It was bound to happen to a war waged on a shoestring under inept political leadership for the better part of a decade. The mountain has suddenly come to Mohamed.
The Pentagon has issued a new report on the plight of its hapless war in Afghanistan that recommends the Obama administration pare America's goals in that war. The Top Brass want to scupper all that nonsense about bringing democratic freedom to the Afghan people and, instead, focus on whacking Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the border regions of Pakistan. From the Associated Press:
The Joint Chiefs' plan reflects growing worries that the U.S. military was taking on more than it could handle in Afghanistan by pursuing the Bush administration's broad goal of nurturing a thriving democratic government.
The Pentagon has issued a new report on the plight of its hapless war in Afghanistan that recommends the Obama administration pare America's goals in that war. The Top Brass want to scupper all that nonsense about bringing democratic freedom to the Afghan people and, instead, focus on whacking Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the border regions of Pakistan. From the Associated Press:
The Joint Chiefs' plan reflects growing worries that the U.S. military was taking on more than it could handle in Afghanistan by pursuing the Bush administration's broad goal of nurturing a thriving democratic government.
Instead, the plan calls for a more narrowly focused effort to root out militant strongholds along the Pakistani border and inside the neighboring country, according to officials who confirmed the essence of the report. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly.
"The bottom line is we have to look at what the art of the possible is there," said a U.S. military official who has operated in Afghanistan. The official, who has not seen the Joint Chiefs' report, said the challenge is to craft a strategy that achieves U.S. goals of stabilizing the region and constraining al-Qaida, but also takes into account the powerful tribes that resist a strong central government and the ties among ethnic Pashtuns on either side of the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Okay, so it's back to full Islamic fundamentalism for the men, women and kids of Afghanistan and the nation will be left to the rule of the treacherous and bloodthirsty warlords who came to power during the Soviet occupation.
Unmentioned is the fate of the Afghan Army and National Police. Presumably the Pentagon is confident that a viable army can be created to serve an unviable central government. Brilliant thinking that! And by dropping any pretence of interest in nation-building, the National Police will surely be released to expand their predatory practices against the rural Afghan people.
This country never looked so much like Vietnam as it does in the image of Afghanistan depicted in the Pentagon report. No viable central government, rampant corruption and a security service that preys on the Afghan villagers. Now there's a formula for driving the population into the arms of the insurgency. By the time the Pentagon is finished, the Taliban should probably be restored to home team status for the Pashtun on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Remind me, what in hell is Canada over there for anyway?
1 comment:
The Pentagon has issued a new report on the plight of its hapless war in Afghanistan that recommends the Obama administration pare America's goals in that war.
Yeah, changing the goal posts, always a precursor that it's best to leave....
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