Afghan Folly, Bring The Troops Home Now!

It appears that this well-documented RawStory.com article gives us another graphic lesson about the folly of imperial adventures with its description of a recent suicide bombing.

The article describes how the CIA recruited an Afghani to act as an “informant,” (which is polite-speak for spy). CIA personnel escorted said Afghani would-be informant into a CIA facility, whereupon he detonated the bomb he had hidden on his person, killing himself, several CIA agents, including the CIA station chief, along with several “contractors” (more polite-speak for mercenaries).

The bomber was wearing the uniform of the Karzai’s Afghan National Army. He enjoyed enough trust that security did not check him for any hidden nasty surprises before escorting him into the compound.

This was despite the known success the Taliban have had in infiltrating the Afghan National Army, police, and security forces, and the corruption of the Karzai regime.

Now I don’t much care for the forces who make up the Taliban. However, they are native forces fighting an unpopular foreign occupying army.

The resistance fighters don’t have drones, tanks, or sophisticated weapons. Their main asset is they look like locals and blend into the local population. What embarrasses the occupiers is that the local population broadly supports resistance to foreign occupation, despite misgivings about the resistance’s brand of Islam.

Predictably, the American occupiers call the native resistance to American occupation “terrorism.” The Soviet Union also called native resistance to their occupation “terrorism” during their equally futile 1979-1989 attempt to occupy Afghanistan.

We should not ignore where this Afghan suicide bomber came from. He apparently was a part of the so-called Haqqani Network, formed by Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was one of those guys the CIA armed and supported when he was fighting the Soviet invasion. Apparently, Mr. Haqqani is somewhat of a military genius in the strategy and tactics of fighting wars against foreign military occupations.

The United States should not be interfering in someone else’s civil war. This military effort only gives ammunition to forces like Al Qaeda who claim the west is fighting against Islam.

It looks to me like Al Qaeda packed their bags and moved to Yemen months ago, leaving the merest of skeleton crews behind in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

That leaves the United States fighting to support corrupt and unpopular regimes against an insurgency which gains traction by claiming they’re trying to drive out the foreigners. It also encourages the Taliban to ignore their very real differences with Al Qaeda and the Bin Laden gang.

 

It’s time to bring the troops home now.

 

Regards,

 

Alan OldStudent