Obama's War

Forty-four will double down in Afghanistan "preferring not to hand anything off" to the next president, and will tell the American people that they cannot afford to allow a fundamentalist Islamic regime to take power if they want to sleep soundly in their beds at night. He will be guilty of the same conflated rhetoric before a captive audience used by Forty-three to justify the invasion of Iraq. It did not matter to Shrub that Saddam Hussein was not supporting Al Qaeda. Saddam probably considered the Islamic extremist, Osama Bin Laden, a dangerous adventurer who was playing with fire. Similarly, the Taliban is not Al Qaeda. Even the Pentagon admits there are perhaps only 100 Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. The very fact the United States and its NATO allies have been unable to defeat the Taliban after eight years of fighting indicates they have popular support in the country. Such support is entirely understandable given the secular government propped up by the United States is a only a few levels of integrity above a narco-cartel. Forty-four's justification for more troops will overlook the fact that the Taliban is an outgrowth of the mujahadeen supported by the US. They successfully ousted the Soviet Union in a jihad, and went on to win a devastating Tajik-Pashtun civil war from which Afghanistan has never fully recovered. It is typical of American imperial arrogance that the after the Islamic fighters played pawns' role in the Cold War, their fundamentalist fervor fanned by the CIA was largely ignored. If the Pentagon estimates of Al Qaeda strength are anywhere near accurate then the US can credibility claim it has issued sufficient "pay back" to leave in an orderly manner. Forty-four rejects any comparison between the Vietnam and Afghanistan conflicts, but the factors he choses to differentiate them with, while reasonable are superficial, since both conflicts arise from the decades long effort to maintain worldwide US military dominance. Imperial America was viciously attacked, but the man responsible is still at large and hiding in Pakistan.

Osama Bin Laden was in the country when the Taliban took power as a warlord's guest, but one not unreservedly welcomed despite the Pashtun code of hospitality. The xenophobic fundamentalists concluded the pan-Arab Al Qaeda presence a liability, preventing them from achieving international legitimacy. In 2000 the Taliban initiated talks with the EU, facilitated by businessman Kabir Mohabbat, to transfer bin Laden out of the country. The Taliban's offer was transmitted to the US ambassador in Germany. Mohabbat was put on the US payroll from November 2000 to late September 2001 by which time he had been paid $115,000. Despite the attack on the USS Cole the new regime in Washington failed to immediately follow up with Mohabbat's offer from the Taliban. According to Mohabbat, as reported by Counterpunch, Taliban leaders were flown in two C-130s to a meeting with US officials in Quetta shortly after the attacks of September 11th. Mohabbat acted as a translator at the meeting. There the Taliban leaders agreed to three American demands: the immediate handover of bin Laden; extradition of foreigners in Al Qaeda who were wanted by their home countries; and the closing of Al Qaeda bases and training camps. Incredibly, the Charlatan did not capitalize on the opportunity presented to him, literally on a silver platter, to kill or capture the mastermind behind the terror network. After the US had started bombing the stark Afghan countryside from 40,000 feet, Mohabbat relayed a renewed Taliban offer to hand over bin Laden. He was told by a US consulate general in Islamabad, "the train had moved". Eight years later the war is stalemated, and Osama is still at large. So much for change you can believe.