Afghanistan: Two Funerals and a Policy Disaster?
Within a week, two top advisors to Afghan President Hamid Karzai have been killed. The murders of Jan Muhammad Khan, a former provincial governor, and Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s own half-brother, underline the fact that the war in Afghanistan is far from over. The United States is far from victory — and the Taliban, and other radical forces, are far from becoming moderates ready for a diplomatic deal.
Ahmed Karzai’s death is an especially devastating blow to the government. He had been accused of corruption, and wasn’t on the best of terms with the U.S. military, but Ahmed Karzai’s connections and ruthlessness made him a critical force in southern Afghanistan. He was the kind of man upon whom any stable regime would depend following a withdrawal of foreign troops.
The battle for control of the area around Kandahar is a microcosm of the sheer chaos in military and political life in Afghanistan. Many different groups struggle for supremacy — the Taliban, the local Alokozai or Durrani tribe, the government, its coalition allies, and Ahmed Karzai’s faction.
The Alokozai is a powerful Pashtun tribe that controls much of the country around Kandahar. It ejected the Taliban from the city in 2001. Karzai had a lot of influence with them, putting in his candidate as the new tribal leader in 2007 against the wishes of many tribal elders.
But the cost was a degeneration of ties between the tribe and the government. Many leaders of the tribe have been assassinated; the Alokozai blame Ahmed Karzai’s militia. Alokozai elders are reported to have turned to the Taliban for protection. Perhaps this has something to do with Karzai’s assassination. Certainly, it shows how little power the central government possesses – undermining the claims of American officials.
Control of Kandahar is said to be the Taliban’s top priority. Its fighters have been making progress against government forces, currently backed by a Canadian military presence. Some have warned that NATO has left Kandahar too thin.
This setback comes at a time of considerable conflict over the conduct of the war. The U.S. government has complained about Pakistan’s refusal to launch an offensive against the Islamists as well as the controversy around Osama bin Ladin’s hiding out in the middle of a Pakistani town with a strong army presence a short walk away.
Bitter recriminations between the two countries followed. The Obama administration announced that it was suspending $800 million of military aid to the country. Next came the murder of Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistani journalist whose work was revealing the intimate relationship between the Taliban and Pakistani military.
This crisis came at a very bad time for Pakistan, whose economy is spiraling downwards. Electricity shortages are shutting down industries; rising food and fuel prices are causing protests on the streets. Karachi, the country’s economic center, is often shut down by ethnic gang violence. In the current bout of bloodshed, killings claimed over 100 lives.
As the U.S. government pulls troops and claims success, the security situation is worsening — despite the almost decade-long NATO military presence. The Taliban is on the offensive, even as it is being engaged in negotiations by the U.S. government. One security disaster follows another as trusted Afghan soldiers kill CIA or other advisors and the April 26 mass prison break in Kandahar was among the many humiliations suffered by the regime.
Kandahar may be the place where the cracks form that swallow America’s Afghan mission.
Get out now. The military operations in these prehistoric cultures are a waste of time. The government of the US is in a state of denial if it thinks that it can bring about change in this barbaric society. How many more American lives are to be sacrificed by the amoral cretins in Washington before we demand that they stop their silly wars. How can you claim to be fighting Islamic jihadists in Afghanistan and at the same time be building the same people up in the American cities and universities. Just as in Vietnam the American government claimed it was fighting and stopping communism in Asia while at the same time it was enabling and supporting it in the American education system; somehow a communist government in vietnam was a terrible danger but a communist state ninety miles off the Florida coast which showed it could build nuclear missile sites was not. Of course the Kennedy boys were too busy chasing skirts to take any interest in American security or the men who put their lives on line at the battle front. When will we rid ourselves of this corrupt American ruling class? O tempora O mores.
Well written and right on target.
“Ahmed Karzai’s death is an especially devastating blow to the government. He had been accused of corruption, and wasn’t on the best of terms with the U.S. military, but Ahmed Karzai’s connections and ruthlessness made him a critical force in southern Afghanistan. He was the kind of man upon whom any stable regime would depend following a withdrawal of foreign troops.”
