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A War of Absurdity
Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd. That was my reaction to the recent statement of the president’s national security adviser, former Marine Gen. James Jones, concerning the size of the terrorist threat from Afghanistan:
“The al-Qaida presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.”
Less than 100! And he is basing his conservative estimate on the best intelligence data available to our government. That means that al-Qaida, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan—so why are we having a big debate about sending even more troops to fight an enemy that has relocated elsewhere? Because of the blind belief, in the minds of those like John McCain, determined to “win” in Afghanistan, that if we don’t escalate, al-Qaida will inevitably come back.
Why? It’s not like al-Qaida is an evil weed indigenous to Afghanistan and dependent on its climate and soil for survival. Its members were foreign imports in the first place, recruited by our CIA to fight the Soviets because there were evidently not enough locals to do the job. After all, U.S. officials first forged the alliance between the foreign fighters and the Afghan mujahedeen, who morphed into the Taliban, and we should not be surprised that that tenuous alliance ended. The Taliban and other insurgents are preoccupied with the future of Afghanistan, while the Arab fighters couldn’t care less and have moved on to more hospitable climes.
There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaida back. On the contrary, all the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it is their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise.
As such, while one wishes that the Afghan people would put their houses in order, these are not, even after eight long years of occupation, our houses. Sure, there are all sorts of angry people in Afghanistan, eager to pick fights with each other and most of all any foreigners who seem to be threatening their way of life, but why should that any longer have anything to do with us?
Even in neighboring Pakistan, the remnants of al-Qaida are barely hanging on. As The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, “Hunted by U.S. drones, beset by money problems and finding it tougher to lure young Arabs to the bleak mountains of Pakistan, al Qaeda is seeing its role shrink there and in Afghanistan, according to intelligence reports and Pakistan and U.S. officials. … For Arab youths who are al Qaeda’s primary recruits, ‘it’s not romantic to be cold and hungry and hiding,’ said a senior U.S. official in South Asia.”
It’s time to declare victory and begin to get out rather than descend deeper into an intractable civil war that we neither comprehend nor in the end will care much about. Terrorists of various stripes will still exist as they have throughout history, but the ones we are most concerned about have proved mighty capable of relocating to less hostile environments, including sunny San Diego and southern Florida, where the 9/11 hijackers had no trouble fitting in.
There is a continued need for effective international police work to thwart the efforts of a widely dispersed al-Qaida network, but putting resources into that effort does not satisfy the need of the military establishment for a conventional field of battle. That is the significance of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s leaked report calling for a massive counterinsurgency campaign to make everything right about life in Afghanistan, down to the governance of the most forlorn village. The general’s report aims not at eliminating al-Qaida, which he concedes is barely existent in the country, but rather at creating an Afghan society that is more to his own liking.
It is a prescription, as the Russians and others before them learned, for war without end. That might satisfy the marketing needs of the defense industry and the career hopes of select military and political aspirants, but it has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. In the end, it would seem that some of our leaders need the Afghanistan battleground more than the terrorists do.
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85 Comments so far
Show AllAl-Qaida has done what it's CIA designers planned it to do:
Draw the US into a continual low level brushfire conflict that requires the expenditure of billions of dollars worth of men and materiel in an overseas setting in an effort to hunt down that which does not really exist, all to prop up a massively unnecessary and bloated military, expend outdated ammunition inventories, the destruction of large armored vehicles and the requisite R&D to build near-autonomous UAVs and 'non-lethal' crowd control weapons that have immediate use in a domestic setting.
The plan to manipulate the public mood into one of frantic and fanatical patriotism that would distract them and make them more susceptible to accepting an increasingly Fascist government at home while the ruling oligarchy looted what was left of the national economy which was based on a single resource that had been revealed to be running out.
Once you wrap your head around that, all the events of the last ten years become very easy to understand.
What a cogent, accurate summary. Bravo!!
odoco
You've stated the case exactly. Thank you.
Well said, Galenwainwright!
Robert Scheer, you are a fossil-fuel propaganda troll. Your article purports to delve into the war in Afghanistan, yet you do not mention "pipeline routes" or "natural gas" anywhere.
http://freepublictransit.org
Dude! Scheer doesn't mention the oil angle and he's necessarily a "fossil-fuel propaganda troll"? WTF!? If he were to write about the role of oil in all of this, the article wouldn't be concise, succinct, and focused on a single argument.
