Afghanistan “Slip-Sliding Away”
Posted by StormWarning on 31 Mar 2008 at 09:34 pm | Tagged as: Afghanistan, Commentary, Current Affairs, Disasters, International Issues, Jihad
Anyone who has spent time reading my ramblings already knows that I have maintained a dismal outlook for Afghanistan’s future. In the past, I’ve chronicled my debate with “NATO-guy” who claimed that NATO had the situation under control (not!). And consistently, I’ve expressed my serious concern that Afghanistan was on the brink. I am far from the only one who saw this coming. Today, Doug Farah’s post at the Counterterrorism Blog, NATO and Afghanistan-The Cost of Failure, expresses my thoughts. Farah also covers this more deeply on his own blog here.
Looking at the beginning and the end of this post:
Few in NATO, including U.S. leaders, appear willing to face the fact that the war in Afghanistan is growing to be one of the longest in our history and could be one of the costliest. Not just in economic terms, but because no one has been willing to commit the resources to win the war, despite the fact it was nearly won four years ago. The cost of not finishing the job is staggering.
AND
Pakistan, a nuclear nation, and Afghanistan, are really where al Qaeda and radical Islam are entrenched. It is, in my opinion, where the next attack will originate from, and should be of equal worry to Europe. If the senior al Qaeda leadership are safe enough there not to have to be on the move, what is to stop them?
Worried about the future? I am! The facts have shown from the beginning that the job in Afghanistan was left undone when our resources were diverted to Iraq. And yet, I supported and continue to support the removal of Hussein and his sons from power in Iraq and believe, despite the recent Basra/Baghdad battles. Afterall, I’m “just” an observer. Making these decisions is way above my pay grade…in fact, since I’m not a government employee, I don’t have a pay grade.
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NATO has the situation under control? Did anybody believe that whopper? Not you and not me.
In Iraq, Sadr is trying his best to maneuver himself into some kind of leader. Not that I think it’s working at all, but that is what he wants. Maliki is such a disappointment. The Iraq military has been a disappointment also. And yes, things in Afghanistan are so much more important.
(Now I have that song in my head and can’t get it out ” slip sliding away … ”
Part of the purpose of the post title, Debbie, was to elicit memories of Simon & Garfunkle. As for NATO, yes, there was a guy (posts somewhere buried in the archives) who supposedly worked for NATO who insisted that the Afghan people were far better off (about a year or so after the overthrow of the Taliban) than they had ever been. I was chastised for taking the opposite position (imagine that).
Added April 2: Further to the point. Directly after the invasion of Iraq there was a split camp (not evenly balanced) that believed that while the removal of Hussein had merit (including the then believed possession of WMDs), that US resources were stretched so thinly that Afghanistan would suffer (I have referenced a paper written by a guy whose name slips my mind right now from the Army War College in which the strategic flaws of the timing of the Iraq invasion were discussed. You can imagine the flack that I took back then by being both a supporter of the invasion, and a believer that the timing and lack of resources was strategically wrong). The reliance on NATO troops to then fill the gap left by the removed US military was a major blunder in my opinion, and is one that now, we will see as these new dominos fall. If, after six years, we’ve seen the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and we’ve seen the establishment of the Taliban in Pakistan, and if we now see a weakness in the Maliki government, what have we actually accomplished?