Seeing his thought process change over the past few years has been very interesting. I won't post any quotes from him, because I think that would be a violation of his privacy, but the gist of some of it has been:
- "Winning" a war in Afghanistan is somewhat futile. Despite all of the incredible weaponry and money being spent there, defeating a decentralized force with things as simple as IEDs is incredibly difficult.
- The enemy is impossible to identify and the locals will support whatever side of the conflict they believe to be in their interest at the moment (whatever will help them improve their terrible living conditions). Many times the incorrectly identify people as the enemy, and often they may inadvertently be helping/financing the Taliban.
- Setting up a government there which will abide by the U.S. interests is nearly impossible.
- Afghan captains/soldiers who we are helping, are often very corrupt and just trying to get as much U.S. money for themselves as possible.
- Afghan soldiers don't really understand why we are fighting there. They think it is just that we dislike the Taliban like they do. They never mention 9/11 or Osama bin Laden.
He is a really bright guy, and reading his letters convinces me even more (if that is possible), that the wars we are waging are ridiculous, futile, and counterproductive.