Hurling baseless accusations at the one of the few journalists actually practicing journalism (as opposed to the parrots in the MSM) doesn't help anything.
I suggest you find more constructive ways of focusing your energy.
Exactly galen. Also the deliberate mixing up of the local zealots of the Taliban with al qaeda increases a sense of imbalance. A mess of myth and misinformation.
Joe
Galenwainwright:
Right on target! Excellent post!
Gen.Stanley McCrystal: Leading lobbyist for the Military Industrial Complex (Hello, Ike!).
Sioux Rose
GALENW: Thank you for your clear, crisp view from outside the US "prison" walls. I, too, see all that you see, and thank you for stating this fine analysis with wisdom and succinctness. It seems at times too dark to take in, and yet the facts speak ominously for themselves.
Even though what you post is common knowledge to all, except the brain washed and brain dead, it is still nice to read an intelligently written post.
“That might satisfy the marketing needs of the defense industry.” “It is the economy stupid.” Who needs a couple hundred thousand soldiers joining the ranks of the unemployed? Who needs the job layoffs if we stop shoving missiles down peasant’s throats? The defense stimulus is working better than the Obama stimulus. It is no longer about winning wars it is about surviving in the US. How absurd is that?
Including the lipstick-up artist at the Casa Blanca buck stop, bully pulpitting as the Buffalo Soldier-in-chief! Neocolonial MANIFEST INSANITY, indeed!!
this endless dreary spinning of the war for gas and oil really displays how deluded and complicit the media is in the us or as it should be called psyopville
these "journalists" don't do much in the way of research - they react to other spinning writers who are spinning the writing of other spinners etc and so on
its like the gossip at the tuesday night bingo
eric margolis - who actually spent quite some time with osama bin laden running around the mountains of afghanistan has always maintained the al queda really doesn't even exist and that bin laden never had more than 100-200 "fighters" at any time
for sure the afghanis who are freedom fighting the us out of their country do not think of themselves as al queda - or taliban for that matter
taliban was created by the cia
the rest is just bullshit
there's a lot of that going around
so at the end of the day we see the drug addicted, child raping, roid raged christian army of the imperial united states - along with their depleted urnanium weapons and drones who are best at wiping out wedding parties - cannot handle 100 - 200 irregulars whose most sophisticated weapon is the pick up truck they drive around in
leading them all ove the cliff is the nwo shill obama - fake lefty and i am starting to think (with bush only 8 months gone) the worst president we ever had
the belly flop king - obama has been a mess fom day one
a liar, a hyppocrite and a buffoon who's only talent lies in reading teleprompters
he stabbed us in the back on this foolish war, he slit our throats on the health care issue and he shoved the health care mess up our behinds all with that same goofy smile that is also quickly starting to irritate the shit out of me
he was so upset over the bum's rush he got at the olympic playoff this week in copenhagen he had to invite himself to the whitehouse for a beer
"he was so upset over the bum's rush he got at the olympic playoff this week in copenhagen he had to invite himself to the whitehouse for a beer"
It'll be interesting to see if the President can see fit to make his way back to Copenhagen for the upcoming climate conference. Let's see what's a higher priority, a two week sporting event/party for rich folks or the survival of human life on earth.
no he won't go - its got nothing to do with the nwo so kissinger won't let him go
sounds like another invite for another beer
lebeau-
"...the drug addicted, child raping, roid raged christian army of the imperial united states..."
This line made me shudder to think what it'll look like when these guys are told to go home, the war is over. Maybe we are "fighting them over there so we won't have to fight them over here" --- except the 'them' is 'we' (in the form of Xe)!
Monsters, indeed! (Mary Shelley, you were a genius.)
old: the reality is the war will never end for those boys we sent into that country
when ken burns did his myopic on ww2 - 60 years after the fact - the war was still real to all those boys - old men at that time their lives burdened by what they did and what they saw
war is a racket for the rich to make money - end of story
it is a life view for psychopaths - now run by chickenhawks like bush and cheney and obama - fools and clowns who never had the guts to serve themselves but don't mind our sons and daughters to die for oil and the profit margin
we need to bring the troops home, stand them down and quit pissing on about security
Yep, you've distilled it down to the naked truth Old Peculiar,
Just like Vietnam, we are fighting ourselves to keep Big Oil and "Big D" in business. According to Jon Krakauer's Bestselling new book about the murder of NFL Pat Tillman, "Where Men Win Glory", Forty percent of all Iraq deployed US force casualties are "friendly fire". Forty Percent! (26 percent in Afghanistan, he says.)