So, basically, we are depending on someone with “connections” and “ruthlessness” to keep the country stable after we go. Sounds a lot like a dictator to me, or at the very least a homicidal tribal leader. Great, after 10 years of trying to win “hearts and minds,” these are the people we have to look forward to in running the “country,” which isn’t much of a country at all, just a collection of tribal lands. We will win no victories here. The best we can hope for is to keep one or two bases in the northern provinces where they actually seem to like us. Keep these bases as a launching point for attacks against al Qaeda in Pakistan or Afghanistan. It will be the same arrangement as we have in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and we’ve been there for over 100 years. As for the rest of the country, they can go back to slaughtering their own like they have been doing for centuries.
Its beginning of the end. Expect much worse, I am sure there are plenty of scores which must be settled
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America has finally come to its senses.
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STRABEN INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
U.S. Quietly Slips Out Of Afghanistan In Dead Of Night
July 18, 2011 | ISSUE 47•29
Officials called the middle-of-the-night exit of all U.S. armed forces the “best for all involved.” Article
08.25.09 KABUL, AFGHANISTAN—In what officials said was the “only way” to move on from what has become a “sad and unpleasant” situation, all 100,000 U.S. military and intelligence personnel crept out of their barracks in the dead of night Sunday and quietly slipped out of Afghanistan.
U.S. commanders explained their sudden pullout in a short, handwritten note left behind at Bagram Airfield, their largest base of operations in the country.
“By the time you read this, we will be gone,” the note to the nation of Afghanistan read in part. “We regret any pain this may cause you, but this was something we needed to do. We couldn’t go on like this forever.”
“We still care about you very much, but, in the end, we feel this is for the best,” the note continued. “Please, just know that we are truly sorry and that we wish you all the greatest of happiness in the future.”
According to firsthand accounts, the 90,000 American troops stationed in Afghanistan lay in their beds pretending to be asleep until well after midnight Tuesday. They then reportedly tiptoed out to a fleet of awaiting Humvees, tanks, armored cars, and stealth aircraft; gently eased the doors shut; and departed as silently as possible so as not to wake the 30- million-person nation.
Gen. David Petraeus, outgoing commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, acknowledged that while finally leaving Afghanistan the way they did was perhaps not the “most ideal” way of ending things, emotions in the region had been running too high lately to consider any other alternative.
“We could have slowly and steadily withdrawn from Afghanistan, but trust me, that would have needlessly prolonged what we both knew deep down was an unhealthy, dead-end relationship,” Petraeus said. “And we just couldn’t bear to look the Afghan people in the eye and tell them flat out that we were packing up and leaving.”
“So we decided to sneak out the back through Tajikistan while the country was asleep,” Petraeus added. “We’re not proud of it, but it was the least painful option for everyone.”
According to Pentagon sources, years of growing resentment, deep-seated trust issues, and periods of outright hostility had taken their toll on the relationship, leaving both partners hardened and bitter. After reportedly taking a “long look in the mirror” last week, senior defense officials came to the conclusion that they had “wasted a decade of [their] lives” with Afghanistan, prompting them to finally seek an end to their dysfunctional and destructive long-term engagement.
“When we went into this, everything seemed so perfect—that first democratic election in 2004, Operation Anaconda—those were great times,” said Gen. James Mattis of U.S. Central Command, who stated that he would always cherish the warm memory of their early days together in Mazar-i-Sharif. “But we’ve grown so far apart since then. Sometimes it’s hard to remember why we even got involved in the first place.”
Despite walking out on Afghanistan, Mattis made it clear that the U.S. still cared deeply about the country and always would. He assured the war-torn nation Americans would never forget about them and promised the U.S. would send several hundred million dollars back to Kabul from time to time to make sure they were getting along okay.
Thus far, Afghans’ reactions to the surprise withdrawal have been mixed. While many citizens expressed relief at the pullout, claiming the U.S. had “made [their] lives a living hell,” they also admitted the departure had left them feeling deeply unstable and insecure.
“The U.S. told us they cared and that they had our best interests at heart, and I really thought this time might be different, but they were just as selfish as the Soviets and the British,” said Pashtun tribal leader Ashraf Rahman Durrani, referring to Afghanistan’s history of abusive relationships. “We’re a strong, proud nation, though. We’ve been through a lot, and we’ll find a way to get through this, too.”
At press time, distraught American officials confirmed they had made a “terrible mistake” ever leaving Afghanistan, and were amassing troops at the border to reinvade the country by week’s end.