The Mess in Afghanistan - Defeat and Pakistani Duplicity
The news from Afghanistan is not encouraging.
The US President Barack Obama has dismissed the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan Gen Stanley McChrystal, ostensibly because of rude behavior, but in reality because a scapegoat was needed for an increasing inept war effort.
The news from the ground is not encouraging.
Obamas strategy is not working and the administration is looking for face saving disengagement.
Obama is looking for a deal to extricate the US from Afghanistan and is relying more and more on Pakistan and the ISI to fight his battles.
This has dangerous consequences for the region as a whole and the USA in particular.
The US is perforce accepting Pakistan as the new viable partner in Afghanistan to President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan says that it can meditate and bring around Sirajuddin Haqqani an ally of Al- Qaeda,who runs a major part of the insurgency in Afghanistan into a power sharing arrangement.
It must not be forgotten that the Haqqani network and the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are among the biggest assets of the ISI.
It is conveniently forgotten that Hekmatyar now a sworn enemy of the USA received billions from the CIA during the war with Soviet Russia.
The remarkable thing is that the USA and Obama has been hood winked by Pakistan.
While the ISI claims to fight the insurgents, yet the protégés of the ISI are killing American soldiers with impunity.
Thus the USA is fighting the very people which it is indirectly funding.
When the History of the Afghan war is written, it will be elucidated that the one single moment the Americans lost the war was during the siege of Kunduz in 2001.
At that time the rampaging Northern alliance had much of the top brass of the Taliban cornered in Kunduz.
Like Ripley's believe it or not the CIA authorized an airlift by the Pakistanis and at least a thousand of the Taliban leadership was allowed to escape.
They were mostly mid level Pakistan Army and ISI offers in turbans.
That single event sealed the fate of the war in Afghanistan.
The ISI is also putting forward a specious theory that Afghanistan cannot be subdued or conquered.
Bu the facts speak otherwise as the Greeks, Persians, Mongols and Sikhs did defeat the Afghans resoundingly.
So such propaganda is a subtle building up of pressure.
A defeat for American arms in Afghanistan would be bad for the region and the USA.
Triumphant fundamentalists will crow that they brought both superpowers the Soviet Union and the USA to their knees.
The effect of this will be a catalyst that could well affect the USA critically.
Worse it would mean that China, through its proxies would be handing a third straight defeat after Korea, Vietnam and now Afghanistan.
One shudders at such an eventuality.
The US President Barack Obama has dismissed the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan Gen Stanley McChrystal, ostensibly because of rude behavior, but in reality because a scapegoat was needed for an increasing inept war effort.
The news from the ground is not encouraging.
Obamas strategy is not working and the administration is looking for face saving disengagement.
Obama is looking for a deal to extricate the US from Afghanistan and is relying more and more on Pakistan and the ISI to fight his battles.
This has dangerous consequences for the region as a whole and the USA in particular.
The US is perforce accepting Pakistan as the new viable partner in Afghanistan to President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan says that it can meditate and bring around Sirajuddin Haqqani an ally of Al- Qaeda,who runs a major part of the insurgency in Afghanistan into a power sharing arrangement.
It must not be forgotten that the Haqqani network and the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are among the biggest assets of the ISI.
It is conveniently forgotten that Hekmatyar now a sworn enemy of the USA received billions from the CIA during the war with Soviet Russia.
The remarkable thing is that the USA and Obama has been hood winked by Pakistan.
While the ISI claims to fight the insurgents, yet the protégés of the ISI are killing American soldiers with impunity.
Thus the USA is fighting the very people which it is indirectly funding.
When the History of the Afghan war is written, it will be elucidated that the one single moment the Americans lost the war was during the siege of Kunduz in 2001.
At that time the rampaging Northern alliance had much of the top brass of the Taliban cornered in Kunduz.
Like Ripley's believe it or not the CIA authorized an airlift by the Pakistanis and at least a thousand of the Taliban leadership was allowed to escape.
They were mostly mid level Pakistan Army and ISI offers in turbans.
That single event sealed the fate of the war in Afghanistan.
The ISI is also putting forward a specious theory that Afghanistan cannot be subdued or conquered.
Bu the facts speak otherwise as the Greeks, Persians, Mongols and Sikhs did defeat the Afghans resoundingly.
So such propaganda is a subtle building up of pressure.
A defeat for American arms in Afghanistan would be bad for the region and the USA.
Triumphant fundamentalists will crow that they brought both superpowers the Soviet Union and the USA to their knees.
The effect of this will be a catalyst that could well affect the USA critically.
Worse it would mean that China, through its proxies would be handing a third straight defeat after Korea, Vietnam and now Afghanistan.
One shudders at such an eventuality.
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