If you say that out-loud, however, you become one of these casualties, just ask the Tillman family. Your unit gets ordered to spilt up and then meet up later in the dark with guns blazing.
Why are we paying for this mess? Let's just park all our cars and quit at the same time. Now we don't need oil do we?
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
thomasjefferson says:
Let's just park all our cars and quit at the same time.
Yes! On Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...precisely! All together, now...
agrarian, acoustic life...
What Galenwainwright said. Couldn't be stated more clearly.
The BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares" revealed several years ago that "Al Qaida" was always a convenient fiction. It has never really existed.
It's imaginary. That's what makes it so powerful.
"the belly flop king"
LOL
Good righteous article by Scheer.
But that is besides the point.
I see the generals making the TV rounds again and the pitch targeting minority and poor kids to sign up is on the rise.
Like all else--what do we have to do with it? It seems that besides providing cannon fodder and footing the bill, we are of no consequence.
Good article , but one important correction.
When the USA invaded there was no Civil War. The Taliban had won.
This USA destruction of the Pax Talibania, after decades of warfare in Afghanistan, compounds the evilness of the USA invasion and occupation.
The Law and Order imposed by the Taliban after they subdued their opponents was the greatest asset of the Taliban.
Yes the law and order did have negative fundamentalist aspects but this paled in comparison to the wholesale rape and murder of the lawless, backed now by the USA,Northern Alliance.
At this point diplomacy and bribery was the wisest means to create an Afghanistan with greater civil rights, not reconstituting Civil War as the USA is doing now.
The USA is training and arming the Tajiks ( major portion of Northern Alliance) to subdue the long governing Pastuns.
The Afghan army training program is to create a USA puppet Tajik force strong enough to subdue the Pashtuns or possibly just strong enough to ensure eternal Civil War.
So there is basically no Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan, a fact many of us nobodies have known for months. The generals are finally admitting it, but if you read the other story here today, Obama isn't reducing our troop levels there and is uncertain how to proceed, whether to send more and how many, to answer McChrystal's requests.
So we're essentially staying in AfPak, killing randomly with drones and whatever, because it's just what we do. We can't simply STOP doing what we do best! Prattle about terrorism to the media, make threatening remarks in speeches backed up with vacuous reassurances of protecting Americans, and be sure to glorify the troops ceaselessly, no matter how they behave, how many civilians they slaughter, just keep saying they're heroic, and you'll get all the funding you want, to keep the perpetual war machine humming along like a locked and loaded Hummer roaring down a busy Arab street.
We can't stop THAT. It's all we have to offer the world. It's the American brand, for Chrissake! Just contrive new excuses every month or so for staying there forfuckingever. Corporate media will regurgitate every word, most Americans will pay two seconds worth of attention and agree that the Mission is imperative, and John McCain will still be thought of as a war hero.
This article gets halfway to the correct path to peace. It is admitted that our absurd war is against al-Qaeda (and the Taliban), rather than being some 'war in Afghanistan'.
But...
Don't forget to notice that troops will be left in Iraq to prevent future terrorism by 'al-Qaeda in Iraq' (evidently an 'al-Qaeda affiliate').
Once again, Progressives are thinking regionally and not globally.
The author suggests that we end our war against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, while ignoring military efforts against al-Qaeda in Iraq. So, we're going to ask the military to stop fighting half a war?
It's all one big and DAFT global war, folks. We have to end it everywhere.
To do that, the insanity of Public Law 107-40 (2001 AUMF) must be brought into the light of day.
Unbelievable! These so called journalists need a career change! To continue to advocate that 9/11 was the action of some Arab cave dwellers is beyond pure absurdity and is well settled into the mental region of delusion and insanity! Most Americans are so deluded about their government and their culture, mindless products and victims of mass media propaganda, mind control and psychological warfare. Future generations will shudder in awe and disbelief at the spectacle of sheer ignorance, stupidity and gullibility that has characterized 20th century America.
The only way 'we're' going to bring 'our' soldiers home is by assuring the death profiteers of continued obscene profits.
