Increase in Troops in Afghanistan - Is it too little, too late?
Venugopal Ravindran
December 08, 2009
US President Barak Obama's decision to send in more US troops to Afghanistan to try and undo one of the biggest strategic blunders in U.S. military history, the premature pivot from Afghanistan to Iraq may be too little, too late.
After inheriting two bungled wars, the Obama administration has gotten a pass from citizens troubled by more immediate economic fears. The president even ventured a mild joke during a "60 Minutes" interview. "If you had said to us a year ago that the least of my problems would be Iraq, which is still a pretty serious problem," Obama said, "I don't think anybody would have believed it."
That grace period appears over. Recent events in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan make it clear that all the charm and good intentions in the world haven't altered the fundamental situation. The problem now for Obama is that the Americans are fighting two wars and one proxy war (read Pakistan) now.
Iraq remains three nations under one name. The Bush/Cheney team's blunders -- invading on the cheap, bungling the occupation -- have left the president no good options. They broke it. But after U.S. troops pull out, Obama will own it.
Not for nothing, has Afghanistan long been known as "the graveyard of empires." Left to their own devices, the Afghans might divide into eight or 10 fiefdoms. Its largely illiterate tribes live by the feud; foreign invaders unite them. Afghanistan's forbidding landscape makes it a modern soldier's nightmare. But yet the Americans had a chance to finish off the war in Afghanistan. Backed by the Northern Alliance the American´s easily overran Kabul, and had the leadership of the dreaded Al Qaeda cornered in the caves of Tora Bora. Then Bush made what is considered by many as a Historic Blunder, instead of persisting and completing the task decided to open a new front in Iraq. With inane quips like "either you are with us or against us", "axis of evil" and the schoolboy like "that guy tried to kill my dad" and prodded on by Neo Con´s like Cheney and Rumsfeld, ventured into a highly unpopular and unwanted war costing thousands of American lives and billions of dollars of taxpayer´s money.
As for Pakistan, which a retired CIA official called the most dangerous place on earth, the Taliban is knocking on the doors of Islamabad and Rawalpindi seeking to take over the state and impose their brand of Sharia law. The country is on the verge of collapse and it seems that only a miracle can bring back from the brink. Hundreds of thousands are fleeing their homes ahead of an army advance into remote frontier regions where Taliban extremists seek to impose Sharia law, where al-Qaida's senior leadership is thought to be hiding and where the Islamabad government has never truly held sovereignty.
Obama´s plan to send in some 20,000 odd troops to quell the insurgency in Afghanistan will melt thin into the country´s rugged and inhospitable terrain. Moreover killing a few hundred Taliban or Qaeda foot soldiers is not going to help. The actual leadership which he need´s to seek and eliminate are based in Pakistan. . The United States hasn't got the manpower, resources or political will to control territory Pakistan's own government can't tame and a nuclear armed Pakistan in the hands of the Taliban, backed by the Al Qaeda is the world´s current nightmare.
Ironically the announcement to start pulling out troops from Afghanistan in 2011 is going to do more harm than good. Just as it happened when the Americans withdrew from South Vietnam and the Soviets from Afghanistan, the Taliban would quietly sit back and regroup and move in once the US pulls out.
After inheriting two bungled wars, the Obama administration has gotten a pass from citizens troubled by more immediate economic fears. The president even ventured a mild joke during a "60 Minutes" interview. "If you had said to us a year ago that the least of my problems would be Iraq, which is still a pretty serious problem," Obama said, "I don't think anybody would have believed it."
That grace period appears over. Recent events in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan make it clear that all the charm and good intentions in the world haven't altered the fundamental situation. The problem now for Obama is that the Americans are fighting two wars and one proxy war (read Pakistan) now.
Iraq remains three nations under one name. The Bush/Cheney team's blunders -- invading on the cheap, bungling the occupation -- have left the president no good options. They broke it. But after U.S. troops pull out, Obama will own it.
Not for nothing, has Afghanistan long been known as "the graveyard of empires." Left to their own devices, the Afghans might divide into eight or 10 fiefdoms. Its largely illiterate tribes live by the feud; foreign invaders unite them. Afghanistan's forbidding landscape makes it a modern soldier's nightmare. But yet the Americans had a chance to finish off the war in Afghanistan. Backed by the Northern Alliance the American´s easily overran Kabul, and had the leadership of the dreaded Al Qaeda cornered in the caves of Tora Bora. Then Bush made what is considered by many as a Historic Blunder, instead of persisting and completing the task decided to open a new front in Iraq. With inane quips like "either you are with us or against us", "axis of evil" and the schoolboy like "that guy tried to kill my dad" and prodded on by Neo Con´s like Cheney and Rumsfeld, ventured into a highly unpopular and unwanted war costing thousands of American lives and billions of dollars of taxpayer´s money.
As for Pakistan, which a retired CIA official called the most dangerous place on earth, the Taliban is knocking on the doors of Islamabad and Rawalpindi seeking to take over the state and impose their brand of Sharia law. The country is on the verge of collapse and it seems that only a miracle can bring back from the brink. Hundreds of thousands are fleeing their homes ahead of an army advance into remote frontier regions where Taliban extremists seek to impose Sharia law, where al-Qaida's senior leadership is thought to be hiding and where the Islamabad government has never truly held sovereignty.
Obama´s plan to send in some 20,000 odd troops to quell the insurgency in Afghanistan will melt thin into the country´s rugged and inhospitable terrain. Moreover killing a few hundred Taliban or Qaeda foot soldiers is not going to help. The actual leadership which he need´s to seek and eliminate are based in Pakistan. . The United States hasn't got the manpower, resources or political will to control territory Pakistan's own government can't tame and a nuclear armed Pakistan in the hands of the Taliban, backed by the Al Qaeda is the world´s current nightmare.
Ironically the announcement to start pulling out troops from Afghanistan in 2011 is going to do more harm than good. Just as it happened when the Americans withdrew from South Vietnam and the Soviets from Afghanistan, the Taliban would quietly sit back and regroup and move in once the US pulls out.
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