America sought revenge for 9/11. Al-Quada was the main target. October 7,2001 the US opened its invasion of Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance backed by US strategic bombing swiftly routed the enemy. The media were astounded by the swift collapse of the Islamic republic without taking into consideration that the mountainous country was on the verge of mass starvation with the approach of winter. The Taliban faded into the people and Al-Quada retreated into the tribal areas along the Pakistan border. Victory slipped out of the grasp of the US military with the escape of Osama Bin Laden during the undermanned assault of the Tora Bora stronghold.
Since then our troop presence has steadily increased to 94,000 thereby surpassing the effort in Iraq. There is no front line. Suicide bombers target the populace. IEDs blast IASF convoys. Corruption is rampant. The opium trade flourishes and warlords rule small fiefdoms financed by Pentagon.
Afghanistan is a country that eats armies. Strategies fail and soldiers die.
This week the war claimed the commander of the occupation forces, where comments by General Stanley McChrystal made to Rolling Stone created a firestorm in Washington. The general obviously was obeying President Obama’s edict of the revocation of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell. Honesty was in the air, as he said on his way to a Paris dinner at the Ecole Militaire,”I’d rather have my ass kicked by a roomful of people than go out to this dinner, unfortunately no one in this room could do it.”
His rejection of VP Joe Biden’s advice was another nail in the coffin, calling the second-in-command by the nickname ‘Bit-me’. The general’s take on Obama was even worst. The two remained at loggerheads and the emergence of these statements led to his dismissal. The first time A president has relieved a general in combat since Douglas MacArthur was summoned to the White House by Harry Truman.
The new top dog is David Petraus who is credited with saving Iraq.
Bombings and corruption.
The new state of democracy.
Messy like Dick Cheney said it would be, but the truth is that no one knows how to put this country back together and that’s the truth no one is able to say.
Not even in a free society.
“In Afghanistan, this is the problem, because everybody holds a piece of that mirror, and they all look at it and claim that they hold the entire truth.” – Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Over US 1000 dead and counting.
No one counts the Afghan dead.
They are strictly collateral damage.