"in the waning days of World War II, Germany launched its last gasp, final attempt to return to the offensive: Operation "Wacht am Rhein" - or the Battle of the Bulge, as we came to know it. The allies went on the defensive and employed a number of counter-attacks to break the German offensive momentum....That was a measurable mission, and once accomplished, it would be an indisputable fact: either we stopped their westward attack or we didn't. In the Afghan COIN environment there is no such clarity. American Commanders can claim we have "halted their momentum" and who's to say otherwise? Omar Bradley couldn't have claimed he "halted the German offensive momentum" if there were still German tanks plowing deeper into the Ardennes. But in the case of a guerilla war there few identifiable actions that have unambiguous tactical meaning."
Now not only are the tragic events which occur as a part of the occupation endangering the mission in Afghanistan, ostensibly to produce a stable ally in the region which will foreclose the return of the Taliban. They are, according to the FBI, endangering Americans in the "homeland" as it warns of the possibility of domestic attacks spurred by the foreign atrocities.
ABC News: "FBI Warns of Homegrown Violence After Afghan Massacre":
"Federal authorities have issued a warning there could be "acts of violence" in the homeland sparked by the recent massacre of 16 civilians in Afghanistan allegedly by an American soldier."
Excuse me. Hold up. For this we are paying $2 billion every week? My subway is about to put another 30,000 cars a year onto the roads because people will abandon the commuter rails as a result of fare increases and start taking their cars to work again. Gov. Patrick, can you give Obama a call please and explain this to him?
The MBTA's (Boston's local public transit authority) budget shortfall is $159 million. That's - let's see - less than 10 percent of what we spend on generating hatred in Afghanistan in one week. In other words, kick one single day of that military spending to Boston, and the local economy keeps booming along because the most productive and skilled are moving here instead of looking to move out, because they are not about to spend three hours behind the wheel each day, or pay exorbitant train fares for crappy service.
The answer: Combat troops out of Afghanistan now, to be replaced by reparations in the form of funding for the honest and competent Afghan National Solidarity Program, which will hire men so they won't have to work for the Taliban. This insurgency is fueled by econiomics, not political ideology. The Taliban pays $10 a day in a place where unemployment is 50% and higher outside of Kabul.
It has been determined that the US Department of Defense is likely the biggest funder of the insurgency, through payments made to insurgent groups to allow military supply convoys to travel unhindered. Therefore this war is a farce which could be ended tomorrow.
Reparations for 30 years of being a pawn of the US in what Zbigniew Brzezinski calls "the Great Game" is the best bulwark against the return of the Taliban, which is still roundly despised in Afghanistan. What is taking place now is what is endangering national security. Right here.
The author is co-founder of Jobs for Afghans.
Related: "Child Malnutrition Rises in Afghanistan as Obama Renews "Commitment" to Rebuild"
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