Op-ed:
Why We Are Still In Afghanistan
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side
Patriots on American Political Radio
This past Friday, in an impromptu White House press briefing regarding
President Trump's new strategy towards Afghanistan, National Security
Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster was careful not to allow the words
'radical islamic terrorism' to cross his lips when talking about the
taliban nor did he speak of the atrocities they have committed. But
if you cannot call the enemy by their true name...if you cannot speak
of the enemy's actions taken...then you simply cannot defeat that enemy.
But then again maybe that is not the goal of McMaster and some
others...maybe the best they hope for is a Soviet-style withdrawal if
even that...'face-saving' at its not very best.
And while war is known to change even brave men...some wars are so
horrific and the cost in both blood and treasure so high that what is
known to be wrong gradually but surely morphs into the new right,
with that new right turning into acquiescing and then excusing the
actions of those they know are so morally wrong.
So it seems to be with the enemy we fight in the theater of war
called Afghanistan...a war the Afghan people themselves see as
nothing but a foreign invasion for the invader's profit alone. A
never ending war so many decades long...a war whose invader's
uniforms might change yet a war that has seen the one constant being
that the taliban alone grow stronger with each passing day. The
taliban...an enemy skilled in the art of guerilla warfare...an enemy
who uses the country's rocky grounds, barren mountains, and its deep
caves that lead straight down to hell as their impenetrable lair from
which to control what passes for the Afghan government. And that
government has long been impotent to stop the carnage and blood shed
for said government is overrun with both corruption and incompetence,
and sadly lacks the much-needed desire to initiate positive change.
And dare we forget that democracy is a foreign concept to a people
still living like they did centuries ago...a people whose enemy is
seen as any and all not of their village...making it
impossible for democracy to take hold no matter if Afghanistan does become an
American war won...because our political leaders refuse to understand that democracy
cannot be born if a country's people do not want it nor are willing
to fight for it. Nation building in our image has proven to be a
failed objective time and time again and will be so with Afghanistan
again for it remains a war that sees powerful warlords and tribal
chiefs sitting back and enjoying the spoils of said war...spoils
financed by incompetency sadly on both our and the Russians side.
For the Russians their war with
Afghanistan was the Soviet Union’s final foreign military stand
before its ultimate collapse in 1991. Soviet troops invaded the
capital of Kabul on December 25, 1979, on Moscow's order to replace
the radical islamist Hafizullah Amin with the Soviet-endorsed Babrak
Karmal as head of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Moscow
believed that by their overthrowing Amin they could somewhat control
the timing of Afghanistan’s communist revolution and protect the
communist regime from collapsing due to its being domestically
unpopular, fearing this could result with Afghanistan ceding
either to islamist or Western forces.
And while a 1989 armistice saw the failed Soviet army leaving Afghanistan with the above stated
'face-saving' of sorts, that 'face-saving' resulted in “no common
front of resistance fighters which could have effected a smooth
political transition.”* This left the country whose people were
so tired of war...coupled with the ongoing rivalry between the
different war lords...seeing the taliban easily occupying Kabul as
well as other parts of the country. And the taliban did so with help
from Pakistan...help that continues to this day no matter that the
Trump administration has decided to reduce the level of U.S aid to
Pakistan because of their not taking decisive action against the
taliban and its offshoot known as the Haqqani network.
So why hasn't the U.S. military...the
greatest military the world has ever known...won a decisive victory
against these backwards taliban fighters...simply because we are
fighting with 21st century weapons and bombs against those who hide
deep within caves in mountains of rocks that our bombs do little
damage to. And those that our bombs have killed, for the most part,
have been the collateral damage known as women and children, with
collateral damage being the bane of civilian populaces more times
than not. And this particular type of collateral damage has led the
Afghan people's allegiance to actually turn more towards sympathy for
their taliban oppressors than towards those seeking to set them free.
And why...because true freedom the likes of which we take for granted
is something the Afghan's have never really known.
And let's not forget that a war is not truly won if there is no
plan in place for the peace that comes when weapons are finally laid
down.
No tangible plans for peace
meaning in the end even the military might of America will possibly go the way of
all others who tried to conquer a country whose warlords and tribal
chiefs are experts in the art of what we now call guerrilla warfare.
And remember, Afghanistan is a country that has never been
totally conquered. A brief history
lesson...in the mid-4th century B.C., Alexander the Great
tried to conquer this barren and inhospitable land, but the warlords
and their fighters fought them off. In the 19th century the British
tried not once but twice, but they too were driven back and done so
with heavy casualties. And only a century later did the Soviets
invade...a full invasion with their sole prize being to take and
occupy Kabul...and yet after a decade of occupation, they too, were
driven out to be replaced by American forces in the aftermath of 9/11...with a handful of U.N.
forces thrown in for good measure.
And amid all these loses why do many of those currently
holding political positions of power deem Afghanistan important
enough to risk even more American lives...to further deplete American
treasure...treasure that has already cost we taxpayers $800+ billion
in a still failed attempt to overthrow the taliban when
there remains no definitive win in sight...and especially when a 2014 U.S. government report stated that the cost of reconstruction in Afghanistan would total more than the entirety spent under the Marshall Plan.
..so why?
The answer to that for some of these political folks, I believe, is their
erroneous assumption that we...like the Russians thought...must win to 'save-face.' Remember, while failure is rightfully not in
America's vocabulary being obligated to undo the 'supposed' damage
done to our reputation as the world's number one super power is not
reason enough for more American blood to be shed or for treasure to
be spent. Again why...because our 'supposed' reputation destroyed was
done so by the words and actions...or lack thereof...of America's own
enemy within...one Barack HUSSEIN Obama...and that damage has now
become but perceived damage and no longer tangible damage thanks to
the election of Donald Trump as president and his strong stance
against those out to kill us all.
