I do not want to convey the message that I am anti-troops. I am commenting about what has taken place and will offer my opinion about what should happen next.
However given the recent events of WikiLeaks (which some have compared to the biggest intelligence leak since The Pentagon Papers), the General Stanley McChrystal report in Rolling Stone, the opening story on NBC News last Thursday night, and the lack of entries about it in my blog, I feel like I cannot remain silent on this topic.
During the Spring 2009 semester, I was enrolled in a speech class. The focus of the class was on poverty. My classmates and I were in groups and were assigned to present a part of the world that faced poverty. My group decided to choose a country that was coming more into focus: Afghanistan. At the time President Obama pledged to increase troop involvement in Afghanistan which led to the speech about the increase in Afghanistan involvement in December 2009 at West Point.TRANSCRIPT “60 Minutes” Interview, March 22, 2009 between Steve Kroft and Barack Obama (can’t find the video… stupid internet)
Highlighting a couple of key points in the interview about Afghanistan:
STEVE KROFT: Afghanistan.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Speaking of which. Yeah.
STEVE KROFT: What-- what should that mission be?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Making sure that al Qaeda cannot attack the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests and our allies. That's our number one priority. And in service of that priority there may be a whole host of things that we need to do. We may need to build up-- economic capacity in Afghanistan. We may need to-- improve our diplomatic efforts in Pakistan. We may need to bring a more regional-- diplomatic approach to bear. We may need to coordinate more effectively with our allies. But we can't lose sight of what our central mission is. The same mission that we had when we went in after 9-11. And that is these folks can project-- violence against the United States' citizens. And that is something that we cannot tolerate. But what we can't do is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is going to be able to solve our problems. . So what we're looking for is a comprehensive strategy. And there's gotta be an exit strategy. There-- there's gotta be a sense that this is not perpetual drift.
STEVE KROFT: Afghanistan has proven to be very hard to govern. This should not come as news to anybody (LAUGHTER) given its history.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right.
STEVE KROFT: As the graveyards of empire. And there are people now who are concerned. We need to be careful what we're getting ourselves into in Afghanistan. Because we have come to be looked upon there by-- by people in Afghanistan, and even people now in Pakistan--
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right.
STEVE KROFT: -as another foreign power coming in, trying to take over the region.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'm very mindful of that. And so is my national security team. So's the Pentagon. Afghanistan is not going to be easy in many ways. And this is not my assessment. This is the assessment of-- commanders on the ground. Is Iraq was actually easier than Afghanistan. It's easier terrain. You've got a-- much better educated population, infrastructure to build off of. You don't have some of the same destabilizing border-- issues that you have between Afghanistan and Pakistan. And so this is going to be a tough nut to crack. But-- it is not acceptable for us to simply sit back and let safe havens of terrorists plan and plot
About sending troops into Afghanistan in the early part of his presidency:
STEVE KROFT: What's the hardest decision you've had to make in the last 60 days?
BARACK OBAMA: Well, I would say that-- the decision to send more troops-- into Afghanistan. You know, I think it's the right thing to do. But it's-- a weighty decision because we actually had to make the decision prior to the completion of-- strategic review-- that-- we were conducting. When I make a decision to send 17 thousand young Americans to Afghanistan, you can understand that intellectually - but understanding what that means for those families, for those young people when you end up sitting at your desk, signing a condolence letter to one of the family members of a fallen hero, you're reminded each and every day at every moment that the decisions you make count.
This is a key quote and I plan to central it around my commentary:
BARACK OBAMA: I am. I spend a lot of time reading. People keep on asking me, "Well, what are you reading these days?" Well, mostly briefing books. You know, you get a little time to read-- history or-- you know, policy books that are of interest. But there's a huge amount of information that has to be digested, especially right now. Because the complexities of Afghanistan-- are matched, maybe even dwarfed, by the complexities of the economic situation. And there are a lot of moving parts to all of that.
He’s right.
