Insurgents in Afghanistan killed 10 NATO troops on Monday, 7 of them Americans. Five of the US troops were killed in Eastern Afghanistan, the two others in the south. One of the deaths in the south was from small arms fire.
US special envoy Richard Holbrooke was pressed on Monday as to whether the US will countenance the plan put forward by the Afghan national congress (Jirga) last week to negotiate with the Taliban. Holbrooke said it was possible as long as certain red lines were not crossed. These include a requirement, apparently, that the Taliban reform themselves and cut ties to al-Qaeda.
Pajhwok News Agency reports that Afghan representatives in the lower house of parliament were deeply critical of the firing/ resignation of two top security officials on Sunday:
‘ Ataollah Ludin, a member of the Wolasi Jerga from Nangarhar, said many people were unhappy that Karzai had accepted the resignations of the two officials. He said Atmar and Saleh had been efficient and useful members of the government. Shokria Barakzai, a member of the jerga from Kabul, said she thought foreign countries were involved and had forced Karzai to fire the two men. … Ahmad Behzad, an MP from Herat, also criticized the resignations saying he believed other influential forces wanted to get rid of the two officials. Azita Rafat, a member of the jerga from Badghis Province, said the removal of the most senior officials involved in securing the country would exacerbate the problem, not solve it. She said the two were forced to resign. ‘
Rethink Afghanistan argues that the Afghanistan War has now become the longest foreign war in American history and that it is time to bring it to a close. This is their video:
Afghanistan on Monday joined with Turkey and Pakistan in condemning the Israeli raid last week on an aid flotilla to Gaza.
Not that this attack per-say on our American soldiers is related to Israel’s attack on the flotila.. But when are we going to listen to what General Patreaus himself said about the correlation between supporting Israel and the risk and challenges our troops faces.
“‘Insurgents’ kill 10…”?
Well, I guess you have to call them SOMEthing. The official Department of War lexicon defined “insurgent” until recently as people who use violence to try to displace a bona fide, legitimate central government. All that remains in the DoW lexicon now is that part about using violence, since it’s so obvious that what our Force Managers want to, in the current “serious” word, “conflate” from so many disparate parts and label as The Unitary Monadic Enemy, has no “legitimate central government” to oppose and/or try to destroy.
Part of the reason this stuff goes on and on is our tribal urges, that make us disconnect the reality from the myth. “We” are paying warlords/”Taliban” strongmen bribes not to attack “our” convoys, and paying other warlords’ lackeys to drive the trucks and Mount Guard over them. The CIA guys bribe warlords and mullahs with Viagra to “buy their loyalty,” I guess making stand-up guys out of them maybe? Most of the Indigenous Force Structure that was to be the skeleton of the new democratic flesh of our new fellow democracy is stoned most of the time, deserts more readily than farmers in the Continental Army, moonlights by setting up IEDs and ambushes that kill GIs some few of whom are actually trying to win hearts and minds and others of whom are just about doing what stupid armies always do, try to take territory, terrify the wogs, and kill a bunch of frikkin’ towelheads, ANY convenient towelheads, because some of them might have been the ones that planted and triggered the last IED (made with stupidly abandoned or even given-to-warlords-as-bribes US munitions) or killed or mained one of their Band of Brothers, the only entity to whom GIs actually feel any connection or loyalty, with an RPG or small-arms fire. In the meantime, billions (the new Chump Change)in US cash go missing-in-action, poppy production is at an all-time high, “we” are back to doing body counts and setting up “strategic hamlets” and propping up sneering and charmingly corrupt and pliable-to-our-Sneaky-Petes faux-democratically-elected dictators, and “our” generals are singing the “I just need a little more time and resources, remember my late, great essays on asymmetric-warfare strategies for Victory! and Success! and How I Surged My Way to Victory! and Success! in The Big Win! in Iraq, and the light at the end of the tunnel is just around the corner,” whistle-past-the-graveyard tune. And our brave Patriots sit at home and gobble the bullshit pumped out by the Media Narrative, primed by the Powers-That-Be who profit and advance from all this at the mortal expense of the rest of us. And derivatives on the table now amount to well over $40 TRILLION in book value, and Goldman and all the others play market-leading games on their supercomputer xylophones.
And we are down to chewing over the barren reporting of how Our Troops, the ones we care so much about and support so vigorously, are being killed, retail, by what kinds of weapons or misfortunes, the same Troops a large fraction of whom are having a hard time concentrating on ANYTHING, let alone the latest orders on the shape and structure and doctrine of the New Mission, since so many of them have low-intensity traumatic brain injuries that our wonderful military command has ordained, despite Band-Aid-and-pasties legislation by our pusillanimous Congress, shall be pretty much swept under the rug, pushed into the background, ignored, removed from after-action and casualty and medical-record reports, and so the eager young warriors can get back to the Battlespace and kill some more Wogs. Easier to obscure, in our High-Tech, Maintained-By-Contractors-Getting-Paid-$800-A-Day, Networked Battlespace. McNamara in USB-space, same shit all over again, no end in sight, no possible reason that’s reasonable, let alone rational, let alone honestly fostering of any National Interests that are in any way National in scope as opposed to propping up the share prices of outfits like Lockheed-Grumman “We never forget who we are working for” (parse that for ambiguity if you dare).
But as an author reported not long ago, we are little more than tribes with flags, led by grandiose, grandiloquent, rank-and-rent-seeking poseurs to turn over our bled-out real national wealth to the War Machine for the simulacrum of security.
Does no good to even call “bullshit” on this. We are a stupid species, collectively; we are wired for failure in the Game of Survival; and our best move is to stand up, collectively bend over on the count of three, place our heads between our legs, and kiss our stupid asses goodbye.
You got a prescription for a cure for THAT, Professor? Or is it all just interstitial waffling and dandy prose?
I’m ardently against the Afghan occupation. But “worse than Vietnam” is ridiculous. That war killed over 6 million in South East Asia, and things like land mines and toxic chemicals are still killing and maiming people to this day. Even calling it a longer war is really just a game of semantics because, obviously, our earlier “advisers” were quite a bit more than that (not to mention our support for the French).
I object to the constant referral to NATO in connection with the Afghanistan mess.
We all know that the US are the commanding state; anyone else there is simply “following orders” issued by their US masters. The rench had their Foreign Legion, for which they were responsible and had to pay the bills.
NATO members other than the US are simply US mercenaries and also have to pay for their own existence; what a joke. By calling missions in Afghanistan “NATO-led missions is probably intended to shield the US from bad publicity when things go wrong, as they almost always do. So, please, let’s call a spade a spade and don’t excuse US adventurism as NATO missions.
There are more ways than just casualties to determine whether you are in a war. be Ladin wanted to kill the American Idol the Green Back and he is getting his wish. So yes Afghanistan is another VietNam.
I just hope that we are not going to recall Kipling’s “The young British soldier”. Maybe it will be a reprise of the 10,000 Greeks, fight your way home, through Pakistan, Iran or the Northern route? Last helicopter out of Kabul? It’s farther to the Carriers this time.