Afganistan America Canada NATO and Lies

Either They All Lie, Or They Are  Just Plain Stupid – Or – They Think We’re Stupid

All Governments Lie – I.F. Stone

(Incidentally, that goes for both Conservatives and Liberals in Canada).

Canadian government officials have talked a lot lately about changes for the better in Afghanistan. But no one seems to know where   the government’s facts are coming from and one wonders if they know themselves. It’s all so vague and imprecise mostly about roadbuilding and poorly-attended schools.

One might also wonder if Ministers in the Harper government know much about Afghanistan’s long conflictive history or even its more recent history since the American invasion. At a time like this, information – good information – is essential. We’ve already seen what   bad information did to the Americans in Iraq. We may now be seizing on some not so good info ourselves.

This Afghanistan "war" was started when the Americans undertook to use air power in 2002, to unseat the Taleban government. The   justification was that the Taleban had allowed Osama bin Laden and his foreign supporters to set up training camps on their soil. The   attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were said to have been planned in those camps.

But interestingly, no hard evidence has ever been produced that would suggest the Afghan Taleban were involved in either the   planning or in the attacks themselves. No evidence at all, to support the allegation that the Taleban are related even distantly to   international terrorism against Europe or North America. In fact, most of the 9-11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. It’s interesting too, that all along, America’s number one  ally in the region has been Pakistan. (Pakistan, it should be remembered was the primary sponsor of the Taleban government). The   idea of trying to wipe out the Taleban may be like the Catholic Church’s idea of trying to wipe out the Heretics. So the military attack on Afghanistan may have been a huge mistake from the very beginning.

Nevertheless, the Americans did jump in quickly and bombed the Afghans and then invaded with hunting parties.

8,000 U.S. soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan in 2002, with orders to hunt down Taleban and al Qaeda members and kill them; it was not their job, the Americans said then, to engage in peacekeeping or reconstruction. The 4,000-member international peacekeeping and assistance force (ISAF), did not venture beyond Kabul at that time.

The above paragraph illustrates the inherent and deadly flaw in the western strategy in Afghanistan. From the outset there were two distinct forces, with two very different operational approaches. There was the international approach which was focussed on establishing a new   government in Kabul, and there was the American strategy, which was primarily to hunt and kill. This dichotomy continues today and   is the source of our present dilemma – because our military and political leaders appear to have bought into the unproductive "hunt and kill" part.

Today some 12,000 U.S. soldiers and special forces still operate outside the NATO command structure. Canada’s Defence Minister Mr. MacKay made no reference to this fact today in his speech to Parliament.   Does he even know about it?

In February of 2006, the Bush administration was warned about a Taleban-resurgence. Despite the warnings from the American   Ambassador, Mr. Neumann and military officials, Condileeza Rice later lied and said, “there was no doubt that people were surprised that the Taliban was able to regroup and come back in a large, well-organized force.”

NATO is not succeeding in Afghanistan now and cannot succeed as long as there is no unified command.

• Western forces are not making progress and will not make progress until a common strategy is developed and accepted by all NATO   members, including the U.S.

• Canada is part of a failed strategy without clear goals and without adequate means.

The taproot of the present failure goes back to the decision by President George W. Bush to invade Iraq. The vast majority of U.S.  intelligence teams in Afghanistan were diverted to Iraq. Funds were diverted. Aid positions in Afghanistan went unfilled. Training of  Afghan soldiers and police slowed down and the split between the American approach and the international approach widened. The U.S./international split ended up undermining Afghan confidence in the western forces; it raised Afghan suspicions of everything the western countries said they were trying to do. Those suspicions were often the result of careless and incompetent aerial bombardment by the Americans, who even killed several Canadian soldiers by accident.

Powerful Afghan warlords saw what was happening. They saw a weak central government in Kabul and refused to hand over tens of   millions of dollars they had collected as duties at border crossings. The Americans were cutting back in Afghanistan, in order to bolster their forces in Iraq. And at the same time Afghanistan itself was being balkanized. Part of it was controlled by warlords, part   by powerful tribal chieftains, part by the Taleban, part by opium producers and part by the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai.

The lying started in 2002.

Bush and his officials lied about the extent of planning for an Iraq invasion; they lied about the diversion of resources from Afghanistan. The sad part of all this is that Canadian and European military and political officials knew very well that the Americans   were lying, but said nothing, preferring to sit on their hands in silence and see what would happen.

There was confusion amongst the "allied forces", unwillingness on the part of Afghans to join the army or the police, unfettered  cultivation of opium, corrupt activities by warlords and lack of a coordinated aid effort by western governments. All this confusion made it possible for the Taleban to slip back across the border with Pakistan – where they had been hiding – and begin to re-establish themselves.

The lack of resources in Afghanistan persists to this day.

"Defence Minister" Peter MacKay is blowing smoke when he says things are getting better. Things are actually getting worse. And it  makes the Manley report on the "mission" look all the more ridiculous. In particular it makes his suggestion that a thousand more soldiers will turn the tide in the south, look worse than ridiculous.

Ignorance Is Ecstasy For Some

Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay and others were ecstatic on May 1st, 2003, when they watched George Bush standing proudly on   the deck of an aircraft carrier declaring "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.  You see, they said, we could have been there too. They   applauded. (Bush was lying of course).

At about the same time, their friend Paul Martin was ecstatically watching Donald Rumsfeld in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul say the   following: “We clearly have moved from major combat activity to a period of stability and stabilization and reconstruction activities. The bulk of the country today is permissive, it’s secure.” And Paul applauded. (Rumsfeld was also lying).

Our guys were either high or just ignorant of the facts.

It wasn’t long before the American strategy in Iraq began to fall apart and Afghanistan was relegated permanently to the back burner.

American aid to Afghanistan was cut sharply.

Things were going bad in Pakistan too. U.S.-Pakistan relations were deteriorating, as it became apparent that the real enemy, al Qaeda   was holed up in the land of General Musharraf, who – some suspected even then – was on his way to oblivion.  Let’s not forget that   the Pakistan military and security establishment had supported the Taleban against the so-called Northern Alliance, backed by India   and Iran. And…as it happens…that Northern Alliance is now allied with – guess who – us! Oh and by the way, in case you were wondering, our northern warlord allies are every bit as "fundamentalist" as the Taleban. The main difference seems to be that they like   dogfighting.

Well it’s now 5 years later and the applause of 2003 has died away; mission not accomplished.

The American military is not quite a spent force, but it won’t be much help to us in Afghanistan.

Europe is having trouble finding a thousand soldiers to take the lead or even back us up.

And Mr. Manley has apparently given up trying to find some spare change to put up a website so the Canadian public could   comment on his excuse for a report.

Perhaps the moment has finally arrived when we must consider engaging Pakistan and the Taleban in a dialogue aimed at resolving   our true role in Afghanistan.