Afghanistan is a complex topic.
The country was along the Silk Road that connected Europe to China. The country had been conquered by well known leaders such as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan.
I believe that Afghanistan’s current problems stem from the rampant European colonization taking place in the 1870s, specifically when Great Britain began to increase their involvement on the Indian subcontinent. Afghanistan was used as a buffer between two competing empires: Russia and Great Britain.
EXAMPLE: The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is not as well defined as say between the United States and Canada. That region in the world is made of up of an ethic group called Pashtuns. I would support the argument that you could call that border region Pashtunstan. Frontline makes that claim in their 2008 documentary The War Briefing (click on Chapter 4).
The conclusion that I drew from that speech class project of why countries like the United States, Canada, Japan, and most of western Europe are so much better off economically than Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and any other country previously colonized by European powers until 1947 are these factors: long term stable democracies and education opportunities in particular for women and children.
Looking at Afghanistan’s history post World War I, there have been two periods where they had long term stable governance (1919-1929, 1933-1973). The period that matches the criteria for economic opportunities was the period after the Third Anglo-Afghan War which resulted in Afghanistan’s independence from Great Britain in 1919.
In the post independence period, King Amānullāh Khān, Queen Soraya Tarzi and Foreign Minister Mahmum Tarzi advocated for reforms that would modernize the country. Such reforms included equal rights for ALL citizens, the overturning of strict dress codes towards women, and the instituting of education for both boys and girls. However these reforms were deemed way too progressive for religious leaders. Eventually Khān’s rule was overthrown and he was forced into exile. None of Khān’s policies were instituted.
After Afghanistan’s second period of stable of governance, the country entered the period that we know today. It began with a six year period of bloodless coups and an uprising after the government led assassination of a well known figure in the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Because of its pro-Soviet leanings, the United States under both the Carter and Reagan administrations saw an opportunity to covertly fund the Mujahidin, an Islamic fundamentalist group. The plan was to draw the Soviet Union into its own Vietnam and eventually break up the country to end the Cold War. The reasoning for this plan, according to Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, was “What is most important to the history of the world: The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?”
On December 24, 1979 the Soviet Union began their invasion of Afghanistan. The United States went through with their plan to covertly fund the Mujahidin. The increase of the support happened during the Reagan administration as not only did they support anti-communist resistance in Afghanistan but also in Angola and Nicaragua. Not only was there support of the Mujahidin from the United States but also from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
The international community condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. One of the well known protests was the Olympic boycotts of 1980 and 1984. The United States refused to send athletes to the 1980 Moscow Summer games; in return the Soviet Union responded by not allowing their athletes to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Summer games.
("Charlie Did It")
According to legend, Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-TX 2, 1973-96) was in a hotel partying with several beautiful females in a hot tub when he saw a story on the news of the Soviet aggression taking place in Afghanistan and had a revelation to take action. The Mujahidin received weapons through the clandestine efforts of Congressman Wilson and CIA Officer Gust Avrakotos in order to take down Soviet helicopters.
The war proved to be costly not just to the Soviet Union, but to the nation of Afghanistan. When the Soviet Union finally left in 1989, it is estimated that the number of Afghans killed in the conflict was somewhere between 600,000 to 2 million. Six million refugees were displaced to the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran. At least 38,000 were able to escape to the United States. Two years later, communism fell in the Soviet Union.
The result of the Afghan war was seen as a victory in the United States because the war did result in the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, many people in the intelligence community and Congressman Wilson began to lament about the unforeseen consequences of their actions.
Afghanistan expected the United States to intervene in the rebuilding of their country after the decade long Soviet occupation because we did help them repel the Soviet Union. There really was no post-Soviet plan in place. Also, because of the war, many of the elites and intellectuals fled the country. When that happens, a power vacuum occurs. The country fell into a state of chaos with governance by local warlords.
One group of warlords was able to take control of the government in Kabul: the Taliban.
