"The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality." -Chris HedgesRemember Afghanistan?
We invaded Afghanistan for the stated reason that its government, such as it was, refused to extradite Osama bin Ladin without being shown some evidence of his guilt. It's worth noting that this is a standard requirement for international extradition, but as George Bush told the world at the time, "they must have not have heard, there's no negotiations". Unfortunately, many thousands of innocent Afghanis are now dead because "there's no negotiations". Needless to say, Osama bin Ladin is not among them.
Here's what I wrote before the latest invasion of Afghanistan-
"We will eventually pull out of Afghanistan. When we do, we will have accomplished approximately as much as the Soviets. The damage done to our foreign policy in the region will be worse and more persistent than for the Soviets.
When we pull out of Afghanistan we will engineer the cobbling together of some sort of regional power brokering interim governmental authority structure of some sort to replace the Taliban. The arrangement will collapse about the time the dust settles behind us.
When
we pull out of Afghanistan we will laud the withdrawal as a great victory
over what will actually be the greatly strengthened threat of global terrorism.
We'll have maps and charts and photographs clearly showing how we certainly
didn't screw up as bad as we really did."The entire time the US has been in Afghanistan the loss rate, along with opium production, has gone steadily up, and we have by now quite predictably joined Britain and the Soviet Union in the official "Tell Me Again Why We Invaded Afghanistan?" club.
Here's what I think we should have done.
addendum:
(5/29/2006) OK, here's something-
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Hundreds of Afghan army troops and NATO peacekeepers in tanks deployed around the city, as protesters chanting "Death to America" marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes and set fire to police cars.
Rioters ransacked several buildings, including a compound belonging to the aid group CARE International. Computers were set on fire and smoke billowed from the buildings.
... Anybody else notice how after 5 years of military occupation Afghanistan is out of control and their national anthem is now "Death to America"? Anybody else notice that?
addendum2:
(7/29/06) KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Southern
Afghanistan, homeland of the Taliban and hub of the global heroin trade,
is spinning out of control.
addendum3:
(11/13/06) KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)
Insurgent activity in Afghanistan has risen fourfold this year, and
militants now launch more than 600 attacks a month, a rising wave of
violence that has resulted in 3,700 deaths in 2006, a bleak new report
found.
addendum4:
(11/2/07) How's this for a headline- "Another
Afghan district falls to Taliban". So I'm thinking that if Bush
is serious about hunting down these shadowy fringe Taliban people then
maybe he should go to one of the districts they're in control of.
The reality is of course that there was never any serious chance that
a few tens of thousands of soldiers were going to control a country
the size of Afghanistan. The Soviets had over a hundred thousand in
country and never managed it. All we're doing is giving hands on experience
to another generation of holy warriors and conditioning them to hate
America.
addendum5:
(11/27/07) (BBC) Afghanistan
MPs in mass walk-out
Afghanistan's Speaker has led a walk-out of parliament,
followed by nearly half the country's deputies.
Yunus Qanuni left the assembly because he said the government of President
Hamid Karzai was ignoring parliament.
Many MPs want senior officials in Baghlan province to be suspended after
a bombing there earlier this month.
Nearly 80 people were killed in the attack, including six MPs and about
60 children. The government has said it is still investigating the bombing.
Correspondents say much is still unclear about the bombing in Baghlan.
Some reports say many of the victims died from gunshot wounds and appear
to have been shot by the MPs' bodyguards.
addendum6:
(1/23/08) How's this for American funded gunpoint democracy-
KABUL
(AP)- An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced
a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he
printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets
of Islam, an official said.
addendum7:
(2/10/08) TORONTO
SUN- While Gates and the Harper government
were pleading for more troops, the commander of the 40,000 NATO troops
in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, landed a bombshell. If proper
U.S. military counter-insurgency doctrine were followed, McNeill admitted,
the U.S. and NATO would need 400,000 troops to defeat Pashtun tribal
resistance in Afghanistan.
.... like I wrote above, "The reality is of
course that there was never any serious chance that a few tens of thousands
of soldiers were going to control a country the size of Afghanistan."
addendum8:
(7/2/08) "June
was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war
there began in late 2001".
addendum9:
(8/1/08) "Civilians
under threat of worst Afghan violence yet".
"The number of international troops in Afghanistan has gone up by more
than 10,000 in the last year to some 71,000 and the Afghan troop levels
have also risen by around the same number, but the Taliban insurgency
has expanded both in scope and depth.
NATO commanders say violence is up by some 40 percent in eastern Afghanistan
since spring this year, partly due to troops patrolling more areas ..."
addendum10:
(7/12/09) "Afghans
turn to Taliban in fear of own police".
addendum11:
(7/9/10) "Makeshift bombs at all-time high in Afghanistan".
We should rename Afghanistan "America's Incredibly Expensive Bloodsoaked Faraway Perpetual Bomb Factory and Death University". Is what I think.
And what ever happened to the booby trap? Sure it isn't an acronym, but they could have made it one. "IED" sounds like some sort of medical device.
