By Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni
KABUL | Wed Feb 1, 2012 5:32am EST
(Reuters) - The U.S. military said in a secret report the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, raising the prospect of a major failure of western policy after a costly war.
Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed the existence of the document, reported by Britain’s Times newspaper and the BBC. But he said it was not a strategic study.
“The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions,” he said. “It’s not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis.”
Nevertheless, it could be interpreted as a damning assessment of the war, now dragging into its eleventh year and aimed at blocking a Taliban return to power.
Imagine the past decade had we finished the job at Tora Bora (December 2001) and came home. No scenic detour through Baghdad. Simply continued drone strikes against AQ bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which have ultimately proven more effective in destroying AQ leadership than anything else.
Would the world be significantly different today? More importantly, where would this country be today and how different might the national mood be?
The failure of American leadership to pick up a history book and the failure of the American public to demand accountability from those leaders has led us well down the road to ruin.
This wasn’t too difficult to predict as others have mentioned. My thoughts go out to all the men and women who have served and are currently serving in Afghanistan and to the families who have lost loved ones there.
People should demand that Congress must declare war as outlined in the Constitution. The people in government that make these unilateral decisions should be held accountable for their actions.
Sounds like we need to kill a lot more of them before we leave then. Then make sure we have plenty of drones ready to rain death from above as often as needed.
Afghanistan is a complete loss? No shit, that was sort of obvious to me around 2005.
The Taliban is a creation of and controlled by the Pakistani ISI (google it). Pakistan has enough problems with India and does not want another regional competitor. Pakistan keeps Afghanistan broke and in disarray. The path to fixing Afghanistan goes thru Pakistan (literally). If we are not willing to deal with the ISI then there is no ‘fixing’ Afghanistan.
And this is supposed to be a surprise, why? When the CiC announces the pullout of troops based on political promises without regard to the actual situation; this is the result. :mad:
My worry is I know quite a few individuals who are currently in country and are scheduled to go sometime in the future; are they going cancel their deployment and bring them home as well? Or are they going to use them for rear guard actions?
So is a Buff, especially when it’s 200ft AGL and you’re on a hilltop, above it.
If I were in country right now, I’d be doing my level best to do absolutely nothing, appear nonexistent and pretend otherwise for the brass. Dying sucks. Dying at the end of a conflict for no real purpose sucks even harder.
Actually, this TTP has been used for some time now. Given that it is impossible to ‘win’ anything in Afghanistan many commanders have a goal to simply avoid pissing of the brass, bring everyone home, and not lose any equipment.
Yup. And as history has shown us, the casualty rate of an Army (per capita based on the number of Soldiers who are in country) increases during retrograde operations. They proved this during the end of the Vietnam War.
