The latest incident in Afghanistan has broken the
back of American strategy in this forlorn nation, while leading American
politicians, including President Obama, lamely assert nothing has changed. They
stubbornly continue to adhere to their ludicrous goals for this country,
assuming that if they say it often enough the foolish American people will start to
believe it.
Unfortunately for our politicians, the "foolish"
American people are not exactly fools, and they are not buying it. They have
heard this spurious litany for years while following events on the ground that
says something entirely different. The American people are now asking our
leaders to lead instead of issuing a cacophony of empty phrases that stretch
credulity to the breaking point.
Our soldiers in Afghanistan are asking, "Do we get
to win this time?" Only there is no winning in this mountainous region
dominated by the Taliban who know the terrain well and approach, strike, and
disappear like ghosts. Soldiers are tasked with eliminating the enemy. Who is
the enemy in Afghanistan? The Taliban or the entire Afghan civilization? It
hardly matters. Our soldiers are not tasked with defeating an enemy. They are
tasked with winning the hearts and minds of Afghanis and train Afghan security
forces to kill and imprison Afghanis who misbehave.
Put a different way our
troops have been given an impossible mission. It can be argued there isn't even
a military mission or objective. All they have are vague statements by
politicians as to what the hell they are supposed to accomplish.
Against this backdrop a
married 38-year old American soldier with two children committed an atrocity.
Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bates lost his mind, or what was left of it after
multiple tours in Iraq, solemnly walked off his base in Kandahar and entered a
village, attacked three homes, and killed 16 civilians, most of them women and
children. He then set some of the bodies on fire. Bates returned to his base
and gave himself up to military authorities. The army has acknowledged that he
suffered a "traumatic brain injury" in a vehicle accident in Iraq. He also lost
part of his foot in Iraq. According to his lawyer, Sergeant Bates was not
enthralled with being redeployed to Afghanistan. The Pentagon is saying he may
get the death penalty.
Soon after the Sunday
massacre the Taliban broke off talks with Americans, talks that were crucial to
a U.S. strategy of a gradual withdrawal, which would be completed by the end of
2014. The Taliban are not stupid. They can see the handwriting on the wall as
well as Americans who ignore all the meaningless rhetoric. So, why should the
Taliban talk to Americans?
At the beginning of this
article it was suggested that this was "the last straw," that this incident
broke the back of American foreign policy in Afghanistan. I am the last person
on this planet who would suggest American foreign be altered by the actions of
one man. That said, serious questions must be asked concerning what we are
asking of our soldiers in Afghanistan. Are they being asked to defeat the
enemy, a mission they are given from the very first days of boot camp? No, they
are being asked to become diplomats and train Afghanis to do what they clearly
do not want to do. Are they asked to win a war, end it, and come home? No, they
are asked to perform some ethereal objectives by civilian leaders who never
spent a day in the military. In addition they are abandoned by their generals,
including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who buy into the poor civilian leadership
for fear of losing their jobs. I strongly endorse civilian leadership of our
military, but that puts the onus on our Commander-in-Chief to lead, not give
our troops political epitaphs and muddy, meaningless missions.
The tragedy on that
Sunday was preceded by other odious events. On the Friday before the sergeant's
rampage four Afghans were killed and three wounded when NATO helicopters
hunting Taliban insurgents fired instead on villagers in Kapisa province in
eastern Afghanistan. Last month the burning of Korans in a garbage pit near an
American base touched off nationwide rioting that killed over 30, including six
Americans. That includes an incident in which an assassin calmly walked into
the nation's Interior Ministry headquarters and killed two high-ranking
American military officers. The assassin got away, no shock there.
In January American officials had to contend with a
video that went viral showing four Marines urinating on the corpses of three
Taliban members. In 2010 a rogue group of American soldiers entered a village
and killed three Afghan civilians for sport. The ringleader was convicted of
three counts of murder in November. This is in addition to the numerous
nighttime raids and drone attacks that infuriate the Afghan populace as well as
the Afghan government.
In the meantime Afghan security forces continue to
kill their NATO trainers. It is no secret except to our civilian leaders and
generals that these forces have been heavily infiltrated by the Taliban and
Afghanis sympathetic to the Taliban. What is the reaction of our civilian
leadership to this? The target size of Afghan security forces upon our
withdrawal is 350,000. That is more than surreal under the circumstances, which
includes Afghanistan's pathetic GDP of $17.24B. It is an Alice in Wonderland
approach to foreign policy.
In other words the tragedy of this American
sergeant's actions does not stand alone and must be viewed in the context of
events that preceded it and the shaping of American foreign policy as it
relates to Afghanistan.
So what has been the reaction of our civilian and
military leaders to the Sunday massacre? Well, Obama has this to say. "It's
important for us to make sure that we get out in a responsible way, so that we
don't end up having to go back in." What a dreadful thought, and one meant to
inspire fear rather than inspiration.
Perhaps, Gen. John R. Allen can do better. After
all he is the commander of allied forces in Afghanistan. Well, he states, "The
campaign is sound. It is solid. It does not contemplate, at this time, any form
of an accelerated drawdown." A pep talk, that is what our troops need, a pep
talk in lieu of realistic objectives. They are being told to persevere although
no reasons are given for perseverance " to them or the American public that is
paying for this fiasco.
Our political leaders, including Obama, are also
saying that a precipitate withdrawal would endanger what we have accomplished
in Afghanistan. You know, they keep saying that over and over again, but they
don't bother telling us exactly what we have accomplished in Afghanistan.
Americans are dying to know (pardon the pun).
We now come to the crux of the matter and this
writer is somewhat confused. It seems that everything I have ever known about
war and military strategy has gone out the window when it comes to Afghanistan
" Iraq, too, but that is another story. From a strategic point of view nothing
seems to make much sense any more as I listen to our political and military
leaders.
Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt reported in the N.Y.
Times, "The Obama administration is discussing whether to reduce American
forces in Afghanistan by at least an additional 20,000 troops by 2013,
reflecting a growing belief within the White House that the mission there has
now reached the point of diminishing returns." Additionally, they reported that
the U.S. currently has 90,000 troops in Afghanistan and that 22,000 of them are
slated to come home in September. That is 42,000 troops.
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