It was during that time period that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida cronies were able to take shelter in this religious fundamentalist safe haven. From there, bin Laden’s terror network carried out the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya and the 2000 USS Cole (DDG-67) bombing. Despite the best efforts by the Clinton administration, they were unable to capture/terminate bin Laden.
It was during that time period that bin Laden hatched his most diabolical plan and by a stroke of luck he was able to take advantage of the American political climate during the transition phase from the Clinton administration to the W. Bush administration.
On the morning of September 11, 2001 19 al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners. American Airlines 11 hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower in New York City; followed by United 175 hitting the South Tower. American 77 flew into the Pentagon. A fourth plane, United 93 was hijacked and was according to investigators heading back towards DC. Passengers were able to regain control of the aircraft before the plane fatally crashed in a field near Shanksville, PA. At the end of the day, approximately 3000 people were killed, there was structural damage to the Pentagon, and the World Trade Center was destroyed.
President George W. Bush vowed to get those responsible for the attacks. On October 7, 2001 aircraft from the carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) led the initial assault of al-Qaida and the Taliban held government of Afghanistan. Within weeks the Taliban government in Kabul fell and fled to the mountains of Afghanistan. A new government was put in place led by Hamid Karzai.
However, the W. Bush administration decided to go into Iraq in March 2003. That decision proved to be damaging to American standing in the world and led to return of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It was later revealed that in December 2001, American and British forces had bin Laden cornered in the caves near Tora Bora. It was during that battle that bin Laden was able to slip away into neighboring Pakistan.
Since the United States focused all of its military resources on Iraq, the Taliban has regained a foothold in Afghanistan. In 2006, Frontline aired a documentary about how the Taliban had set up base in Pakistan and the potential nightmare of not only Afghanistan collapsing, but the weak Pakistani government falling under Taliban control. Remember, Pakistan became a nuclear state in the late 1990s to counter India’s pursuit of the bomb. The border region between India and Pakistan is one of the most heavily disputed regions in the world. Again, another example of European powers in the 19th centuries just arbitrarily drawing lines on maps.
Today the level of involvement in Afghanistan is back to where it was in October 2001, but the Taliban and al-Qaida are resolved in their efforts. It should also be worth mentioning that the Afghanistan government in Kabul has been facing accusations of corruption, in particular during the 2009 Presidential Election. That can not bode well for a nation that has been unable to have one long term period of stability in the last 35 years. It is almost sad to admit, but Afghanistan’s most stable period from 1980 until today was under the brutal Taliban rule. (WARNING: The Time cover is graphic)
And of course there is the question of Pakistan?
Well… I know that it was a lot of information to absorb in one sitting. Believe me, I know.
But as noted above, Afghanistan is a complex topic. All of this is decades, if not centuries, of events built upon each other.
July 2010 was the deadliest month for American forces in Afghanistan as 63 service members lost their lives. The most disturbing loss of life was the deaths of two sailors in the mentioned article. With the increase of forces in that country, sadly that month will be replaced. Through June 5, 2010, 1,079 American lives have been lost in Afghanistan, 6,232 have been wounded, and 10,009 service members have been medically evacuated (MEDVAC) due to injury or disease. That is a total of 17,320 U.S. casualties (defined as deaths, wounded, and MEDVACs. Source. From April 2010. I have the most recent in my possession).
On top of that, based on the June 5, 2010 figures, 40 deaths were attributed to suicide during the entire period of the Afghanistan War.
So… what does this all mean?
We are approaching the start of the tenth year of the Afghanistan War. How much time and effort are we willing to spend there? Are we willing to put in the same effort that we did into South Korea? It took South Korea 35 years (from the cease fire agreement in 1953 until hosting the Seoul Summer games in 1988) before it was a viable and functioning state. Afghanistan may take much longer given the fact that it has no infrastructure to begin with and at least two generations that have known nothing but war.
Take a look at the woman in this picture. Does she look familiar?
No comments:
Post a Comment