From 1980 through the end of 1993, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan took the lead in creating a radical Islamist opposition to the Soviet invasion and occupation of Pakistan. This opposition was funded by U.S.- Saudi dollars and driven, to a degree, by Saudi preferences for the most extreme Muslim groups in the country. Fighters were also recruited by bin Laden, among others, to leave their homes in Arab states to volunteer for Afghanistan.
The decades of suffering mentioned by President Obama hangs there without a vital reference. U.S. policy helped create the chaos of the nation that we now occupy.
After Soviet forces left Afghanistan, there was a clear drop off in attention to the nation with little funding to aid rebuilding as the president correctly noted. Known as the Afghan Arabs, these wandering fighters appeared in various hot spots, including Kosovo, where they fought openly for the Muslim Albanian population but used the chaos, as they had elsewhere, to create a route for Afghan heroin.
Yet President Obama said, "What we have fought for -- and what we continue to fight for -- is a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if other peoples' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and access opportunity."
What freedom and access to opportunity did the Afghanistan civil war and its aftermath provide "other peoples' children" in view of the devastation of the U.S. supported civil war?
And what "freedom and access to opportunity" have "our children" and "other people's" children had with the ongoing opium trade centered in Afghanistan. According to the New York Times, this accounts for 90% of the world's total right now.
From 2001 forward, political realities have taken precedence over heroin eradication. In 2005, the governor of Helmand province, a close political ally of current president Hamid Karzai, was found with nine tons of heroin in his possession. He was removed as a regional governor only to reemerge as a member of the Afghan Senate. But now poppy eradication and an end to the heroin trade is a major priority and a justification for the troop surge.
President Obama's eradiation of past history concerning the U.S. role in creating the original radical jihadists and the de facto tolerance of the heroin trade was matched by his failure to failure to address recent history.
The U.S. selected founding president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, was widely accused of election fraud in both rounds of the recent presidential election. Peter W. Galbraith was the United Nation's Secretary General's special representative in Afghanistan. When his efforts to monitor the election uncovered hundreds of incidents of election fraud, he reported that Karzai's "majority" victory was due to fraudulent votes.
The situation was so intense, U.S. Ambassador and former commander of forces in Afghanistan, General Karl M. Eikenberry, weighed in on the fraudulent election and went so far as to be seen with opposition candidates who claimed that the election would be stolen.
Karzai was forced into a runoff but opposing candidates
refused to participate noting that the same elements for fraud
remained. Karzai is now the president. He was mentioned last night by
President Obama as a key player in the success of our "civilian
efforts."
On November 11, the contents of a cable from Ambassador Eikenberry on the situation in Afghanistan were leaked to the press. The general made a strong statement on the futility of sending further troops to that country riddled with the corruption in general and, by implication, an illegitimate recent presidential election in particular. The White House placed a hold on any commitment for more troops pending further study.
This was President Obama's opportunity to step back and asses the value of investing in further troop commitments for a nation ruled by an election thief. He failed at the task. His response last night was a carefully constructed, self serving, and selective history of our involvement in Afghanistan with a fairy tale explanation of why we fight -- for "our children and grandchildren" and "other peoples" as well.
No wonder he put the glowing words about rallying the spirit of 9/11 at the end of his speech. They were made no more meaningful by what was said before. Perhaps enough people had stopped paying attention to reduce pathos of the statement in the context of the rationale presented.
NOTES BELOW
N.B. As an alternative to the president's narrative on U.S. initiatives in Afghanistan see, Negotiating an Afghan Agreement by Brian Downing
See also, How We Got to Zero: General Eikenberry's Hail Mary Nov 13 & The Big "Con": Taliban About to Defeat Pakistan, Take Control of Nukes, and It's Another 9/11 May 9, 2009
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