Obama Projects Taliban Victory

Posted on | December 2, 2009 | No Comments

CNN correspondents reported on the ground in Afghanistan on December 2 that across the war torn country, the Afghan people would not support international forces, namely the US. Tribal leaders are refusing to lend aid or moral support to US troops for two very good reasons.

For years now, Afghan tribal leaders and communities have had to deal with foreign troops in their land, as well as the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Each do their part is disrupting normal life in a land of all but Stone Age people who live a simple existence and really want to just be left alone by everyone, including their own corrupt government.

Add to the mix the fact that US troops have been coming into Afghan communities for almost a decade now and have made untold promises, only to leave the area and abandon the Afghan communities to the Taliban—failing to make good on their promises to protect them and help them rebuild. The US itself was and is responsible for eroding the trust of the Afghan people long ago.

Then there was the infamous speech given by Mr. Obama last night in which he declared a full military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011, clearly telegraphing our intentions and undermining US military credibility with tribal leaders—a major amateur mistake made by a very inexperienced person.

One of the misfortunes of the Afghanistan war is that the US State Department is now being run by inexperienced people who are politicians and not highly trained diplomats or militarily-minded strategist. The result is that Afghanistan is being treated as if it is a country when in fact, it is not—it is merely a barren region filled with scattered tribes, often in conflict with each other, and all controlled by tribal leaders who are not part of the so called mainstream government—a country which adds not one penny’s worth of value to the international community or region other than the illegal drug trade.

Tribal leaders are indeed pressured by wisdom to accept the Taliban as their long-term allies knowing that the US will soon be leaving the country and finally abandoning them once and for all—while simultaneously understanding that the US is untrustworthy. This reality means the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable, for without the support of the people, the act of war is one of imperialistic endeavor, not one of liberty or security.

Killing a few though Al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan between now and 2011 will not make the US any safer, for they are like cockroaches that simply keep multiplying their numbers. The real solution to the war is one that US officials and the American people fail to grasp or admit to fully. The US must triple its current and planned forces and descend on the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan—both countries simultaneously–with overwhelming force, in order to seek out and annihilate the enemy completely.

Only this solution will allow the terrible terrains of the region to be surmounted and the enemy ferreted out and dispatched. Currently, and even with the planned troop surge, US forces will be dramatically small against such odds. The strategy is failed from the out start and our leaders know it.

America cannot afford such a solution and will never commit such a force due to political pressures which keep it from boldly going after victory. Therefore, every man and woman who dies in Afghanistan between now and the pull out will have been in vein—and the US treasure to support the effort also wasted.

There is one alternative that could still be plied. America could simply pull out all its troops now and fund a private army, paid on a bounty basis, to go in and capture and kill the declared enemies of America. The cost would be cheaper, the politics safer, the results equal if not much greater than the current deployment. All that would be needed would be a core group of US military observers and consultants to stay and monitor progress.

If you are going to fight, fight to win, or do not engage at all goes most wisdom by seasoned veterans—wisdom lost to America’s inexperienced leaders at nearly every level of the game. A failing needlessly costing us treasure and blood that we can never recover.

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