VIETNAM AND AFGHANISTAN

In the NYT Sunday mag is a great article by a reporter who spent some time with a Marine platoon out on the tip of the spear, in Helmand province.  Makes me glad my time was in Vietnam, not Afghanistan.  It  seems not much has changed for the grunts, especially here, in an undeclared war, backed by a few, not the many.  He accurately, for me, describes the Lt. and his platoon.  
   One particular fact makes one take note: the "booby traps" aka IED's, are much more lethal in Afghanistan than in the villes and rice paddies of "Nam".  It seems that the Taliban has learned a thing or two about materials, placement, and components and explosives.  It also seems like they've figured out how to get the most 'bang' for their buck, using cheap chemicals available from agricultural sources in Pakistan.  There's something rotten in Pakistan but I don't think we should really get involved there either.  It's frustrating, knowing so little of the facts that our decision makers are privy to when deciding on strategy.
   I guess we'll have to live another 30years or so to find out what really happened.  In the meantime, we'll bear witness to the list of wounded and maimed as they return after multiple tours, fully knowing that their chances of returning unscathed are pretty much zero after 1 tour.   I guess if there is a saving grace, it's the fact that the Taliban can't mass for an assault like the NVA.  Our intell is no doubt better now and the drones keep the Taliban on the move and the night really doesn't offer the protection it once did back in the day.  I still wake up counting the hours until the sun comes up, and with it, new life.

CPT, you are getting an A on emails. Would you believe that I read the article about the Marines just yesterday. Good article and I am pretty much where you are. My thought overall is what a f..king mess to put a bunch of young Marines in a no win war. Not just "no win," a train wreck. Where I see the difference in Afghanistan and Vietnam is that we could have won  Vietnam at least in military terms. Take over the country, won the war and sort it out later. In Afghanistan, if we stay there a hundred years, will not make lots of difference. The only thing I would see if somehow, we decided to make Afghanistan as training ground for the wars to come. But, it would take lots of creative thinking and with the top levels of the military, thinking is in short supply and the high levels of government have had no military experience and don't know s..t. What it would mean is closing places like Fort Irwin where we do desert training. Instead of practicing war, we would actually be in one. Aside from that, we need to get our asses out of Afghanisyam post haste. It is only going to get worse. All the rosy picture of our progress convinces me that somebody at some level has been smoking the "John" weed.