Basil,
Beyond it being a victory for the British....and a tribute to the spirit, grit, and sheer courage of the Troops involved....just how is the UK holding onto a small group of islands at the far end of the World so important in the long run.
You are no longer a Colonial power.....why not go all the way and surrender your remaining "colonies"....grant them their independence and pull out altogether. Your military capability has withered to the point you cannot defend what is left of the Empire.
Could the British Forces of today repeat their success in the Falkands again?
Dave,
[/QUOTE]We aren't at war with Afghanistan, we're supposedly there to help them esatblish a lawful society.[/QUOTE]
I agree with you completely about needing accurate and timely Intel, and proper Recce/Force Protection efforts.
Until we can provide the necessary security for the nation building to take place....which means fighting the Taliban Forces that are resisting such efforts....we have to wage war on the Taliban.
As to using Vietnam as a model of winning the hearts and minds you are quite correct. We bombed our allies and never invaded the enemy homeland. We also got ourselves involved in a war of Re-unification and took up where the French left off. That was the core failure of the war....we should have been helping the Vietnmamese instead of fighting them. We had our chance several times when Ho Chi Minh asked for our help while he was helping us fight the Japanese then French.
We made a similar mistake in Iraq when Paul Breamer fired the entire Iraqi government, police, and military....cut off retirement pay and thus gave the Iraqi's good cause to come out and fight!
We are supposed to be fighting Terrorists and depriving them of sanctuaries....how do we do that is the question now. Thus far, we are having some success despite some awful setbacks and delays. As we run them out of one place....they will take up in another. The key is we have them on the run and once they are in the open and on the move we can operate much more effectively against them covertly.
Last edited by SASless; 7th Feb 2010 at 00:45.