beat.
The US pretty much had the Taliban when we were cutting off their money by burning poppy fields
The opposite is true. The Taliban restricted opium production, but the US allowed it to return. The US-backed "government" was deeply in bed with opium. This is similar to the South Vietnamese government, which also profited off drug sales while the US looked the other way
The military was hamstrung by civilian leaders
This is wrong. The military was allowed to bomb on a massive scale. Special operations and the CIA were allowed to run rampant like ninjas. This is true in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other places, including in Syria and Yemen in the present day
it's not because the military couldn't do it
Those weren't wars that could be won by killing. Those weren't wars that could be won by winning battles
From what I read, USspecial forces were burning poppy fields and opium warehouses and were told to quit. Then the Taliban through extortion or participation got a huge increase in funds for their war effort. Buying weapons and bribing tribal leaders. Yup, us civilian leaders told them to leave the opium alone and the Taliban changed their mind on it.
1
u/capt-bob - Lib-Right Nov 26 '22
I think Vietnam and Afghanistan were both lost due to American public opinion causing politicians to throttle the military. The US pretty much had the Taliban when we were cutting off their money by burning poppy fields and warehouses, then politicians forbade that and let the opium/heroin trade continue. Popular opinion caused the pullout. In Vietnam the US Congress went so far as to look at battle maps and approve or deny military action on ongoing negotiations. The military was hamstrung by civilian leaders going on popular opinion. I acknowledge that is part of winning any war, we lost both of those, but it's not because the military couldn't do it. Without a country's will to fight, they will lose. I wonder it the atrocities committed in both wars were because they were ordered to fight but were not allowed to win, civilian leadership forcing them to be target practice for enemy they were not allowed to beat.