Pages

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

An Army Marches On Its Stomach

Don't look for reasons to abandon allies who are out there every day killing jihadis.

Afghanistan's military will collapse without American support:

[General Frank] McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said that as the U.S. pulls out all forces, “my concern is the Afghans’ ability to hold ground” and whether they will able to continue to maintain and fly their aircraft without U.S. aid and financial support. Later, at a Pentagon news conference, McKenzie said the U.S. will look for “some remote, televised way” to help the Afghan security forces perform maintenance on their aircraft without having U.S. personnel in the country.

Some will jump on this to say two decades of building an Afghan military was a waste. That is false. 

Afghan forces were built with the need for logistics support. The troops kill jihadis every day with that support. If American troops are gone, will all the logistics support we, our allies, and contractors under our protection provide remain? 

Remember that the NATO war on Libya in 2011 could not have been waged without American logistics support. Britain needed some American logistics support in the Falklands War. American combat units would collapse without American logistics support. 

Don't look for excuses to lose this long war. It would be an own-goal at this point.