Kandahar Cluster**** Watch - The 'We Had to Destroy the Village to Save It' Version

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Kandahar Cluster**** Watch - The 'We Had to Destroy the Village to Save It' Version
Posted by Michael Cohen

There was a rather extraordinary and disturbing interview with David Petraeus over the weekend about the coming battle for Kandahar - and it serves as compelling evidence of the farcical, even tragic, assumptions that lie at the heart of the US mission in Afghanistan:

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"And that can mean difficult and tough fights. But that is something that is necessary, becuase the mission here in Afghanistan is of extraordinary importance to the Afghan people, to the region and to the world," he said."

This is simply an amazing statement. Let's ignore for a moment that the mission Petraeus' describes as being of "extraordinary importance" to the Afghan people is, according to the Army's own public opinion surveys, opposed by approximately 94% of all Kandaharis. Actually, it's pretty hard to ignore these facts because it provides fairly compelling evidence that our mission in Afghanistan, which is supposedly predicated on "protecting the people" and recognizes them as the "center of gravity" in the counter-insurgency fight seems only mildly interested in what they actually want.

But it also bears noting that the "horrific actions" that will be taken by the enemy are a direct result of our engagement in Southern Afghanistan. I have no doubt that there are many Afghans in the region who want us to rollback the insurgency (just as there are many who broadly sympathize with the Taliban); and I'm equally convinced that the Taliban insurgency is a nasty piece of work.

But all this notwithstanding, there is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the US mission in Afghanistan - for all our talk about protecting civilians, the reality is that our very presence in Southern Afghanistan is getting people killed. And if our goal is to turn the Afghan people against the Taliban and on to the side of NATO and the Kabul government - no matter how noble an endeavor that might be - ensuring that more of them die is a pretty strange way to go about achieving that goal.

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http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2010/05/kandahar-cluster-watch-the-we-had-to-destroy-the-village-to-save-it-version.html