Obama Faces Major Challenge in Afghanistan/ Pakistan
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post reports that Obama is considering a regional approach to the Afghanistan war that would extend to negotiating with Iran and with "reconcilable" elements of the Taliban.
Certainly, some new policies are desperately needed, and whatever Bush was doing over there was just making things worse over time. Afghans are still upset over Sunday's air strike, which killed dozens of innocent civilians at a wedding party.
On the Pakistan side of the border, a suicide bomber killed 3 and wounded 20 outside the stadium in the major northwestern city of Peshawar.
Embarrassingly enough, Pakistani Taliban just hujacked a convoy of NATO materiel on the Peshawar-Torkham highway. They had been brazenly driving around the Humvees before the Pakistani military counter-attacked and recovered the materiel.
On the Afghanistan side, Poppy-growing and the narcotics traffic have become ever greater problems, raising the specter of narco-terrorism.
The Karzai government is riddled with corruption; the president just had to fire his transportation minister for suspicion of embezzlement with regard to the pilgrimage to Mecca.
As for negotiations, it turns out that there are no irreconcilable Taliban. Even Mullah Omar may be part of talks.
The groups called Taliban now are made up of four major organizations: The "old Taliban" of Mullah Omar, based in Quetta; the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP), led by Beitullah Mahsud in the tribal agencies of Pakistan; the Hizb-i Islami of Gulabadin Hekmatyar; and the grouping around Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Hekmatyar's group has also been involved in negotiations sponsored by Saudi Arabia.
Aljazeera English reports on the challenges facing Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans and the challenges facing the Obama administration in coming up with the estimated $600 bn. it will take to care for them.
posted by Juan Cole @ 11/12/2008 01:09:00 AM
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In regard to the title: "Obama Faces Major Challenge in Afghanistan/ Pakistan"
Has he considered simply admitting to the American public that there were no Talib on the planes of 9/11 either and announce that he's going to re-deploy our troops to Kuwait for an incipient invasion of Saudi Arabia?
Unlike the Afghani Talib and Pakistani army and insurgents, the Saudi military apparatus is helpless without US advisors from Vinnell (Northrop Grumman) et al.
Think of ALL the Pentagon money saved, equipment unworn, and American casualties prevented!
(Da' Buffalo extracts sardonic tongue from cheek and spits cud...)
On a more serious note, a commentary from Travus T. Hipp, Cabale News Service (Korean War vet), recorded yesterday, on the topic of Veterans benefits:
[November 11 2008] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Homecoming or 'Incoming'? It's Veterans Day - A Time To Note That Veterans Have A Different World (War) View Than The Average Citizen Of America And There Are Going To Be A LOT Of Them Over The Next Few Decades
[Here]
Afghanistan is not a country. Never was, never will be. If you are looking for Talibans, they are everywhere and nowhere. What you have is an amorphous collection of tribes roaming their traditional range. Their allegiances changing with the ability of the range to sustain life. Even in the good old days, the reach of King Zahir Shah’s rule was limited to the major cities, with a lot of help from the Russians, and it diminished exponentially beyond the city walls.
The western mind nurtured on the economics of exploitation and exponential growth where every citizen is monetized has a hard time putting its arms around the hard but independent life of the tribes-people in Afghanistan and NW Pakistan.That part of the world has been a "terrorist" factory since the dawn of humanity.
Fable: Some 30,000 years ago, the ancient ancestor of the Pashtuns, in the seventh year of the 100-year famine, summoned his 4 sons, and said, "Go west, young man ," just like Horace Greeley or John Soule...but he did not stop there, he added, "Go East, Go North, Go South, AND beat the crap out of anybody you see." A true story, documented better than any story in the bible, and borne out by the genetic evidence of the earliest of human migrations out of Africa. Arnold Toynbee has called this land the "roundabout of the ancient world." They have followed their ancestor’s advice like clockwork. In India, for example, every so often in the times of famine, the hordes have beaten the crap out of the Nabobs and Rajahs and ruled the country at will for thousands of years. I am sure you can name a few of those, including the Mogul Kings.
And today, the alien US/NATO cockroach, just like the Russian and the British before, has swallowed Agent K and the world is awaiting for the slimy explosion with abated breath. In short, they have that uncouth will to carry on in the face of certain annihilation that the civilized west cannot stomach.
While the Waziristan/Swat Emirate and other stories like that makes for good copy, they have little significance. Pakistan inherited the NW territory in 1947 from the British with its Pashtun tribes...and the years of uneasy truce followed. The tribal areas within the borders of Pakistan have always been quasi-independent. History of Pakistani control over these tribal lands (and those in Baluchistan) is full of military action and aerial bombardments whenever the tribal chiefs have tried to mount unruly insurgency to get more power or money.
Pakistani military profits handsomely from US (and the USSR in the 70s) oil dreams. General Musharraf followed the time tested strategy: it is not the rebels against the USSR when General Zia was in power, it is the Talibans against the NATO. Same difference. We still have to deal with the Pakistani military even so the political power is now in the hands of the feudal landlords, who always win in "democratic" elections.
The land of tribes now has a number of US/NATO bases scattered on the proposed oil pipelines from central Asia and Iran. Are they looking for a 6 foot 5 Arab hooked to a kidney machine? Chances of Bin Laden being still alive are rather slim. Even if he is still alive, Al-Qaeda has shown time and again it does not need him to carry on. Are we there for oil? We better hurry, since increasingly, the central Asian dictatorships are entering into bilateral oil contracts with China or are showing great willingness to deal with Russia. In short, the strategic reason for us to be in Afghanistan is no longer valid! There is little chance to snatch central Asian oil away from China.
The only prudent approach for Obama is to fold the shop in Afghanistan. And then in Iraq. However, just to keep things interesting and the corporate-military complex busy, they can ask the pentagon to draw up plans to invade Alaska.
Re hihacking on the Peshawar-Torkham Highway, ABC News reports this has been going on routinely for some time now. It is the only supply route for troops in Afghanistan! See
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=6221453&page=1
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