So let's launch a 'Cash for Cache' program - in this case, weapons cache. The taxpayers will subsidize whatever profits are lost as a result of 'peace,' (first, via repair, replacement, and re-supply, then we'll just keep buying their toys and storing them in the desert,) in exchange for pulling out of every country where we should be sticking our nose in the first place.
IOW, in the same way 'we' pay farmers not to grow crops on their land, 'we'll' pay death profiteers to stop starting fake wars and killing millions of innocents.
Sioux Rose
FRANK: I have to hand it to you, you're a truly original thinker! I like the idea, and I'd say send it to Kucinich. The second part should include a recycle program whereby the big defense contractors get to buy back their own munitions at 90% their original cost. Hey, they can market them to up and coming third world nations. On a planet as heavily armed as this one, there's already way more than enough to go around.
Unrelated to your post, Scheer really seems to buy the official PR, all that rah rah rah about who's going to win, what strategy is required, that it's about bringing democracy abroad, or working to get rid of "our enemies" over yonder, etc. I wonder if he buys all that nonsense, or if by pretending it, he ensures his own job as a newspaper columnist?
Just like corrupt businesses have ONE set of books that they send to the IRS and their accountant, and a second set that tells the truer, fuller story; the stated reasons that US troops are in Afghanistan depart substantially from the ACTUAL ones. Does he get that distinction at all? Because by playing into intellectual games based on strategems, he essentially lends cover to the stated artificial basis for the conflict. Most of us in the forum GET that it's about securing the gas/oil access & pipelines, and using that dominance to offset the rising power of Russia and China and their industrial bases.
Good idea frank 1569! We could also give them rewards for converting their plants to peacetime uses and keeping their workers employed.
I know we are dreaming - but we have to.
Joe
All war is absurd.
Ok, simplistic in a verbal sense, but until we come to this conclusion in our hearts, the mind will always find a way to rationalize one 'last' reason to justify slaughter.
"Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd."
One such statistic is that the US spends more on military weaponry than the rest of the world combined. After absorbing this disturbing statistic, one should not be surprised on learning of any aggressive, and absurd, foreign policy positions of the US.
A War of Absurdity? It took a statistic for you to see that? Come on Scheer.
The very idea of attacking al-Qaida as if it were a country is absurd. The idea that Afganistan paid for, or was involved in 9/11 is absurd. Same for Iraq.
Its been proved well enough that the best way to handle al-Qaida is using standard police methods and cooperation between police of various countries. The use of intelligence agancies and covert operations.
If you were going to attack a country for 9/11 it would have been Saudi Arabia, a country that finances terroism and whose nationals were involved. But the idea of attacking anyone without REAL proof is the absurdity here.
We will soon know about this President. He has to escalate or withdraw, there is no third choice, no fence straddling option here.
Lets hope he does the honest thing and withdraws.
"He has to escalate or withdraw, there is no third choice, no fence straddling option here.
Lets hope he does the honest thing and withdraws."
It's the same choice JFK had in Vietnam. We all know the decision there. It is highly unlikely (probably a 0% chance) that Obama will withdraw from Afghanistan. Look at the track record. The "honest thing" regarding health care would be to vigorously push for single payer. The "honest thing" regarding banks would have been to say no to the trillions in bailout money. The "honest thing" regarding gay rights would be to strongly back gay marriage rights. The "honest thing" would be a repudiation of the Patriot Act. The "honest thing" would be revision of FISA to end warrantless wiretaps. The "honest thing" would be an end to the (LMFAO) "War on Drugs". The "honest thing" would be massive cuts to the military budget and the closing of foreign bases. In all these instances I don't foresee Obama doing the "honest thing".
Unfortunately, I agree with you. I don't believe he has the guts to do it. It takes a leader to lead and I have seen no demonstrable trace of leadership so far.
As to your "honest" comments, on the money, except for Gay marriage and off on that only because it is a State consideration that is not in his purview, though he could stand up for it and advocate it, so on second thought, you are 100% correct.
As a matter of fact I believe its time to start asking exactly what we aere doing with bases in Germany, Italy, etc at this point. My guess is we need about 10 for our own interests.
(it wasn't JFK though that escalated Viet Nam, it was Johnston) Eisenhower and Kennedy just got us started.
All true - and bad as Obama is, I don't think he even has the option of withdrawing. The military runs this country's foreign policy. They'll soon run our domestic policy too, in tandem with the banks.
