Afghan peacekeeping overshadowed - Asia Times

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

It's now a war fought for PR. To show that our government is "tough on terra'" until we can get out of the quagmire without "losing face".

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KI15Df01.html

KABUL - Each month since United States President Barack Obama has taken office, Afghanistan has seen a growing number of civilian and military deaths - a spiral of violence that has served to destabilize a nation already struggling to recover from its previous three decades of war.

Nearly a decade after the September 11, 2009, World Trade Center bombings in New York, international military operations in Afghanistan are no longer about preventing Afghanistan from becoming another safe haven for al-Qaeda, but about their own survival. Every student of counter-insurgency knows that when force protection becomes a priority over winning over the local population, you might as well pack up your bags and go home.

Nearly every terrorist attack on US interests or its allies since September 11, 2001, such as those in Riyadh, Madrid, London and Istanbul, were initiated and coordinated not from Afghanistan but from cells within the heart of Europe or Pakistan.

And, the message that al-Qaeda will return if the international community allows the Taliban to take over Afghanistan is a misrepresentation of the facts, a fear tactic used by politicians in Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels meant to buy the time needed for a face-saving withdrawal.