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Bin Laden used Reagan’s USSR strategy to Destroy US Capitalism?

“All we have to do is send two mujahedeen [warriors] to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth saying ‘al-Qa’ida’ in order to make generals race there, and we cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses – without their achieving anything of note!” –Osama bin Laden, November 1, 2004, CNN

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,…but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.” –Former Foreign Service officer and Marine Captain Matthew Hoh, Washington Post, October 27, 2009

According to an ISoC report the US faces total collapse in Afghanistan. This is a map of Talibanistan: 2009 Afghan map showing Taliban control

President Obama can leave, reduce, maintain or increase troop strength. Escalation proponents omit Bush’s original mission: to get bin Laden. Then he talked himself into war in Iraq and forgot bin Laden.

Max Boot banged war drums then. Now he wants more war in Afghanistan. Boot wants to escalate because “Afghanistan’s corruption problem, like its security problem, can be best addressed by additional troops.” Marines bayoneting corruption in Kabul?

“Only by sending more personnel, military and civilian,” he concludes, “can President Obama improve the Afghan government’s performance, reverse the Taliban’s gains and prevent Al Qaeda’s allies from regaining the ground they lost after 9/11.” (NY Times, Oct. 21, 2009) Wow! How about using the Air Force to fight global warming?

Boot omits the original Bush myths justifying invading Afghanistan. The Taliban government did house al-Qaida’s training camps, as Bush claimed, and Al-Qaida operatives perpetrated the 9/11 deeds. But these facts did not relate to the actual 9/11 deeds. Bush’s impulse to make war in Afghanistan quickly turned to actual zeal in March 2003. Iraq became his focus of the terror war. Most Tallies had escaped to the safety of neighboring Pakistan – a loyal U.S. ally.

The 9/11 fanatics, however, conspired in apartments in Germany and used U.S. flight schools to learn how to steer large aircraft into larger buildings. Box cutters cut throats as well as cardboard. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists were Saudis; no Afghanis. Jihadists later hit Spain, France and England, their countries of residence. The July 7, 2005, bombers of the British public transportation system learned their “skills” on the web, not in Afghan training camps.

By 2009, no more that 100 suicidal jihadists remained in Afghanistan, according to National Security Advisor General Jim Jones. “As we disrupt [al-Qa’ida], they will seek other safe havens,” explained CIA Chief Leon Panetta. “Somalia and Yemen are potential al-Qa’ida bases in the future.” Imagine the headlines: “U.S. troops to Somalia and Yemen; deficit mushrooms.”

Boot and other escalation advocates equate Afghan Taliban fighters with al-Qaida. A U.S. intelligence study, however, concluded that 90 per cent of the Taliban belong to “a tribal insurgency.” “Their opposition derives from the U.S. ‘as an occupying power’,” wrote Bryan Bender. According tothe intelligence report, the Afghan Tallies have no cross-border ambitions. (Boston Globe October 9, 2009)

Those proposing escalation on human rights grounds have invented their own Afghanistan. In the 1980s, the CIA paid warlords to fight the Soviets – because they represented Western culture. Some of these brutes now support President Karzai, who turned election fraud into comic opera. Karzai’s brother, a suspected narcotrafficker, is reported to be on the CIA payroll (NY Times, Oct 28). Do we commit to such “democratic” allies in Kabul?

More humanitarian aid — schools and hospitals — at a time when the U.S. can’t take care of its own needs? Such incongruities inspired Nick Meo: “trying to defeat al-Qa’ida with hundreds of thousands of occupying troops and Predator jets is like trying to treat cancer with a blowtorch.” (Telegraph, Oct. 18, 2009)

After eight years of war, bin Laden remains free. Drones have killed supposed chiefs and number twos along with countless innocents. Their deaths dramatize the obvious downside of occupying armies.

Since 1945, the U.S. armed forces have failed to prevail in conflicts where locals resist. Washington gossip indicates Obama leaning toward advice from NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman.

“A strong, healthy and self-confident America,” wrote Friedman, “holds the world together and on a decent path. A weak America would be a disaster for us and the world.”

He despairs over the U.S. military’s projection “that stabilizing Afghanistan and removing it as a threat requires rebuilding that whole country… a 20-year project at best, and we can’t afford it.” Friedman understands that “nation-building at home” does not coincide with the $4 billion a month Afghan cost — $1.3 million per soldier. (Congressional Research Service, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23808.htm#)

Friedman doesn’t follow his own logic and advise Obama to “quit.” Instead, he proposes “shrinking down in Afghanistan.” This “will create new threats, but expanding there will, too. I’d rather deal with the new threats with a stronger America.” (NY Times, October 28) The cojones problem again? The Afghan Trap A War Without Logic  By SAUL LANDAU

Saul Landau won Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins award for human rights. Counterpunch published his A BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD. He is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films on DVD are available. (roundworldproductions@gmail.com)

International Council of Security and Development (ISOC): Taliban control “virtually all” of Afghanistan

Obama rejects McChrystal’s surge: Withdrawal Inevitable in 2011! Perpetual Mimitic War: Strategy for continued Failure in Afghanistan Obama’s Afghan ‘Strategy’ without an “Exit Plan” is a ‘Straightjacket’ named quagmire & defeat

Can the drama of a Joe Biden’s “resignation” end the Afghan war fiasco?

