Massive Guerrilla attack in Afghanistan;
4 Marines Killed
Breaking News: Guerrillas in western Afghanistan deployed a roadside bomb to kill 4 US Marines on Saturday.
Pushtun guerrillas mounting an insurgency against the Karzai government and against NATO troops in the Pushtun areas of Afghanistan staged a daring prison break on Friday. They set off bombs at a prison in Qandahar, killing 15 prison guards and allowing 1100 inmates to escape, including 400 captured guerrillas. Although the US refers to the guerrillas as 'Taliban' it is not clear that they are seminary students are actually linked to the Taliban movement of the 1990s. Many appear to be disgruntled Pushtun villagers.
The jailbreak spoke eloquently of the weakness and incompetence of the Karzai government, which many observers believe is in the process of collapsing under the weight of its own corruption.
The collapse seems to be accelerating even though the number of foreign troops in the country has grown enormously, to some 30,000 US and 30,000 NATO soldiers. Foreign donors recently pledged $20 bn in aid, though $10 bn of that came from the US and European donors seemed distinctly wary of having their money go into the pockets of the Afghan bureaucrats and those of their extended families.
In May, more US and allied troops were killed by guerrillas in Afghanistan than in Iraq.
Aljazeera International interviews Hamid Karzai and reports on Afghanistan:
Scroll down at our Global Affairs blog for Barnett Rubin's excellent postings on Afghanistan in recent weeks.
posted by Juan Cole @ 6/14/2008 08:40:00 AM
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8 Comments:
The jailbreak spoke eloquently of the weakness and incompetence of the Karzai government, which many observers believe is in the process of collapsing under the weight of its own corruption.
These puppet governments have an impossible task. I find it unfair to attack those powerless government who can only say amen to what the foreign occupiers are asking. The sheme is known : the invaded/occupied country is powerless in front of the occupiers who detain all the military power and the money.. Those whe dare to collaborate have to be lured by something.. aka money. Client states by definition can only be corrupted, or they won't be collaborating with their invaders (whether some collaborate in good faith, because they think it's the least bad option for their folk, or wether they collaborate out of greed, doesn't make much a difference).
The problem is the invader, the occupier, not those who tried to survive there after. It's a bit easy to blame Karzai or Al'Maliki for what went wrong, when the problem was created by the US invasion and military occupation.
Four U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan y'day. Two in Iraq. They're being whittled away. The U.S. "G"overnment will "I"ssue (GI) replacements of course. And more will be needed tomorrow. And tomorrow.
Sons, fathers, husbands, brothers, daughters, mothers, wives...going the way of all cannon fodder.
Out of a country of 300,000,000 people it's of course a trickle. Of no account. Unless you're the mother or father or child or wife or brother or sister or friend, etc. of said "cannon fodder".
What's not trickling away is the U.S. wealth that's being scuppered on this vile insanity. Scuppers, one hardly needs to add, are outlet sewage blowholes on the sides of ships.
It'll end of course in complete, utter, ignominious American failure. We'll probably have to be bled white - the dollar itself scuppered - before our helicopter-off-the-roof moment arrives. But it will arrive. The which sorry spectacle will be the real Mission Accomplished moment of this evil enterprise. Real as opposed to the make-believe variety. With real Iraqi crowds - as opposed to the small rent-a-mob variety. Real Iraqi crowds celebrating for real.
So much for the puerile dreams of our capital F Fool in the White House and his manipulators (a group of much brighter - and utterly cynical - lower case fools).
The X factor in the equation is the cannon fodder itself. Sooner or later "it's" surely going to find the 21st century equivalent of "fragging". My suspicion is that the fault line won't be of the enlisted men versus officers variety - that, on the contrary, it'll be whole units - officers and soldiers - finding ways of saying "the game's up, we're not going to do this any more." That the "coming unstuck" will slash right up into the highest uniformed reaches of the pentagon. That the American military establishment will do what it has to do to protect the institution itself.
As it did with the Vietnam fiasco.
Christiane -
I believe what you say and as for IRAQ, I believe it's the same stupid game being played there as well.
What drives me nuts is the way this story is "analyzed" by the US media. I just watched a report by CNN's reporter on the scene, and all she could talk about was the "message" this sends--about "Taliban" infiltration of the Afghan army, police forces, whatever. (Because the attack, like the previous one on Karzai in Kabul, came without warning.)
But nothing about the strength or composition of the insurgent forces, their sources of weaponry, or their support in the community. Not surprising, I guess, when the reporter has no way of knowing aside from Coalition briefings. But at least she could have had the grace to admit her own ignorance. Instead, it's "from everything I hear from the people I talk to..."
AAArgh!!!
ref : “In May, more US and allied troops were killed by guerrillas in Afghanistan than in Iraq.”
How depressing it is to be reminded once again that the only metric by which we measure, and see our troops, thus through the narrow lens of our media: is their KIA attrition rate. Still, to report that Afghanistan is now more deadly, if not more damaging to us than Iraq, is to say something that should be profoundly alarming.
imho, It is indicative not only of an increase, apparent in anti-occupation violence in Afghanistan; The metric also reveals the surprising extent that American IRAQ Occupation Forces have, themselves been forced to assume an entirely defensive posture. iow, Their ‘Mission’ in IRAQ has devolved from any pretense of actually "occupying" anything other than their own Green Zones d'Occupation, and is now (militarily and, according to political leaders such as Senator McCain)...
...to remain there, in situ stasis ~ without any other purpose, apparent other than employing all our resources with the intent of not being KIA = staying alive...
...rather than withdrawal, or even sensible re-deployment to that war theatre, Afghanistan ~ where there is (and always has been) that nexus of real terrorism.
It would sem that we can expect a continuation of the US troop buildup in Afghanistan, and an expanded war there next year.
CENTCOM commander Petraeus' profile is that he will extend or expand any competition he is in danger of losing.
Candidate Obama has said (in effect) that his promise to rapidly wind things down in Iraq would afford more troops for Afghanistan, and that he would attack into Pakistani territory, if bin Laden was hiding there.
Are we going to jump back into the briar patch and slug the tar baby, if AL Qeda's info-warriors say 'nanny-nanny, can't hurt us here in the tribal areas...'
Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been accused of being a major player in the Afghan opium trade. Note Hamid Karzai's defensiveness on this point in a recent interview with Der Spiegel :
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,557188,00.html"
Karzai says he might have to attack Pakistan.
He must have been hitting the pipe heavily with Al Maliki, Cheney, and Bush.
They're all going to escape forward, lose themselves and their losing ways in a last desperate attack.
And we all stand about, as though transfixed, and watching it all unfold in slow motion as they act out their insanity.
It's our world they're burning folks.
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