But he this article is troubling.
"After the Iraq (war) experience, nobody is prepared to have a long slog where it is not apparent we are making headway," Gates said in an interview. "The troops are tired. The American people are pretty tired," he said.
What is the goal in Afghanistan? Can someone please say what we hope to achieve? How is it possible for them to say out of one side of their mouths - that there is no military solution in Iraq and then send 20,000 plus troops to a country more treacherous, less likely to stabilize, less important geo-politically. The foolishness of this plan is mind-boggling. At least with the Bush Administration, they came out and made an argument for why we were surging, what our foreign policy goals were in Iraq were, etc. Here we have the Obama administration blindly pouring more troops into a country that toppled the British and Soviet empires and no one is uttering a peep. What is going on? Bin Laden and Al Queda aren't even in Afghanistan anymore. They are in Pakistan. Meanwhile, the Democrats didn't want to fight in Iraq where Al Queda decided to make a stand. I'm so frigging confused right now.
2 comments:
In making a totally armchair observation on this matter, I THINK the Obama administration is trying to pincer Al-Queda between the Afghan side and the Pakistani/Waziristani side of the region.
Pakistan is too weak/sympathetic to Al-Queda and the Taliban (as I'm sure you know, the Taliban were essentially created by Pakistan's intelligence division in the early '90s in order to create an Afghan "farm" of fighters to send to India/Kashmir).
Anyway, we're using more drone sorties and special-ops teams to infiltrate the hot zone from within Pakistan to put pressure on Al-Queda and take out its leadership figures (basically, what we've been trying to do since 2001), while still trying to corral the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan proper with a surge of US forces.
I don't know what the long-term plan is going to be with Afghanistan, because unless Pakistan "cleans house" from inside, the Taliban are always going to be an issue. Afghanistan herself is too fragile to have an army of her own without US assistance, but that army (let alone her central government) can't grow if they're constantly being intimidated by a parasitic organization like the Taliban.
As for Al-Queda, they will not last. The group will ultimately splinter off into other terrorist/insurgent groups and will most likely have diminished power and influence (but can still be deadly, of course).
However, I think the Taliban -- like Frankenstein's monster -- might be a creature that cannot be reigned in by its master.
Anyway, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. Like I said, it's all just me sitting in my recliner, trying to seem more important than I really am... Now, back to some "Arrested Development" episodes on DVD.
There is nothing wrong with informed citizens discussing the issues of the day. By no means do "experts" have the monopoly on opinion, especially in a democracy. So in contrast to your humbleness with respect to armchair observances, I quite happily will expound on opinions on a range of topics I know little about - including politics, sports, and women.
With that said, the twin goals of capturing the Al Queda leadership and not allowing the Taliban to regain power are certainly worthy goals. They are, however, the exact goals expressed by the Bush Administration who concluded a light force would keep the Afghan population on our side - vital, obviously, to our efforts.
And although it would be nice to have Bin Laden in jail or dead - I don't think many in the national security community believe more on-the-ground troops would lead to Bin Laden's capture. Perhaps more ground troops in those first couple months...and not allowing Northern Alliance soldiers to lead the way at Tora Bora...but that's a tough thing to say now.
In any case, I'm just not sure what the point is in trying to wipe out the Taliban. I think we are in the position right now with a minimal number of troops and the support of the majority of the Afghan population, we can keep the Taliban at bay. If we bump the troops and pick up the fighting pace, we are losing lots of lives and risk turning some of the locals against us. And for what? The Taliban - like them or not - are a homegrown Afghan group. Half the young guys running around calling themselves Taliban today are a mixed group of quasi-criminals, using the name to incite fear in the Afghan people and are not part of Mullah Omar's crew. Plus, they never attacked us and I think there is an important distinction to be made between them an Al Queda.
Anyhow, I feel like I need to think on this more...
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