Afghan War Only Just Beginning, Security Group Warns
The war in Afghanistan is only just beginning as NATO forces, far from pursuing remnants of a defeated Taliban, are entering a widening and deepening conflict they may well lose, security NGO said on Saturday.
Taliban insurgents, fighting to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government and eject foreign forces, carried out more attacks over a wider area in 2007, the Afghanistan NGO Security Office (ANSO) said in its report for last year, and the best case scenario for this year, is “more of the same”.
“A few years from now, 2007 will likely be looked back upon as the year in which the Taliban seriously rejoined the fight,” said ANSO, which monitors security for the dozens of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in Afghanistan.
US-led and Afghan forces ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001 after the conservative Islamist movement refused to hand over al-Qaeda leaders behind the September 11 attacks.
But, “with the Taliban resurgent, it has become obvious that their easy departure in 2001 was more of a strategic retreat than an actual military defeat,” the report said.
“In simple terms, the consensus among informed individuals at the end of 2007 seems to be that Afghanistan is at the beginning of a war, not the end of one,” it said.
The Taliban are still most active in their traditional heartlands in the south and east of the country, but have also extended attacks to parts of the west, centre and north.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF), has some 41,000 troops in Afghanistan, but due to restrictions on how and where most European troops are deployed and taking out the necessary support troops, ISAF can not field more than 5,000 to 7,000 combat troops, ANSO estimated.
ISAF commanders have long complained of a lack of troops and the US government, despairing over the failure of European countries to send more troops to Afghanistan, this week announced it was sending 3,200 marines to the country.
Even so, the best case scenario for 2008 was “more of the same”, ANSO said with Taliban insurgents slowly expanding its influence on the countryside and aid groups being forced to retreat into the relative safety of the cities.
Western political leaders and NATO commanders say they are making progress in fighting the Taliban, heading off a spring offensive last year and building up Afghan security forces.
“We totally disagree with those who assert that the ’spring offensive’ did not happen and would instead argue that a four-fold increase in armed opposition group initiated attacks Feb to July constitutes a very clear-cut offensive,” ANSO said.
Copyright © 2008. The Sydney Morning Herald.
“If we get chased out of (Iraq, Afghanistan) with our tail between our legs, that will be the fifth consecutive Third-world country with no hint of a Navy or an Air Force to have whipped us in the past 40 years.” -The Late Hunter S. Thompson
The War in Afghanistan
Excerpt: “The commitment to invade Afghanistan was made long before 9/11.
The Bush Administration wanted to secure for American energy companies-notably the Enron and Unocal Corporations-the strategic pipeline route across Afghanistan to the Caspian Basin. But the Taliban had signed a contract in 1996 with the Bridas Corporation of Argentina, preempting the route.
Scarcely settled in Washington in early 2001, the Bush Administration immediately pressed the Taliban to rescind the Bridas contract, and undertook planning for military intervention should negotiations fail. Administration officials and the Taliban met for talks three times throughout the spring and summer, in Washington D.C., Berlin, and Islamabad-but to no avail.
At the last session, in August, 2001 the Administration threatened a “carpet of bombs” if the Taliban did not comply. The Taliban would not. Soon thereafter-still weeks before September 11-President Bush notified Pakistan and India he would attack Afghanistan “before the end of October.”
Then 9/11. Then two more refusals of Osama bin Laden’s head. Then, on October 7, the Bush Administration looses the carpet of bombs.
Since then Afghanistan has been supplied with a puppet government, the Bridas contract is history, and the country is dotted today with permanent U.S. military bases in close proximity to the pipeline route. It was a war of conquest and occupation.
Counter-terrorism is scarcely visible. Osama bin Laden remains at large, the yield of “terrorists” to date consists of several hundred iconic and badly treated wretches in Guantanamo Bay, and terrorism in the Middle East has intensified, not diminished.” — Richard Behan
Sources for this section:
1. “Players on a rigged grand chessboard: Bridas, Unocal, and the Afghanistan pipeline,” Larry Chin, Online Journal, March, 2002.
2. Crude Politics: How Bush’s Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism, Paul Sperry, WND Books, 2003.
3. Alexander’s Gas and Oil Connections, February 23, 2003.
4. “A Timeline of Oil and Violence: Afghanistan”, see the website, http://www.ringnebula.com/Oil/Timeline.htm
5. “Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat,” New York Times, September 24, 2006.