Yes, it seems that General Petraeus is running the whole show in the US these days and that McChristal, Mullen, etc. are his ministers of state warfare in the AfPak region. Perhaps a new title something like General President or President in General will soon be introduced, as was the title Caesar was in Rome.
There are those who think JFK was ready to pull out of Vietnam. That's why his little trip to Texas was unfortunate. Talk about going into enemy hands! Obama is more of a survivor. He's also a member in good standing of the ruling elite. I suppose that means we have made progress. A wealthy black man can get away with murder in the United States (O.J. Simpson) and now a well heeled black man can be president.
Exactly right about Saudi Arabia. And it shows what our real rulers think of themselves: princes who can hop nob with 'Arabian Royalty'. If the United States government is what it maintains it is, we would have been separated from the Arab fascists years ago.
Thanks! We are in total agreement here.
henry8 - as we say here in Brooklyn, Om down wichyu on this one.
Joe
To paraphrase Monty Python:
"Let us bow our heads and pray for the brave souls who gave their lives to keep Afganistan Amercian"
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Actually, the invasion of Afganistan was planned and ready to go before 9/11...it was originally intended as a means to force through the Unocal gas pipeline meant to bypass the Russians.
That Karzi is a former head of Unocal is no surprise.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
"That Karzi is a former head of Unocal is no surprise."
Its a surprise to me because I didn't know that....thanks!
mujeriego,
Can you please provide reference to the assertion that Karzi is a former head of Unocal?
Unlike Henry8, I don't just take strangers' unsupported assertions as gospel because they're consistent with my preconceptions, or what I want to hear. I scoured the interweb, and the only reference to this I can find is a (unreferenced) Dec. '01 article in Le Monde that states:
"Après Kaboul et l'Inde ou il a étudié le droit, il a parfait sa formation aux Etats-Unis ou il fut un moment consultant de l'enterprise pétrolière américaine Unocal, quand celle-ci étudiant la construction d'un oléduc en Afghanistan."
Translated: "After Kabul and India where he had studied law, he completed his training in the United States where he was briefly (literally: "for a moment") a consultant for the American petroleum business Unocal, when it was studying the construction of a pipeline in Afghanistan."
As weak as this evidence is, it says nothing of him being the Head of Unocal. If he were the Head of such an organization, it would be well documented.
"That means that al-Qaida, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan—so why are we having a big debate about sending even more troops to fight an enemy that has relocated elsewhere?"
Ever heard of war profiteering? That's why. Illegal and inhuman wars are what moves the US and it has for at least 100 years. Next question.
Osama bin Laden laughs and laughs and laughs.
He probably killed himself because it's all just too easy.
Since his brother Salem Bin Laden was GWB's financial partner in GWB's Abusto Oil (later Harkin Energy) and his family run business the "Bin Laden Brothers Contracting for Industry" (Now Bin Ladin Group) had hundreds of transactions with Poppy Bush's Carlyle Group and was given the World Bank contract to rebuild Lebanon after GWB let Israel knock it down, I'm sure he's laughing his ass off poolside at the Bush Crime Family Compound.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
What does it say about America's national priorities when fully 57% of the USA budget is committed to systems of VIOLENCE, AGGRESSION, and MILITARY MIGHT?
www.afsc.org
Our wars have nothing to do with terrorism and more to do with profit for our ruling oligarchs. That's the basic fallacy in our 'foreign policy'. Look closely at those who terrorize. Oh my God, terrorists are us!
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Pogo
Outside of us being in Afghanistan as an energy pipeline protection force, I do see the purpose of our being there. 8 years ago it was to find Osama bin laden, still no luck, and he is probably in Pakistan and the guys who rammed the planes into the WTC trained in Dresden ,Germany as well as the USA. Then there is the argument that we got to get them there or else they'll come here and create havoc. But people can prepare to attack the US from anywhere in the world-- Af/Pak, Dresden, New York or ???.
What was needed in Afghanistan was police/spy work; not invasion. Our military overthrew the Taliban-- the mainly Pushtuns and the largest minority (43%)in the country and put the smaller minority Tajiks in power. Guess what? The uproar continues .
Solution-get out now as our being there only causes more friction and let the Pushtons and the Tajiks work it out.
Unless, of course, we're there as a energy pipeline protection force.