New Poll Says That Less Than Half of US Troops Think Afghanistan is Winnable

www.dailymail.co.uk...

The Military Times survey found less than half of serving soldiers believe the U.S. is 'very likely' or 'somewhat likely' to succeed in Afghanistan.

The number is down from 2007, when more than 75 percent of those polled said the U.S. was 'very likely' or 'somewhat likely' to succeed

So more than half of the US military thinks the war is unwinnable.

The results also showed that the figure is lower among troops who have deployed to Afghanistan on operations.

The article says that, after 10 years, the troops have been getting more and more demoralized.

The Times suggested troops were becoming more demoralised as the ten year mission in Afghanistan rumbled on, with several factors cited for the pessimism

Chief among them was feeling that Afghan security forces are unmotivated.

Why exactly are we still there? More than half of the troops dont think the war is winnable, the Afghan security forces seem unmotivated, and its been 10 years.

I'm a soldier and I think its all futile. Iraq was a flop and this will be too. We don't even know what our missions are or what we are even going for. Nobody WANTS to be there. If someone is telling you they want to go, it's for the money (which isn't a great reason either).

What exactly is the wining scenario? I've never heard a logical answer to that question.

I have a friend who was in the Canadian Military. Said their roll there was a complete joke. Go to one village, clear out the "terrorists" help rebuild....move on to next village, repeat....come back to first village..repeat and so on and so forth except each time destroying more and more than what they rebuild so eventual there's nothing to rebuild.

reply to post by buni11687


How can this mess be considered winnable when we don't even have any clear objectives in that country? (besides making loads of heroin for the CIA that is. )

We went there to supposedly get Osama and vengeance for 9-11 but, 10 years later, Osama is finally dead (if you believe the OS) and yet we're still there. How can we ever call this a victory if we don't even know what we're fighting for anymore?

reply to post by Vardoger


Just another Vietnam guys, it isn't meant to be "won", just occupied. I told my friends this war would last longer than Vietnam back in '01 and they laughed at me.

Afghanistan...
Where Empires Go to Die...

The war would have been over years ago if we weren't required to be politically correct and had taken the damn gloves off. Hell yes our troops are tired and pessimistic! They are not given the support they need and our government is to scared to just do the damn job. Now it's to late. It has dragged on for so long that no one has much hope left. All because we let emotion get in the way.

Originally posted by DerbyCityLights
The war would have been over years ago if we weren't required to be politically correct and had taken the damn gloves off. Hell yes our troops are tired and pessimistic! They are not given the support they need and our government is to scared to just do the damn job. Now it's to late. It has dragged on for so long that no one has much hope left. All because we let emotion get in the way.

edit on 21-9-2011 by DerbyCityLights because: (no reason given)

True, but who is going to do the dirty work and "take the gloves off"? It won't be me, I assure you. I don't get paid enough to be a bully in somebody else's house in a foreign country.

Originally posted by DerbyCityLights
The war would have been over years ago if we weren't required to be politically correct and had taken the damn gloves off. Hell yes our troops are tired and pessimistic! They are not given the support they need and our government is to scared to just do the damn job. Now it's to late. It has dragged on for so long that no one has much hope left. All because we let emotion get in the way.

Well... I agree with that last line. We allowed Our "Oh NOES! They attacked Us!" emotion to slip Us into accepting a war, without investigation, without anything but media as the "court," "judge" and "jury," telling Us what happened.

If We had investigated, We would be NOT fighting this idiotic war (to the profit of Haliburtoin, et al) ten years later. We would have discovered all the anomalies which point to a highly sophisticated effort well beyond the capacity of 19 religious fanatics to have accomplished, and started pointing fingers where they belong.

Instead, Our emotions overtook Us and We were led by the nose into abyss.

These troops never listened to Mr. Miyagi.

"When two men fight, both lose."

reply to post by wWizard


That is the great sacrifice our troops give. If you have never served, it is hard to understand. I was in the first Gulf war. You give up a little part of your soul knowing that you are (hopefully) serving in the noble struggle for Liberty for those who have it stripped from them or are under threat of losing their Liberty. It takes a special kind of person that is willing to make this sacrifice.