Why we can't win in Afghanistan

I am supportive of the war on terror, even though we don't call it that anymore. I stand in support of our troops and our military personnel presently committed to the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, even though we have ceased calling it a war in Afghanistan and we are now renaming our combat units with friendly non threatening names in Iraq.

I am one of those few Americans who actually gets it. One of the few able to wade through the daily shit storm of supposed news reports and see the truth being hidden beneath the surface by a complicit media. Therefore, my conclusion that we are losing this war, is only bolstered when I see reports like this one.

Catch-and-release of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan angers troops

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/2010/12/catch-and-release-taliban-fighters-afghanistan-angers-troops#ixzz17TOZfjU2

More than 500 suspected Taliban fighters detained by U.S. forces have been released from custody at the urging of Afghan government officials, angering both American troops and some Afghans who oppose the policy on the grounds that many of those released return to the battlefield to kill NATO soldiers and Afghan civilians.

And those numbers understate the problem, military officials say. They do not include suspected Taliban fighters held in small combat outposts or other forward operating bases throughout the region who are released before they ever become part of the official detainee population.

An Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that President Hamid Karzai's government has personally sought the release of as many as 700 suspected Taliban fighters since July, including some mid-level leaders. "Corruption is not just based on the amount of money that is wasted but wasted lives when Taliban return only to kill more NATO forces and civilians," said the official, who opposes what he considers corruption in the Karzai administration.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Karen Davis, a spokeswoman in Kabul, told The Washington Examiner "nearly 500 detainees held in the [detention facility in Parwan] have been released outright or transferred to the [Afghan government] for disposition under Afghan law" so far this year.

She did not comment on detainees held at other facilities throughout the country, dozens of whom have been released, according to U.S. military officials in Afghanistan. Parwan is the main prison facility located at Bagram Airfield, just north of the capital of Kabul.

Davis added "nearly 200 of those 500 [at Bagram] have been released" since July.

Can anyone imagine capturing and releasing Japanese soldiers during WWII? Or German Nazis? Hell no.. We interred them until the war was over. Why bolster the enemy by giving him his assets or personnel back. Simply to return and wage war against you again.

You would have thought that we learned that lesson during the civil war. But apparently not. We cannot win a war where we allow the enemy to dictate the rules of engagement and who is considered to be the enemy.

The days of uniformed armies is for the most part obsolete. Other than manning the machines and mechanisms of war, and the occupational force, there is no need to stand and fight any enemy that simply fades into the backdrop. In those instances, the tactic should be scorched earth. All that inhabits the area dies. Plain and simple. Chase you enemy to the ground and kill him mercilessly until he surrenders unconditionally.

Or else we are in a losing proposition and we will only lose more and more of our brave souls, sacrificed on the alter of egalitarian and socialist lies.