Two years ago I wrote a post about the Afghanistan war, with two former marines not disagreeing with my position.
And where are we now?
Well, the US army has lost 450 additional soldiers and the British about 150. Those figures are next to insignificant in terms of war casualties, save for the families of said casualties of course. Several high ranking Americans have admitted the situation was getting worse and they also said or wrote that they couldn't figure out any military solution to this war.
The first and only reason why the coalition went there in the first place was to get hold of OBL.
1°) He's still on the run and nobody really seems to care about his whereabouts.
2°) This goal has been completely forgotten, and now the US and their allies once again are engaged in an impossible nation-building task. Even more impossible than in Iraq.
Now President Obama is in the process of deciding what his country should do about this war which has been going on for 8 years now. That is the second longest period of war of the US after the Vietnam war.
Pr. Obama is listening to the crème of the American army in order to take a decision. I can't help but think that if it were for the generals, the US would still be in Vietnam.
We're told that the prospect of an eventual and premature withdrawal of the western armies from Afghanistan would present at least two dangers :
1°) It would give the enemies (wait here, who are the enemies in this country but the occupiers themselves?) and terrorists round the world a terrible signal of weakness. To make it short, it is a matter of national pride not to withdraw in front of an impossible situation.
2°) A possible withdrawal would provide terrorists an open road to carry out more and more of their criminal and coward crimes.
But as far as I can remember there were no terrorists in Iraq before the country was invaded. There's been a respite (not a complete end) for the last two years but suicide attacks have began to happen more and more frequently again. The last one caused the death of 150 people...
The Afghan people did nothing against the West, the Taliban regime had diplomatic ties with only three countries in the world : Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and (not sure) the United Arab Emirates. Three close (and "trustful") allies of the US. There were no terrorists in Afghanistan prior to the invasion. Now, they simply abound. Unless the US and their allies kill all Afghans holding weapons like they would kill cockroaches, there always will be "terrorists" in Afghanistan until the country gets rid of his occupiers..
Terrorists being the name they're given to by the western media, combatants or resistants being the names they call themselves.
As a reminder : 17 of the 20 terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, one of the three regimes with diplomatic ties with the Talibans. With friends like that... When will the US get free from their oil providers? Not about to happen I'm afraid.
One week ago or so, Sarkozy said there won't be one more French soldier sent to Afghanistan. The man isn't exactly reliable we know, but did he really say these words like he were speaking in the air or was he speaking after he had talked with Obama, which would be a way to announce the direction the military will engage into in the next months? e.g. progressive withdrawal.
For sure Obama is confronted with a very, very difficult choice, particularly with regard to his political opponents on the right. But many Democrats also, wouldn't accept what would look like a symbolic defeat for their country. Let's get real here : the defeat is on its way, nearly achieved.
How many more American lives will this insane war claim?
And where are we now?
Well, the US army has lost 450 additional soldiers and the British about 150. Those figures are next to insignificant in terms of war casualties, save for the families of said casualties of course. Several high ranking Americans have admitted the situation was getting worse and they also said or wrote that they couldn't figure out any military solution to this war.
The first and only reason why the coalition went there in the first place was to get hold of OBL.
1°) He's still on the run and nobody really seems to care about his whereabouts.
2°) This goal has been completely forgotten, and now the US and their allies once again are engaged in an impossible nation-building task. Even more impossible than in Iraq.
Now President Obama is in the process of deciding what his country should do about this war which has been going on for 8 years now. That is the second longest period of war of the US after the Vietnam war.
Pr. Obama is listening to the crème of the American army in order to take a decision. I can't help but think that if it were for the generals, the US would still be in Vietnam.
We're told that the prospect of an eventual and premature withdrawal of the western armies from Afghanistan would present at least two dangers :
1°) It would give the enemies (wait here, who are the enemies in this country but the occupiers themselves?) and terrorists round the world a terrible signal of weakness. To make it short, it is a matter of national pride not to withdraw in front of an impossible situation.
2°) A possible withdrawal would provide terrorists an open road to carry out more and more of their criminal and coward crimes.
But as far as I can remember there were no terrorists in Iraq before the country was invaded. There's been a respite (not a complete end) for the last two years but suicide attacks have began to happen more and more frequently again. The last one caused the death of 150 people...
The Afghan people did nothing against the West, the Taliban regime had diplomatic ties with only three countries in the world : Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and (not sure) the United Arab Emirates. Three close (and "trustful") allies of the US. There were no terrorists in Afghanistan prior to the invasion. Now, they simply abound. Unless the US and their allies kill all Afghans holding weapons like they would kill cockroaches, there always will be "terrorists" in Afghanistan until the country gets rid of his occupiers..
Terrorists being the name they're given to by the western media, combatants or resistants being the names they call themselves.
As a reminder : 17 of the 20 terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, one of the three regimes with diplomatic ties with the Talibans. With friends like that... When will the US get free from their oil providers? Not about to happen I'm afraid.
One week ago or so, Sarkozy said there won't be one more French soldier sent to Afghanistan. The man isn't exactly reliable we know, but did he really say these words like he were speaking in the air or was he speaking after he had talked with Obama, which would be a way to announce the direction the military will engage into in the next months? e.g. progressive withdrawal.
For sure Obama is confronted with a very, very difficult choice, particularly with regard to his political opponents on the right. But many Democrats also, wouldn't accept what would look like a symbolic defeat for their country. Let's get real here : the defeat is on its way, nearly achieved.
How many more American lives will this insane war claim?
3 commentaires:
When will we ever learn? Our country is broke and we can't afford to carry on with this nonsense. We can't afford any nation building, and even if we could, it wouldn't work. It is for the people of Afghanistan to decide their future. However, their future does not look promising thanks to destruction of their country by prior foreign invaders, particularly the future of the women of Afghanistan. Before the 1990s the Afghan women were medical doctors, teachers, lawyers, artists, writers, you name it. Now they are shrouded in darkness. But what to do about it?
This nonsensical disaster began the day the Bush administration launched a fullfledged war against a country with one single goal : To get hold of one man.
Everybody in the world agreed the US had to do something to catch OBL.
Bur invading a country (with more than 30 millions inhabitants) for that one and only purpose was totally foolish, to say the least.
A commando style operation would have been more effective and would have spared billions of $. Notwithstanding the cost in terms of human lives, be they American, European or Afghani ones.
Talk of a quagmire! The same as in Vietnam and Iraq. And the Pentagon always asks for more men in order to secure "victory"...
"Before the 1990s the Afghan women were medical doctors, teachers, lawyers, artists, writers, you name it. Now they are shrouded in darkness. But what to do about it?"
Well, there are so many situations in the world, be it on a collective scale or on an individual one, when you simply can't do anything because whatever you try simply worsens the situation and get you dragged into hell.
That's life and it ain't rosy indeed.
As Paul used to sing :
And any time you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Enregistrer un commentaire