6. “From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with Oil,” Richard W. Behan, AlterNet, February 5, 2007.
THE WARS ARE ABOUT AMERICAN HEGEMONY-AND OIL
It seems that we are in about the same position as the Soviets were at the same point in their Afghan war. We have control of Kabul. We have control of some bases and other cities. When we move with our tanks and helicopters, we have control of whatever area we are passing through. We have set up a puppet government. Hmmm, how’d this turn out with the Soviets?
President Bush is preparing to send 3,200 extra Marines to Afghanistan for the 2008 election year. Prepare to hear something like “last throes” spoken in new and different phrasing.
Also, be prepared for Democrats to be saddled with tough choices on 1/20/09. (Or, if you like what we have, be prepared for Huckabee or McCain or Romney or Giuliani to somehow fix it.)
and the Main Feature…..IRAN! grab your drink and popcorn, take a seat, George just sealed the deal on his recent visit. Peace mission, more like Peice of the Pie mission. RIP Hnter Texrey
Good posts with more info than the article.
Daniel, So far I don’t recall a word about what the main Dem candidates will do about Afghanistan… You keep the faith, I’ll wait and see.
A cursory examination of the geography in the parts of Afghanistan where the Taliban are resurgent will reveal their area of operations to be in Pashtun lands. Anybody slightly familiar with Afghan history will know that the Pashtuns believe it is their right to dominate Afghanistan. The other peoples, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Kirgiz, etc. strongly disagree. Considering the US’s prior strategy of installing a pro-Western Pashtun, Karzai, has failed because of the diversion of resources to the Iraq debacle, it is time for a re-assessment. Our objective must be to make too expensive for the Pashtun tribal chiefs to tolerate the Taliban. Right now, the only people who can truly defeat the Taliban are those whom comprise the majority of its’ ranks.
Maybe someone can help me here? When was the last time that a foreign imperialist/colonialist power took over another country and successfully held it forever? OK, “forever” can’t be yet ascertained, but let’s say, held it for any significant length of time?
Cheers.
Thank you lillulu for your informative lesson. Can you possibly forsee the future for the Middle East if the Republican, Oil Sponsored, regime continues in those countries?
Great history lillulu !
Related information is available at the following url about the oil and gas “great game” centered around Afghanistan. Unfortunately taxpayers are footing the bill for this corporate welfare that is bankrupting the American government and economy while making more enemies every day. And none of these shemes are for America’s energy requirements, but for global markets and to line the pockets of Big Oil.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Central_Asia_watch/Afghanistan_CAsia_Oil.html
The proposed UNOCAL pipeline was supposed to bail out Enron with their electrical power development plans in India.
Excerpts:
“ Moreover, Enron had a $3 billion investment in the Dabhol power plant near Bombay, India, one of its largest-ever projects constituting the single biggest direct foreign investment in India’s history. Enron’s survival depended on getting a cheap source of gas and oil to save the project. This could be solved by building a branch of the proposed natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to terminate in Multan near the India border.”
But as we are discovering:
“The very nature of the system inevitably drives corporations to expand or die. This will be done at any cost, no matter the suffering it may bring to human beings or the devastation it unleashes upon the environment. Such are the characteristics of today’s imperialism, the main source of war, terrorism, and violence. Commerce in oil remains paramount in this process.
“More than ever, these imperial foreign and military policies are being carried out by top U.S. government leaders, from the president and vice president to CIA officials who have direct ties to the corporations and banks that stand to derive super-profits from them. This is particularly true of the oil, energy, banking, and military-aerospace sectors.”
And:
More detail can be found in the following article on why the Bush administration gave the Taliban $43 Million in 2001 prior to 9/11 in spite of the fact they were providing a base for Al Qaeda. We will probably never know whether or not that money was used to finance 9/11 ?
http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.php?id=183
PEACE IS PRACTICAL! END CORPORATE WAR CRIMES!
Jim,
I didn’t say the Dem candidates have any silver bullets for Afghanistan. What I said was, be prepared for the Dems to be saddled with tough choices on 1/20/09. That’s if we’re lucky. The other alternative is for a new Republican president to be then in office.
