The Futility of the Afghan War

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http://www.thenation.com/blog/166080/futility-afghan-war

Take some time to read “The War Ends Here,” the cover story in the New York Times Sunday magazine. It’s the latest in a series of reports from embedded reporters—in this case, Luke Mogelson—about the endless and intractable war in Afghanistan. Mogelson spent weeks with the US Marines in Helmand province, where 821 American and British troops have died. And he asks, For what, exactly?

Countless Afghan civilians have died there, too, some of whom may or may not have been included in the latest annual report from the United Nations on civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

According to Mogelson, who lets his reporting speak for itself, the point of the American role in Afghanistan today is:

How can we forestall [the Taliban’s] full-fledged resurgence upon our departure?… First, leave behind a proficient national security force. And second, win them as much breathing room as time allows.



Neither one is happening, even as the French declare that they’re pulling up stakes in 2013 and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says that the US combat mission in Afghanistan will end no later than late summer 2013.

[sad sally]

1. Truth speaks loud and clear (from the NY Times story):

“There’s no tactical advantage to going up there other than getting in a firefight,” one officer told me. “We can spend another 10 years in Afghanistan and still be fighting like that. We have to look at the bigger picture, which is turning all of this over to the Afghans.”
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Yet we know the current plan is to stay as long as possible - regardless of who or how many are killed or injured. Yes, we've been told the date is 2013 or 2014, but the end of the NY Times story also speaks truths:

"On a recent afternoon at Camp Leatherneck, I met with Maj. Gen. John Toolan, the commander of coalition forces in southwest Afghanistan. We sat on a porch outside his office, and at one point during our conversation, General Toolan gestured at the steel I-beams of a half-erected building up the way. “Look at this place,” he said. “It’s just being built. We’re not going anywhere. Yes, we’re not going to be conducting the kind of operations that we’re conducting today. But we’re not leaving. I bring all kinds of people over here for meetings. I say: ‘See that new construction over there? How long do you think that’s gonna last? Twenty-five, 30 years?’ ”

To be sure, the United States will try to keep some kind of presence in Afghanistan long after 2014. Big bases might remain; trainers and advisers might come and go; special operations forces might continue to carry out targeted “kill-capture” raids. But conventional forces are coming home."

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In late December, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta assured Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) that the United States was "making undeniable progress" in its war in Afghanistan and that a congressionally mandated, independent assessment of the war was "not necessary." However, recent media reports of internal Department of Defense and Intelligence Community assessments of the war contradict, again, claims of progress and illustrate instead that the war is stalemated with US policies over the last several years weakening the Karzai government and alienating the Afghan population, while strengthening the Afghan insurgency and ruining the US relationship with nuclear armed Pakistan. Independent studies of the conflict by non-government and international organizations corroborate these reports and assessments.

Today, the New York Times reports that an active duty Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Davis, has submitted a classified report to members of Congress that documents the failings of US policy in Afghanistan. More importantly, LTC Davis attests that senior leaders of the Department of Defense, both uniformed and civilian, have intentionally and consistently misled the American people and Congress on the conduct and progress of the Afghan War. The 58-page classified report he prepared, briefed and submitted to senators, representatives and cleared staff members over the last few weeks utilizes nearly 50 historical and current classified sources and draws from 250 interviews he conducted with soldiers throughout Afghanistan during his most recent year-long combat deployment.
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In contrast, for those in Washington charged with the decisions of war and peace, many of the participants seem to alternate between Pollyannas, chickenhawks and those who have lost sight of the difference between respect for and deference to the military. Any accounting for last year's 5,500 killed and wounded, if the discussants are even aware of the toll, is only a mathematical exercise, and an abstract one at that
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The assumptions underlying the escalation of the Afghan war were incorrect. The Afghan surge, viewed by policy makers and some in the military as some form of social experiment to validate personal and institutional legacies and theories, rather than achieve US objectives worthy of bodily sacrifice, is failing. LTC Davis has demonstrated the courage to expose the deceptions that perpetuate this war, its failings and its deaths. It is now up to the American people and its Congress to hold those who were not just wrong, but mendacious, to account.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-hoh/lieutenant-colonel-davis-afghanistan_b_1256157.html?du

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2. +1