- "It is our right to defend our country. We are not
a threat to other countries. But we have to use our rights when our country
is occupied by foreign forces." - Mullah Omar, Taliban leader
-
- It was supposed to be "the good war"; a war
against terror; a war of liberation. It was intended to fix the eyes of
the world on America's state of the art weaponry, its crack troops and
its overwhelming firepower. It was supposed to demonstrateonce and for
all-- that the world's only superpower could no longer be beaten or resisted;
that Washington could deploy its troops anywhere in the world and crush
its adversaries at will.
-
- Then everything went sideways. The war veered from the
Pentagon's script. The Taliban retreated, waited, regrouped and retaliated.
They enlisted support from the Pashtuns and the tribal leaders who could
see that America would never honor its commitments; that order would
never be restored. Operation Enduring Freedom has brought neither peace
nor prosperity to Afghanistan; just occupation. Seven years have passed
and the country is still ruled by warlords and drug- merchants. Nothing
has gotten better. The country is in shambles and the government is a
fraud. The humiliation of foreign occupation persists while the killing
goes on with no end in sight.
-
- War is not foreign policy. It is slaughter. Seven years
later; it's still slaughter. The Taliban have taken over more than half
of Afghanistan. They have conducted military operations in the capital
of Kabul. They're dug in at Logar, Wardak and Ghazni and control vast
swathes of territory in Zabul, Helmand, Urzgan and Kandahar. Now they
are getting ready to step-up operations and mount a Spring offensive.
That means the hostilities will progressively intensify.
-
- The Taliban's approach is methodical and deliberate.
They've shown they can survive the harshest conditions and still achieve
tactical victories over a better-equipped enemy. They are highly-motivated
and believe their cause is just. After all, they're not fighting to occupy
a foreign nation; they're fighting to defend their own country. That strengthens
their resolve and keeps morale high. When NATO and American troops leave
Afghanistan; the Taliban will remain, just as they did when the Russians
left 20 years ago. No difference. The US occupation will just be another
grim footnote in the country's tragic history.
-
- The United States has gained nothing from its invasion
of Afghanistan. US troops do not control even a square inch of Afghan
soil. The moment a soldier lifts his boot-heel; that ground is returned
to the native people. That won't change either. General Dan McNeill said
recently that "if proper US military counterinsurgency doctrine were
followed; the US would need 400,000 troops to defeat Pashtun tribal resistance
in Afghanistan." Currently, the US and NATO have only 66,000 troops
on the ground and the allies are refusing to send more. On a purely logistical
level; victory is impossible.
-
- The battle for hearts and minds has been lost, too. A
statement from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(RAWA) sums it up like this:
- "The reinstatement of the Northern Alliance to power
crushed the hopes of our people for freedom and prosperity and proved
that, for the Bush administration, defeating terrorism has no meaning
at all....The US doesnt want to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, because
then they will have no excuse to stay in Afghanistan and achieve their
economic and strategic goals in the region....After seven years, there
is no peace, human rights, democracy or reconstruction in Afghanistan.
The destitution and suffering of our people is increasing everyday. ...We
believe that if the troops leave Afghanistan, our people will become more
free and come out of their current puzzlement and doubts...Afghanistans
freedom can only be achieved by Afghan people themselves. Relying on one
enemy to defeat another is a wrong policy which has just tightened the
grip of the Northern Alliance and their masters on the neck of our nation."
(RAWA www.rawa.org)
-
- Gradually, the Allies are beginning to see that Bush's
war cannot be won and that continuing the fighting is counterproductive.
There is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and the political
objectives are getting murkier all the time. The lack of direction just
adds to the growing frustration.
-
- Recently Secretary of Defense Robert Gates tried to bully
the allies into sending more combat troops to fight in the South, but
he met with stiff resistance . He said:
- "I am concerned that many people on this continent
may not comprehend the magnitude of the direct threat to European security,"
Gates said. "We must not become a two-tiered alliance of those who
are willing to fight and those who are not. Such a development, with all
its implications for collective security, would in effect destroy the
alliance."
-
- But public support for the war is waning in Europe. This
is America's war, not theirs. Europeans don't need to occupy foreign nations
to meet their energy needs. Their economies are thriving and they can
simply pay for their fuel on the open market. Only America wants the
war. It's all part of a crazy geopolitical "grand strategy" to
project US power into the region to control its resources. So far, there's
no indication that the plan will succeed.
-
- Germany has the third biggest economy in the world. Over
the last few years, they have strengthened ties with Russia and made agreements
that will satisfy their long-term energy needs. But German involvement
in Afghanistan has put a strain on relations with Moscow. Putin thinks
that the US is using the war to put down roots in Central Asia so it can
control pipeline-routes from the Caspian Basin while surrounding Russia
and China with military bases. Putin is right. Naturally, he'd like to
persuade German Chancellor Angela Merkel to withdraw from Afghanistan
which would strike a blow against the US-led alliance. And, that is the
way it will probably turn out, too.
-
- Eventually, German leaders will see that its foolish
to tweak the nose of the people who provide them with energy (Russia)
just to support Washington's adventures. When Germany withdraws from
Afghanistan; NATO will disband, new coalitions will form, and the transatlantic
alliance fall apart. The cracks are already visible.
-
- President Bush has said that the war in Afghanistan must
continue or the country will become a haven for drugs, terrorism and organized
crime. He says we are fighting a "poisonous ideology of Islamic
extremism which threatens to become a global movement".
-
- But the Taliban and Pashtun tribesmen see it differently.
They see the conflict as an imperial war of aggression which has only
added to the suffering of their people. A recent report by the United
Nations Human Development Fund appears to support this view. It shows
that Afghanistan has fallen in every category. The average life expectancy
has gone down, malnutrition has risen, literacy has dropped, and more
than half the population is living below the poverty-line. Hundreds of
thousands of people have been internally displaced by the war. The occupation
has created plenty of misery, but no democracy. The war was a failure.
-
- Afghanistan now produces 90% of the world's opium; more
than any other country. The booming drug trade is the direct corollary
of the US invasion. No one even denies this. Bush has created the world's
largest narco-colony. Is that success?
-
- Presently, there are no plans to improve the lives of
ordinary Afghanis or to remove the warlords. Reconstruction is at a standstill.
If the US stays in Afghanistan, the situation 10 years from now will be
the same as it is today, only more people will have needlessly died. Most
Afghanis now understand that the promise of democracy was a lie. The only
thing the occupation has brought is more grinding poverty and random violence.
-
- There's no back-up plan for Afghanistan. In fact, there
is no plan at all. The administration thought the Taliban would see America's
high- tech, laser-guided weaponry and run for the hills. They did. Now
they're back. And now we are embroiled in an "unwinnable" war
with a tenacious enemy that grows stronger and more resolute by the day.
-
- Eventually, the Europeans will see the futility of the
war and leave. And that will be the end of NATO.
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