What Our Friends Think
The US is still embroiled in two wars, a fact that may have slipped the American consciousness in the midst of a presidential election campaign and the deepening problems with the economy. Of those two wars, one has received less attention than the other: Afghanistan. That war was de-emphasized when the US invaded Iraq, at which point the US handed over the prosecution of the Afghanistan war to NATO forces and pulled out a sizable US contingent from Afghanistan to provide more fire power to Iraq. That was five years ago, and both conflicts continue.
Our NATO allies are clearly chafing at the extended tour in Afghanistan, especially since the Taleban's efforts appear to be heating up. The Prime Minister of Canada recently announced that he would like that country's troops out of the conflict by 2011 (coincidentally the date the Iraqi government would like to see US troops gone from that nation). There are also rumbles from Britain and France, primarily because the US, in concentrating mostly on Iraq, really has shown little in the way of a coherent strategy to end the war in Afghanistan.
From the Times of London:
The departing commander of British forces in Afghanistan says he believes the Taleban will never be defeated.
Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, whose troops have suffered severe casualties after six months of tough fighting, will hand over to 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines this month.
He told The Times that in his opinion, a military victory over the Taleban was “neither feasible nor supportable”.
“What we need is sufficient troops to contain the insurgency to a level where it is not a strategic threat to the longevity of the elected Government,” he said. ...
The brigadier’s grim prognosis follows a leaked cable by François Fitou, the deputy French Ambassador in Kabul, claiming that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador, had told him the strategy for Afghanistan was “doomed to failure”.
In the cable, Mr Fitou told President Sarkozy that Sir Sherard believed “the security situation is getting worse, so is corruption and the Government has lost all trust”. He said Sir Sherard had told him Britain had no alternative but to support the US, “but we should tell them that we want to be part of a winning strategy, not a losing one. The American strategy is doomed to fail.”
The problem, of course, is that the "American strategy" is based on the premise that the Global War On Terror is simply another war, that traditional military strategies will work. After more than seven years, people are finally beginning to realize that bombs and bullets are not the weapons of choice in effectively overcoming actual terrorism. Many of us on the American left have been pointing to that fact for over seven years, but we've been ridiculed as being "soft" and "therapy oriented." Now, with the devastation and destabilization of two countries and the deaths of hundreds of thousands, even the military experts in other nations are coming around to the same conclusion. You can't bomb a belief system out of existence, even one which relies on its own kind of bombs.
Morons.
Our NATO allies are clearly chafing at the extended tour in Afghanistan, especially since the Taleban's efforts appear to be heating up. The Prime Minister of Canada recently announced that he would like that country's troops out of the conflict by 2011 (coincidentally the date the Iraqi government would like to see US troops gone from that nation). There are also rumbles from Britain and France, primarily because the US, in concentrating mostly on Iraq, really has shown little in the way of a coherent strategy to end the war in Afghanistan.
From the Times of London:
The departing commander of British forces in Afghanistan says he believes the Taleban will never be defeated.
Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, whose troops have suffered severe casualties after six months of tough fighting, will hand over to 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines this month.
He told The Times that in his opinion, a military victory over the Taleban was “neither feasible nor supportable”.
“What we need is sufficient troops to contain the insurgency to a level where it is not a strategic threat to the longevity of the elected Government,” he said. ...
The brigadier’s grim prognosis follows a leaked cable by François Fitou, the deputy French Ambassador in Kabul, claiming that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador, had told him the strategy for Afghanistan was “doomed to failure”.
In the cable, Mr Fitou told President Sarkozy that Sir Sherard believed “the security situation is getting worse, so is corruption and the Government has lost all trust”. He said Sir Sherard had told him Britain had no alternative but to support the US, “but we should tell them that we want to be part of a winning strategy, not a losing one. The American strategy is doomed to fail.”
The problem, of course, is that the "American strategy" is based on the premise that the Global War On Terror is simply another war, that traditional military strategies will work. After more than seven years, people are finally beginning to realize that bombs and bullets are not the weapons of choice in effectively overcoming actual terrorism. Many of us on the American left have been pointing to that fact for over seven years, but we've been ridiculed as being "soft" and "therapy oriented." Now, with the devastation and destabilization of two countries and the deaths of hundreds of thousands, even the military experts in other nations are coming around to the same conclusion. You can't bomb a belief system out of existence, even one which relies on its own kind of bombs.
Morons.
Labels: Afghanistan, GWOT
posted by Diane at 9:00 AM
2 Comments:
Good post, Diane. We have accomplished one thing, though: We've played perfectly into Bin Laden's hands by elevating his status as engaged with the US in a "Holy War" which may well have bankrupted us. This was his stated objective from the beginning. Heckuva job, George W. Bush!
"The departing commander of British forces in Afghanistan says he believes the Taleban will never be defeated."
Where would the 'Taliban' be today if for the last 7 years, we'd been clearing land mines instead of murdering civilians & non-combatants? Building roads & houses instead of re-instituting the warlords, the very folk the Taliban were put in power to curb the abuses of? Our guys are f*cking morons and by inference, so are we.
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