Pakistan: Hillary Clinton still doesn’t have a clue

Pakistan: Why Ms. Clinton doesn’t get it Hillary Clinton admits to US support for Bin Laden & creation of Taliban

The rude US Ambassador Patterson in hot soup

“The best way to get out of Afghanistan fast is (for) people to think we’re staying.” Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

“There is no military success ultimately to Afghanistan. Senator John Kerry Kerry Lugar Bill backlash: Pakistan rethinks Afghan policy & US alliance-Hit RAW hard in Afghanistan

We are running the risk of replicating the fate of the Soviets” Mr. Brzezinski Brzezinski: Don’t start new wars. Use diplomacy in Pakistan

“Can Karzai get away with a stolen election”- Carter

Admiral Mullen is still wrong The crusty specious, Admiral is mistaken about Afghanistan

Obama’s Afghan timeout vs. Mullen’s surge

Afghan Surge: McChrystal malarkey hides incompetence of NATO, ISAF & US forces McChrystal right on India: Delhi must scale back Afghan operations

“Taliban’s Winning Strategy in Afghanistan”: Overcoming “culture of poverty”

The US occupation has not brought security to Afghan women Afghanistan’s Bravest Woman Malalai Joya: “Taliban are logistically & militarily growing stronger as each day dawns.” “Afghan women and men are not ‘liberated’ at all”

Bluster before exit: US capitulates to Afghan Taliban: Negotiating retreat schedule

The silent “K” in Holbrooke’s portfolio

AfPak countercurrents beyond the Oxus to AfPakAzUzbKazTurkKyr-istan

Tick Tock Tick Tock-2011: Obama’s shrinking Afghan timeline Truth not Orwellian propaganda: Best article on Afghanistan anywhere

US bluff: Other arduous US Supply Chain routes to Afghanistan not feasible

Afghanistan fiasco: Cleaning up the Am-Brit failures in Kabul again

Solutions to “Obama’s Vietnam”–AfPak

David Kilcullen incessant paranoid hallucinating Pakistanphobic rhetoric destroys his credibility Obama must avoid creating a backlash in neighboring Pakistan by heavy-handed U.S. military intervention there: David Kilcullen

Can Obama pull US out of the Afghan quicksand? Choosing China & Pakistan over Bharat (aka India)

NATO not buying the Obama Doctrine or surge after Surge?

Afghanistan & Pakistan: Can the US Prevail? No!

Fixing Afpak: Inability to define exit strategy spells inevitable US military catastrophe in Kabul Obama’s sane policy lost? Negotating with the Taliban Betrayals, blackmail in Bakiyev cloaking failure as success hiding the defeat declaring victory withdrawing from Afghanistan within 12 months

Obama’s new policy was supposed to be a Marshal Plan & end to bombing raids in Pakistan

Convincing the US tin ear of the Pakistani point of view

Rahm Emanuel blames the “Ho Chi Minh Trail” for Afghan defeat

Obama’s Neocon: Bruce Riedel’s rancid racism against Pakistan Are bigoted Bruce Riedel’s diatribes still valid for Pakistan & Afghanistan? Mr. Bruce Riedel’s irrational rhetoric exacerbates US-Pakistani relations

Growing consensus in the Obama team: Much of Pakistan’s problems originate in Afghanistan

Obama advisor Weinbaum focus on talks & Reconciliation got lost in blood and gore.

Ahmed Rashid’s bad advice about Pakistan Afghanistan: Did Ahmed Rashid sell the American down the river?

Afghan Surge fiasco: Ahmed Rashid’s bad advice
Obama adviser insights into Afghan policy: Result same old same old

Why troops surges in Afghanistan are doomed to failure?

Rand report: End GWOT. Defeat Al-Qaeda with police & Dollars Hindu Kush Curtain Call: The End Game in Afghanistan Harvard questions: Afghanistan Lost? Barnett Rubin & Maleeha Lodhi solutions to quagmire The Pakistani perspective: Peace deals only way to precipitate face saving for US & Obama’s smooth Exit strategy from Afghanistan

After NATO rejection Obama has few options left in Afghanistan Pakistan First by Shireen Mazari: The devastating affects of appeasing India and kowtowing to the USA

Pakistan to US: No pay-No play: Tough lessons in geography!

People talk glibly of ‘the total disarmament of the frontier tribes’ as being the obvious policy…but to obtain it would be as painful and as tedious an undertaking as to extract the stings of a swarm of hornets, with naked fingers.” Winston Churchill

PEANUTS: Puny US Aid to Pakistan is too little too late. Marshall Plan, & Trade concessions missing

Graveyard of Empires: AfPak-TurkTaj-UzbKaz-AzKyr -istan Obama’s “Vietnam”: Khyber & Hindu Kush

Afghanistan:– Pakistan’s Eminent Domain

India’s dark shadow on Afghanistan