Rethinking Afghanistan - Whose War Is This?

[Sinti]

I was just trying to find out if we were aggressively trying to stop the arms flowing into Afghanistan, to basically force the Taliban to stop fighting for lack of supplies. A couple of Google searches has led me to ask a different question. Whose War Is This?

If the arms come from China, and the ideology comes from Saudi Arabia why are we sending our troops to kill and die in Afghanistan?

If the Chinese and Saudis want to attack a nation, shouldn't the blood be on their own hands? Shouldn't they be paying for their own war, rather than draining more and more from our economy? Shouldn't our place be to be feeding the bellies and minds of these people under siege? Violent extremism is learned, and can be unlearned. Shouldn't we be trying to actually stop it? In all honesty, it's hurting them too. No one should have to live with a mind full of that kind of darkness and fear.

From everything we hear in the news China is crushing us on the economic front. Most of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia and were trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan and China have very good relations, as do China and Saudi Arabia.

Norinco, a Chinese state-owned company makes the model of AK-47 that the Taliban use, unless they've suddenly switched weapons and suppliers. They say these guns are now also made in the autonomous region of Pakistan. If you were fighting a war do you think you'd use a Khyber Pass Copy AK that might blow up in your face or a real one from a reliable Chinese manufacturer with whom you already have a relationship? If they could put 300,000 AKs on American streets, how hard would it be to send them to Afghanistan through their friends in Pakistan?

Why on earth is China willing to fund a war with American soldiers in large numbers so close to their border? Does that make sense? Why would we be willing to take money to fight this war from the ONLY nation in the world that is a competitor to us militarily, especially given these conditions?



Did someone who knew what we did to Russia in Afghanistan decide they might try it on us - using the Chinese as the weapons supplier and the Saudis/Pakistanis as the recruiting tool? How do we know they don't have some arrangements that we are not privy to? Are we omniscient now? What if we are wrong?

If the Russians knew they were fighting us by proxy in Afghanistan, do you think they would have pulled out? Remember, the first casualty of war is the truth, and the second is common sense.



They're all making plenty of money on this, of course. War in the region creates more risk in the oil markets, so oil goes through the roof. The Chinese are loaning us money at interest, flooding our markets with goods and taking our jobs. War, Inc., makes out in all these affairs and on both sides, as is their MO.

Speaking of money, just because former President Bush and his family had close ties with both China and Saudi Arabia does not mean they were using good judgment? If you look over a myriad of events during their term in office, it becomes obvious they did not always use good judgment.

A man's judgment is only as good as the information he has, and the family situation here suggests to me that their information was definitely colored by their associations. They have invested a lot in those friendships. Should we assume that all parties involved are being honest?



You would think all these men in the DoD who plan for every contingency possible, including being attacked by Canada, that these possibilities would have been thought of. They should be a lot better at analyzing all the possible angles than I am. What's the greater danger here? Strategists Jiang Zemin's military could have planned this years ago. Iran could be playing us, with China and SA happily playing along assuming they can grab what's left on the cheap and have better positioning to boot. Have you read the Art of War?

Look at a map of the region, then look at where we're sending troops. Technically, we as a nation are in the pincers between Saudi Arabia and China with Iran as a buttress between. Our armed forces are now being sent, willfully, into the pincers to be smashed against the Hindu Kush. This same mountain range has crushed many powerful nations. Why are we being so foolish? Why such hubris?



Honestly, if we were attacked by an actual nation tomorrow, as opposed to a rag-tag team of militants, could we respond? Do we have sufficient industry at home to create the needed munitions to defend without any raw material and/or manufacturing from China and elsewhere? Could we defend from an invasion on our soil? I'm just saying at what point does our security obsession become a real threat to our national security? National security depends on much more than just some big bombs and looking tough.

If we continue this madness, and break ourselves against the Kush, as we seem to be intent on doing, then the madness itself will have finally done what the Nazis failed to do - which is bring down both America and the Soviet Communists. Whose world is it then? Who wins? Whose ideals prevail? Who gets the most marbles?

How do we make it stop?

edited for silly typo

[Arctic Dave]

1. Great post, very informative.

I have to agree with you that other countries are helping extend these occupations to benefit themselves. We do it, why wouldn't they.

[readmoreoften]

2. Maybe it's not China but "someone in China" or someone selling Chinese weapons.

Troops are being shot with the weapons we give to the Afghan police who sell their weapons to the Taliban as well. (This has been a big issue.)

[Sinti]

4. This is yet another problem

Our own weapons can be used against us in this situation. There are just so many issues. There are so many angles you can look at this from and really none of them look good.

I went looking for what we were doing about the weapons, because of what my personal reaction to an aggressive bunch of people would be. It's kind of like tribal terms - these guys are coming in here to kill us, what do we do? Hmm... let's sneak over in the middle of the night and steal all their guns... maybe leave something to eat in place of the guns, so they know we don't want to kill them. Then figure out why they want to kill us and fix it if we can.

Individual people really only attack others for one of two reasons. The first is that they think they're stronger and want whatever the other person has - additionally, they cannot get it some other, or easier way. The second reason is that they are afraid of you and feel they must attack to protect themselves.

What can be said about the minute can generally be said about the very large. A group mind is still a mind. If you accept this understanding, the first reason does not make any sense in this scenario. I really wish people understood that security and peace go hand-in-hand. The most secure nations are the most peaceful, because they don't make enemies.

[leftstreet]

3. K&R for outstanding links

Bookmarked

Thanks for taking the time to do this

:hi:

[L0oniX]

5. For everyone that joins the military ...it's their war.