If a reason to fight on in Afghanistan is needed...one not
just to 'save face'...let that reason be to prevent an all-out Afghan
civil war coupled with country wide chaos that would deprive our
military of much needed counter-terrorism bases...bases needed to help
secure the U.S. homeland from terrorist attacks. Also, not having those counter-terrorism bases in Afghanistan would create a vacuum of power that would allow not only the taliban...who currently
control 40% of the country and one-third of the population...but
al-Qaeda and possibly even ISIS to establish and/or expand already
existing areas of sanctuary throughout the rest of the
country... areas from which they can continue to launch said terrorist
attacks...attacks internet chatter promises will soon be on the
scale of 9/11.
And know that the taliban already
has sanctuaries within Pakistan itself...sanctuaries that harbor much
of the taliban's leadership command. And knowing this has led our
military commanders being unable to militarily target that leadership
command because doing so would translate into an attack on Pakistani
soil itself...an act of war against a country we are not at war with.
And this in turn allows Pakistan...who is well-known as the
chief monetary sponsor of the taliban...to become the region's
centralized terror hub...a hub to rival that of even Iran.
So what is it about Pakistan that
has turned a once ally into 'terror central'...and why is Pakistan's
military and intelligence service (ISI) trying to under-cut our
attempts to stabilize Afghanistan by their supporting the taliban?
To answer that one must go back
to the Durand Line...the still in dispute 1,510
mile long internationally decided
upon border between Pakistan and Afghanistan...a border that was established after
an 1893 memorandum of understanding between Mortimer Durand
of British India and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan...a border
established when Pakistan was still part of India. This disputed
border with its corresponding disputed territories translates into
Pakistan having a vested interest in making sure that the Afghan
government never gets strong enough to keep their current claim on
the still disputed territories.
Therefore, logic to the Pakistani
government dictates their siding with any and all who are against the
Afghan government...hence their support for the taliban and their not
aiding us in our fight against said taliban.
But why does Pakistan want those
disputed territories...what drives them to support an enemy akin to
the likes of ISIS? To answer that think back to the 'Land Grab'
series** my Right Side Patriots partner and friend Craig Andresen and I
wrote just a few years ago and the answer becomes clear...for just
like Obama's wanting certain areas of America to come under federal
government control, Pakistan wants control of certain disputed areas for the very
same reason...as in what is under the surface of the land.
And what territory is at the
heart of Pakistan's want...it is the Wakhan Corridor...a narrow finger strip
of mostly mountainous land tucked into the
northeastern corner of Afghanistan...a desolate and inhospitable place
which all of a sudden, in 2014, was set up by the corrupt Afghan
government as a national park...a national park in a war-torn
country...a national park being protected at all costs by a for the
most part bankrupt government whose what little money they have would
be better served aiding its poverty-stricken people than on what appears to most to be
on the surface nothing but ruggedly barren mountainous land.
But we know that appearances can
be deceiving for the seemingly barren land Pakistan wants that
the Afghan government still controls is brimming to a tune of an estimated $1 trillion with iron, silver, gold,
copper, cobalt, lithium, oil, natural gas, emeralds, rubies, azure,
other precious and rare minerals, and most importantly it is brimming
with uranium...and those heading Pakistan's government know that if
they secure a major source of uranium they gain an all-important upper hand over
their enemy India.
And to secure that specific
territory and make sure it becomes part of Pakistan, I would bet
Pakistan's government made a deal with the taliban that
would have the taliban giving them the territory they want after we finally
pulled out just like the Russians did in order to 'save-face'...that is
something the Pakistanis are counting on. And with us gone the Pakistanis would give the taliban their so-wanted nuclear weapon...or two or three...in
return for a deal completed...with one to keep for themselves...the others to sell to the
highest islamic bidder.
Clearly, Pakistan
knows what is under the ground and wants it as much as we want them
not to have it, and I believe that is one of the real reasons why we continue
to fight a war in a country whose people do not want us there...with the other reason being that what lays under the ground would not only help finance the devastated country's rebuilding...instead of us paying for it all...but would also go a long way into Afghanistan paying us back for both American lives lost and treasure spent.
And
the Afghan government knows well that by their losing control of certain key areas of
Afghanistan gives the taliban not just the 40% of the country they
already control but gives them the entirety of Afghanistan to do with
what they wish. And we know we cannot allow any of these players to
control Afghanistan for he who controls Afghanistan controls not only
what up until this point in time Iran has controlled...as in terrorist
operations worldwide...but would now allow Pakistan to arm with
nuclear weapons any and all who meet their price or agenda...and that
we cannot under any circumstances allow.
“From New Delhi to Tehran when we talk about South Asia and a
critical element of our strategy in the region has to be Pakistan.
And we cannot be successful in Afghanistan -- we've seen that over
the last several years -- unless we have a higher degree of
cooperation from Pakistan. So Pakistan is absolutely an integral part
of the strategic review that's ongoing,”
were the recent words of Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, and we best listen and act upon those words for the
alternative will surely not be pretty.
__________________________________________
*Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study,
By Walter Laqueur
** Government
Land Grabs: The Truth Exposed
Part
1: http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2014_05_03_archive.html
Part
2: http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2014_05_04_archive.html
Part
3:
http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2014/05/op-ed-government-land-grabs-truth.html
Part
4: http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2014/05/op-ed-government-land-grabs-truth_5.html
Copyright @ 2017 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved
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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!
Today,
Tuesday, August 29th from 7 to 9pm EST on American
Political Radio,
RIGHT
SIDE PATRIOTS
Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss the real reason why we are still in
Afghanistan; Craig presents the first ever 'binky' award; updated news on Hurricane Harvey and the nightmare in Houston TX; and the pardoning of Sheriff Joe.
