“The Taliban are the victors,” says retired US Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who saw 69 of his soldiers killed in Afghanistan. “We just haven't figured that out yet.”
Absorbing the fact that the US has lost militarily in Afghanistan will be a “bitter pill” for the soldiers he fought with, Bolduc told Yahoo News Friday.
“They did what they were asked, they did the right thing, and they watched their teammates get maimed, get killed, and because of the failure of our policymakers and our senior military leaders, they're going to have to swallow this pill,” he said.
The retired Special Forces officer says he has the dog tags of all 69 men who were lost during his five years in Afghanistan as a token to remind him of the “price for bad policy and strategy.”
Retired US Maj. Gen. Jeff Schloesser, who commanded the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan from early 2008 through mid-2009, tells the outlet, “I lost 184 soldiers there.”
Yahoo noted that in the event the US had accepted a Taliban surrender at the end of 2001, “maybe it would have concluded on our terms then,” says Bolduc. “Now it's concluding on the Taliban's terms.”
“The Afghan military can't win without our airpower right over their shoulder and our guys standing next to them pushing them into the fight. They get their asses handed to them every time they fight the Taliban,” said Bolduc.
Afghan Air Force airstrikes reportedly killed three Taliban militants on Friday,…
Agreed as the Soviets spent 12 years there & were totally ruthless & still lost…