Military Blunders and Wars - General

I've made a thread to discuss about the military, really big blunders that they made, and other areas worth debating, like the Iraq war and etc. One of the major questions I have is how come nobody is doing anything about Pakistan? They clearly know that It is a safe haven for the Taliban, but as of now, still no action is taken. All people are doing is discussing about how its a safe haven. And If the US clearly knows that it is a safe haven, why are they still Allies? And with Somalia in such a shithole, I think it really is a horrible move by the Americans, since they really didn't do much to actually help the country. Now there's no government, there's Islamic rebels, and there's piracy. Another somewhat related subject, is the Manila Hostage Crisis. The way those SWAT handled shit was horrible, they took more than 10 minutes to clear out a fucking bus. And earlier in the day, the hostage taker came out in the open, and they should had shot him. And all those SWAT were simply cowering at the side of the bus. Plus, why the fuck do they only have 1 point of entry?

Because they know things you don't, simple as that. That goes for the military intelligence on Pakistan and how to handle a hostage situation.

The problem people don't seem to understand is pakistan (esspecially the north) is very tribal still, groups may support the taliban and shelter fighters but they will be fighting with other tribes or the Pakistan army.There is almost no way to properly root out fighters due to the terrain and the difficulties with insurgent style fighters. Plus pakistan is a good ally, in terms of their massive contributions to the UN in terms of troops and support. Do you know how many troops they have lost trying to root out the taliban? The bomb attacks in major cities?

1. Because believe it or not, starting wars is planning, logistic and economic nightmare. Incursions into Pakistan leading to open war is not really feasible in the current economy. Furthermore, to what purpose? The ISAF plan in Afghanistan, contrary to popular belief, is not to destroy the Taliban. It's to keep them suppressed until the new Afghani government and the ANA can handle their own problems, while providing reconstruction work. 2. Somalia is a bag of dicks, but there are neighbouring countries in a better position to do something about it. 3. Not every SWAT team is an elite force. Some cities just don't have the funding to give their special officers hours and hours of training time, some teams just suffer from poor training in general. I don't know if this is the case with Manila, but that's one possible reason.

[QUOTE=JaegerMonster;33398122]1. Because believe it or not, starting wars is planning, logistic and economic nightmare. Incursions into Pakistan leading to open war is not really feasible in the current economy. Furthermore, to what purpose? The ISAF plan in Afghanistan, contrary to popular belief, is not to destroy the Taliban. It's to keep them suppressed until the new Afghani government and the ANA can handle their own problems, while providing reconstruction work. 2. Somalia is a bag of dicks, but there are neighbouring countries in a better position to do something about it. 3. Not every SWAT team is an elite force. Some cities just don't have the funding to give their special officers hours and hours of training time, some teams just suffer from poor training in general. I don't know if this is the case with Manila, but that's one possible reason.[/QUOTE] For example, Ethiopia has expressed the wish to go in and stabilize things in the past, but they weren't been able to get all the support they needed. Some swat teams are just poorly trained. I'd like to point to that theatre hostage situation in Russia where dozens were killed by the gas grenades thrown by SWAT (may have been spetsnaz actually)

[quote]And with Somalia in such a shithole, I think it really is a horrible move by the Americans, since they really didn't do much to actually help the country. Now there's no government, there's Islamic rebels, and there's piracy.[/quote] After Operation Gothic Serpent, I don't believe even now that the U.S. is willing to put major ground combat power into the country. Maybe they could do a comeback a la Sudan in the 1890s after the death of British general Charles Gordon? :v: How fresh is the events of 1993 in the minds of Americans, do you think?

[QUOTE=Tac Error;33416213]After Operation Gothic Serpent, I don't believe even now that the U.S. is willing to put major ground combat power into the country. Maybe they could do a comeback a la Sudan in the 1890s after the death of British general Charles Gordon? :v: How fresh is the events of 1993 in the minds of Americans, do you think?[/QUOTE] Not very.

The US has had its share of blunders, but haven't most superpowers of the ages had military blunders? The United States got it in their head that if they didn't exercise the power they had from the Soviet Union crumbling, that communism could still prevail, even with the main exporter of communism and communist ideas was gone. I don't agree with all the wars the United States goes into, but they are doing it. The United States should only get involved in something that threatens our immediate safety and stop worrying about a couple hundred thousand arabs blowing each other up. [editline]30th November 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=crackberry;33515520]The US has had its share of blunders, but haven't most superpowers of the ages had military blunders? The United States got it in their head that if they didn't exercise the power they had from the Soviet Union crumbling, that communism could still prevail, even with the main exporter of communism and communist ideas was gone. I don't agree with all the wars the United States goes into, but they are doing it. The United States should only get involved in something that threatens our immediate safety and stop worrying about a couple hundred thousand arabs blowing each other up.[/QUOTE] Also about the economic aspect, when Great Britain was a massive power, they were going into countries and fighting wars to expand markets and do what the rich were telling the legislators to do. This is kind of what is happening in the middle east now.