We sure do know that it’s impossible to craft a plan that would even please all the CD readers, much less all the people in the country. The Dems, if we’re lucky, will get both The White House and the lingering mess left from Bush as tough choices. I am “keeping the faith” and I know if we get a Dem president, that he/she is going to have to be the real commander of a deployed fighting force. It’s not a “pud” job, and we need to be ready for what we’ll agree with as well as what we won’t.
If I’ve thought it once, I’ve thought it a million times. The “fight” against terrorism, and in particular OBL, is best fought by police, not the military. Had there been a legitimate effort made to find OBL in Taliban territory post 9/11, a small covert squad of assassins would have been sent after OBL and quickly neutralized him, without the need for a massive military operation to also remove the Taliban. Ditto any operation against AQ. Such police actions are much more effective and cheaper than employing the military.
I have known about the Bridas connection for years and the resulting military involvement. There was never any legitimacy in the attack on Afghanistan.
WTF - “…a small covert squad of assassins would have been sent after OBL and quickly neutralized him” sounds like a job for Blsckwater. But I forgot - that would never happen what with the long standing family relations between the Bushes and the Bin Ladens. Maybe that’s the real reason OBL is still at large.
WTF and other interested persons: Just google “Bin Laden Ties”
It appears that the underlying drama is: The US is failing to hold together the NATO alliance, because its NATO allies are resistant to the US imperial agenda, once hidden, now exposed, at least in Europe. The US government wants to hide this erosion of the NATO alliance from Americans because it fears this will lead to an erosion of their confidence in it - already at a record low. What belligerent bully deserves anyone’s confidence?
Dont forget that the Afghani government had offered to give up OBL.
Initially thay had offered him up to be tried in the world court, to
see whether or not he was guilty. But that wouldnt have given GWB
the status of being a “war” president, and wouldnt have insured
Afghanistan’s oil.
And also, just suppose they accepted him to be turned
over to the World Court, and it was found that he had nothing to
do with September 11th?
And all of USA was whipped into a frenzy by
the media at that time. Most americans felt the desire to invade
someone - anyone really - I dont think they cared who. Invading the
Saudi’s would have been just as good.
And then Afghanistan just offered to hand him over. Surely that should have
been good enough. But for all the reasons stated above, that was completely
ignored. So it turns out, that they did not want OBL really. What they wanted
was to invade.
Look, I dont buy this BS about we cannot withdraw. It took weeks to get in.
And if we made a settlement with the Talaban we could be out within weeks.
But no, Our economy is in such great shape, we can afford to stay there forever.
And no, this may seen as a defeat, and it might hurt our poor wounded prides.
And of course that it worth MUCH more than half a million wounded Afghani children.
WTF,
You’re quite right (five posts above.) It was derided by some after 9/11 as unpatriotic to call 9/11 what it was, a criminal act, rather than go with the Bush crowd that treated it as an “act of war” that we could send the military out to defend. Unfortunately, the school of thought calling for a “police action” against terrorism was not in power in America then, and they’re still not.
NateW –”Our objective must be to make too expensive for the Pashtun tribal chiefs to tolerate the Taliban. ”
This is a fairly accurate observation. The problem is the Pushtun chiefs will never ‘chat’ with us or any westerners and the ranks of the Taliban is filled with Pushtun and increasing rapidly.
The neighbouring countries Iran, Tajikistan, Russia(to an extent), India, Pakistan are the only ones who can come together and help Afghanistan settle this problem. It has to be done with the sole purpose of helping the Afghans actually having control of their own destiny. Any other strategic objectives should be put aside (Musharraf are you listening !!).
To the many posters above.
OBL’s connections are well-known. What is not-so-well-appreciated is that the evidence connecting OBL with 9/11 is shadowy at best, and would not hold up in a real court of law. As I understand it, the only evidence connecting OBL with 9/11 are two poorly-made videos, showing what appears to be OBL laughing and joking with his compatriots. There is no money trail. There are no (forced or otherwise) confessions. No smoking gun. Nothing that implicates OBL responsible in any way.
So there is a good reason why the US has not found the biggest boogey-man since Satan. If you kill the legend, no-one will have anything left to fear.
