MotherJones Blog: Remember Afghanistan?

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Remember Afghanistan?

Afghanistan. In the 1980s, we sent in the CIA, gave weapons to the mujahideen, and defeated the Soviets. In the 1990s, we got out, allowed our erstwhile allies to kill each other, and sat by as the country was taken over by religious fanatics and terrorists. After 9/11, we realized our mistake, went back in, chased Al Qaeda and the Taliban out of their caves, and declared victory. Afterward, we invaded Iraq and once again forgot all about the place. But the pendulum still swings, and now, as before, our willful ignorance of that troubled country (if indeed it meets that definition) is coming back to bite us.

Or so conclude three separate reports released yesterday by the National Defense University, the Atlantic Council, and the Afghanistan Study Group (ASG). "Make no mistake," says the Atlantic Council report, "NATO is not winning in Afghanistan... Urgent changes are required now to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a failing or failed state." The problem (and don't say you didn't see this coming) is that the war in Iraq drained political will, money, and military resources away from Afghanistan, allowing it to drift back into the very same chaos that first attracted Bin Laden to the sanctuary of its caves. According to the ASG report:

Afghanistan stands today at a crossroads. The progress achieved after six years of international engagement is under serious threat from resurgent violence, weakening international resolve, mounting regional challenges and a growing lack of confidence on the part of the Afghan people about the future direction of their country. The United States and the international community have tried to win the struggle in Afghanistan with too few military forces and insufficient economic aid, and without a clear and consistent comprehensive strategy to fill the power vacuum outside Kabul and to counter the combined challenges of reconstituted Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a runaway opium economy, and the stark poverty faced by most Afghans.

Yesterday's release of the ASG report (produced by the Center for the Study of the American Presidency, which also wrote the Iraq Study Group report) has temporarily revived Afghanistan in the eyes of the press, which in recent days has pumped out a series of "where are they now"-type reports about the country.

The occasion was also marked by a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning, at which the report's principal authors, Marine General James L. Jones and Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, testified to their deepening concern about the prospects of Afghanistan spiraling out of control. The situation there is a "growing crisis," said Pickering, who warned of "weakening resolve" among NATO partners amid escalating violence.

The Bush administration (which maintains a somewhat rosier view of things) was represented at the hearing by State Department officials Richard Boucher and David Johnson. Under questioning from Senator John Kerry, Boucher acknowledged that bombings have increased (77 suicide bombings in the last six months, versus just five in the preceding four years), but claimed that things are otherwise "improving." Despite increased violence, he noted, the Taliban remain incapable of taking and holding territory. "They've failed," he said.

It certainly doesn't feel that way in the south of the country, where NATO allies are bickering over who should deploy combat forces to take on the resurgent Taliban. Violence in southern Helmand Province is up 60 percent on the year, on top of a nationwide uptick of 27 percent. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned recently that unless NATO can deploy another 1,000 soldiers to Kandahar Province (Helmand's neighbor to the east), he will withdraw Canada's troops; his nation has been shouldering a large portion of the fighting in the region and has lost 78 soldiers and one diplomat since deploying in 2002. So far, no other NATO country seems willing to share the pain, although the Germans are debating increasing their troop presence in northern Afghanistan.

For it's part, the U.S. military is planning to send in another 3,200 Marines in anticipation of a third-annual Taliban spring offensive.

It would appear we face yet another choice in the eternal question: should we care about Afghanistan? Given what happens when we ignore the place, the answer should be obvious. But Senator Richard Lugar knows that even obvious truths sometimes escape us. "At some point... our NATO allies, maybe even of the American people, our constituents, will say, 'We've done enough. These folks are on their own.'"

Comments

We let Afghanistan slide because whether we admit it or not our military is stretched to thin. We do not have the resources to prevent terror attacks on our own soil, the National Guard is broken down. Couple that with our thoery / policy of fighting one war ( Iraq) and have a holding action with the other war ( Afghanistan). To put this in a historical perspective, it would have been fighting in Europe with NATO, while waging a Holding action in Korea, remember this policy? The United Sates Military is basically the worlds police force, our Nato Allies ( except for the Poles and a few others _) do not care about the strategic balance. They are to worried about the problems that they are facing with all of their Muslim immigrants, and the potential problems this is bringing to the European continent. Couple this with the fact that Americans are fat and overwieght, lack anything but a very poor formal eduacation, and you have coupled with our prolong wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the perfect storm to not only brake our military, but our economy as well. In conlusion, beware China and a new more proffesional Russian military.

Posted by: Chris Morgan on 02/01/08 at 6:54 PM Respond

I truly believe, that it's time to regroup.

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Posted by: Dr.Q on 02/02/08 at 6:38 AM Respond

We used the Afghans to help breakdown the Soviet Union. They were a tool. We funded and supplied weapons to religious fanatics to do some of our dirty work. Just as we used the same people in Yugosklavia (with the help of NATO). Religious fanatics that hate the US government just as much as they hate the Soviet government. The invasion of Afghanistan was mostly to get Americans used to invading other countries. The presidency used the pretext of 'getting' Bin Laden to invade Afghanistan. Yet the president is on tape joking about finding Bin Laden. Stating that he could care less about Bin Laden (as well as WMDS in Iraq). Afghanistan is no more of a concern to our government and the wealthy who control it than as a market, part of the process of increasing American imperialism and another base of operations in the world theatre. Our government puts just enough of what it needs to keep Afghanistan what it wants Afghanistan to be. We like to think we progress. That the empires of the past were barbaric and that we are civilized. That's what each empire liked to think. Our tools are more refined but just as barbaric.

Posted by: nakis on 02/04/08 at 5:58 AM Respond

Being an Empire is not easy and there are no easy choices either, but I guess the U.S. made all the wrong ones. Afghanistan is haunting America now because rather than seeing that country through amore balanced view, both the militant government in Washington as well as the people decided to wear the lens of nationalism and radicalism. Thus, we can explain the absurd "You are with us or against us."

Posted by: Jim on 02/06/08 at 10:12 AM Respond

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD

In the present world there are no scientists who question the climate crisis.
Nobody knows when it will hit the world and at what magnitude.
The good story is that the world will survive and so will you.

Our present leaders seem to believe that the New World will leave them with a paradise in Afghanistan.
In this paper I will state to you why this is a miscalculation and I will tell you how you and your family will be safe.

First I must state that there is no reason to be unsecure about what is coming.
The turbulence in the world has ended. Our present leaders who are still in office have lost their authority.
They are not running the World any more.

At this moment we are left to lead our self.
From today and to the New World has formed we must be self guided.
We must know that we are safe as long as we have faith in our heavenly Father.
We will be guided by God to be at the right spot when changes come.
There is no reason to panic. There is no reason to have fear.

What we will see in the world starting from today is people beginning to help and love each other.
Because this is how God will become visible for us.
The truth is that God is a part of us and that we get connected to God when we are doing his will on earth.
When God is visible for us he will show us the way.

God has given us a free will to choose between good and evil.
But God won´t allow us to destroy his creation.
Our planet is special to him and he cares about us as though we were the only world in the universe.
Starting from today, we will see people of different races and religions starting loving each other.
We will see businesses sharing their wealth with the pore and helpless.

Our leaders in office don´t run the world any more.
Their time is over.
Their strategies to find safe haven in Afghanistan before finding God is naïve.
Their intelligence is not adorable.
Read the New Testament to find answers to your questions.
Remember that God hates the sins but loves the sinner.

Posted by: Søren Kjær Vestergaard on 04/24/08 at 5:57 AM Respond