How convenient that the elusive Bin Laden is hiding right where UNOCAL (now Chevron) wants to build its pipeline. We must send in the U.S. Army to secure the route, er, I mean, capture the one man responsible for 9/11!
Hint: Try the Naval Observatory.
@WTF January 19th, 2008 6:25 pm
That would explain perfectly why GWB would not accept the Afghanisan offer to have OBL tried in the World court of Law.
It took Bush a mere 7 years to turn the lone superpower into just another regional world power. By the end of his term, U.S. bases across the Third World will begin to be closed down, and the U.S. will be forced to be happy dominating the Caribbean and Central America.
Carter and Brzezinski set the trap for the Soviets in Afghanistan and created the mujahideen to fight them. Reagan extolled them as “the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers.” Now the same fanatics are doing the same thing–resisting an occupying superpower–that they did in the 1980s so effectively. We’re taking on the monster we created.
The more misery we inflict on this hapless, backward and already devastated country, the more radicalism we will spawn. The same applies in its far more populous, nuclear-armed neighbor, Pakistan.
The best thing for us to do is to back off, direct some aid through neutral NGOs or allies for education, health and infrastructure, and let them find their own way. As the country develops their interests will turn toward more secular concerns and the appeal of radical Islam will fade. As it is now, it seems to them to offer the only hope.
The previous relationship between the U.S. and the European NATO countries is fractured and not about to be repaired, though that is not as publicly visible as it is known amongst the hierarchies. The U.S. has always been about manufacturing feuds where divisions would weaken friend and foe alike, but this time they are continually causing trouble in the regions where the other NATO countries are going to have to live, if they are to have a future. Most of the European NATO members are tiny countries, geographically, and would be extremely vulnerable to attack in the modern age of missiles. All of the analysts for those NATO nations know now that the U.S. has overextended itself and is in decline and they will not long kowtow to the whims of a loser who will only bring them down with them as the U.S. system crashes, or, if they do hang on to the bitter end, then History will not miss them either.
WTF - Another interesting point about the OBL situation is that the FBI doesn’t seem to like OBL for the 9/11 job. The last time I checked out their most wanted list, and it has been quite some time, OBL was wanted for the embassy bombings, not 9/11. You would think that with all the finger-pointing at OBL for 9/11, that he would be wanted for that.
Afghanistan was never Canada’s war
American Defence Secretary Robert Gates may well be right when he says that Canadian and European troops in Afghanistan are not well equipped to fight a counter-insurgency campaign. But what has been lost in the controversy over his impolitic remarks is that we did not sign on to fight insurgents – there or anywhere else.
The International Stabilization and Assistance Force, which NATO now commands and which includes some 2,500 Canadian soldiers, was set up in late 2001 by the United Nations to do just what its name suggests – stabilize a country emerging from years of civil war and assist the fledgling Kabul government in its redevelopment efforts.
Fighting the Taliban (or, as they were called then, the Taliban “remnants”) was a job that Washington insisted on reserving to itself through what it called Operation Enduring Freedom.
[snipped]
That’s why Gates’ comments rub so raw in this and other NATO countries. Since 2001, one Canadian diplomat and 77 soldiers have died in Afghanistan. More than 250 more have been wounded in action. Yet this was never our war. It was always America’s.
The U.S. chose to declare Afghanistan the enemy after the terrorist attacks of September 2001. Had Washington elected to avenge 9/11 by invading the country from which most of those terrorists came, Canadian troops would now be fighting in Saudi Arabia.
Their call, their war, their show.
Now, Washington has shifted its focus again. On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced it will send an additional 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan – bringing the total number of U.S. troops there to more than 30,000.
It is in this context that Gates made his remarks. In effect, the American public is being told that its soldiers have to fix Afghanistan because the pusillanimous Europeans and invisible Canadians aren’t up to the job. Or, as the Washington Post noted editorially: “It’s becoming clear that the war must be won by U.S. troops, and not by NATO.”
Which, in the broader scheme of things, is just fine. Let America, freshly confident after its counterinsurgency successes in Iraq and Vietnam, finish its own war itself. Then Canadian troops can come back to Canada. And the North Atlantic Treaty Organization can refocus on the North Atlantic.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/295277
Look at the wars against colonial or occupation powers since World War II
United States
- Vietnam
- Afghanistan
- Iraq
USSR/Russia
- Afghanistan
- Chechnia
France
- Indo China
- Algeris
United Kingdom
- Malaya
- Kenya
- Iraq
Portugal
- Angola
- Mozambique
Netherlands
- Indonesia
Ethiopia
- Eritrea
Pakistan
- Bangladesh
The only time that a colonial power won was in Malaya. THat’s because the Malays supported the UK. The Chinese minority formed the insurgents.
Look at the wars against colonial or occupation powers since World War II
United States
-Vietnam
-Afghanistan
-Iraq
USSR/Russia
-Afghanistan
-Chechnia
France
-Indo China
-Algeris
United Kingdom
-Malaya
-Kenya
-Iraq
Portugal
-Angola
-Mozambique
Netherlands
-Indonesia
Ethiopia
-Eritrea
Pakistan
-Bangladesh
The word processor left out my indentations.
The only time that a colonial power won was in Malaya. THat’s because the Malays supported the UK. The Chinese minority formed the insurgents.
Afghanistan is another complete waste of time and money. Just one more of the example’s of the Bush Administrations growing number of fiasco’s. He would have been wiser to let the CIA and FBI handle the 9/11 attacks. He might have actually gotten the perpetrator’s and jailed them. And looked more like a leader in the end than he does now. But,I realize he couldn’t make as big of a splash using as his brains (not that he has one) than he could his ‘kick ass’ tough guy brawn. I knew this was going to be the end result when he did it. What ever made him or anyone else in this useless administration think we were any better than the Russian’s????? They tried it for close to 10 years and would up in the same kind of mess. We now have two looming disasters on our hands and a President who is still playing war with his toys! How did we ever get into such a mess????????
It is obvious to me that the US has become as odious as the Third Reich. I suspect that the burden of human suffering is about the same, barring the huge numbers of casualties from WWII. However, if you add the misery, death and destruction that is going to occur due to global warming in this century, and in the resource wars to follow, I’d say we’re easily going to pass them in responsibility for the sheer weight of death, disease, poverty and starvation we’ve already caused and will continue to cause. Unless the teeth are pulled from these beltway murderers and sociopaths (in both parties) we’re looking more centralized authority, more militarism, more attempts to achieve complete dominance.
Think about that word, dominance .. that is the official security policy of the US. Full-spectrum dominance. I for one don’t want the boot heel on my neck, or on the neck of others on my behalf.
Historians and others have wondered - in Germany in WWII - how could civil society function in a country that was so obviously guilty and evil? How could the average citizen live with this and not rise up instantly? How? Well, I suppose it happened just like it is happening here - the media, congress, the administration, “officialdom”, is pretending that the great and generous US in its kindly way is attempting to help the poor Iraqi people achieve “democracy and freedom”. That crock of sh*t is foisted as the explanation for invasion, brutal occupation, theft of natural resources. Violations of the Geneva Conventions are rife and plentiful. And we have NPR running perky news pieces about a prison camp in Iraq holding 20,000 men. But, they are well-treated! They have medical care, educational opportunities, and actually have a military hearing every 6 months to see if they are ’still guilty’.
In other words, “Work Makes Free”, or “Arbeit macht frei”, the sign posted above entrances to Nazi camps to reassure the inmates. http://www.rudyfoto.com/hol/sac-arbeit.html
We need to vigourously resist this totalitarianism or suffer the consequences.
WTF, I agree; the war on terror should be fought with police action and not with a huge military venture — since NO country attacked the U.S. on 9/11. However, if it were done correctly with police action, the greedy war-profiteering imperialists would not be able to station the military in oil-rich countries in order to guard their interests; in Afghanistan’s case, to guard the oil pipeline. There was no need to drop tons of bombs, weapons of mass destruction, on either Afghanistan or Iraq and kill so many innocent people.
The WOT is not.
There never has been a real war on terror . 9/11 was just a cloak to push forward the “Bush Agenda”. I’m sorry to say I never saw the frat boy coming!
EZEFLYER — Yes “The WOT is not, as:
The American people are at war against themselves