Obama Needs to End Afghan War

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 15, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

               Launching their feeble spring offensive, the Taliban continues to pound away at U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.  Now a shell of the Oct. 7, 2001 mission called Operation Enduring Freedom, only three-smoke-filled weeks from Sept. 11, the Afghan War continues to deplete the U.S. military and Treasury. Eleven years into the war, 1,925 U.S. troops have lost their lives, costing the U.S. Treasury nearly $520 billion.  With 63,230 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, U.S. casualty rates have quintupled since Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009,  Instead of following his campaign promise, Barack listened to his generals, especially former Centcom Commander David H. Petraeus, who decided to surge troops, like Iraq, hoping to gain ground on the slippery Afghan Taliban.  Director of the Central Intelligence Agency since Oct. 6, 2011, Petraeus is no longer responsible for Afghanistan.

            Eleven years of war in Afghanistan finally accomplished its mission of Operation Enduring Freedom May 1, 2011 when Navy Seals terminated Sept. 11 mastermind 54-year-old terrorist Osama bin Laden.   Once a paid CIA operative fighting the Soviet Afghan War [1979-1989], where 14,453 troop lost their lives, financially breaking the Soviet Union, Bin Laden went on a rampage.  When a Soviet puppet took over Afghanistan in 1979, former Presdient Jimmy Carter took his Truman Doctrine responsibilities seriously, backing Bin Laden’s ragtag mujahedeen holy warriors for 10 years before pulling the plug in 1989.  Soviet troops pulled out after the Berlin Wall fell Nov. 9, 1989, leading to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union Dec. 8, 1991.  Today’s U.S,. Afghan War is a shell of the conflict waged by the Soviets against U.S.-backed rebels that cost the Soviet Union its sovereignty and 14,453 lives.

            Today’s Taliban springtime offensive marks more attacks in the “Green Zone” a highly secure area of Kabul hosting foreign embassies.  “Saying their main targets were German and British embassies and the headquarters of Afghanistan’s NATO-led forces,” the Taliban claimed responsibility for coordinated rocket-propelled grenade attacks inside the fortified Green Zone.  What’s significant is theTaliban’s infiltration into secure areas of Kabul, indicating collusion by the Hamid Karzai governemnt.  While today’s fighting in Afghanistan is negligible compared to the conflict with the Soviets, it’s still costing U.S. and NATO lives without any end in sight.  While no one can define today’s mission, it’s often explained as stabilizing the Karzai government.  U.S. officials have been slow to accept Karzai’s ongoing role supporting his Taliban brothers and forcing out U.S. and NATO forces.

            Taliban infiltration into Kabul’s Green Zone shows direct involvement by the Karzai government.  Karzai routinely blasts U.S. and NATO forces for accidentally targeting Afghan civilians.  When 39-year-old Staff Sgt. Robert Bales went berzerk March 16, killing 16 Afghan civilians mostly women and children, it was a wake-up call about the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.  Apart from the the fact that Bales suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from multiple deployments, his execution-style killings show a mission gone completely awry.  When Al-Qaeda’s Osama Bin Laden and Taliban’s Mullah Mohammed Oama fled Afghanistan Dec. 14, 2001, the U.S., should have recalibrated the mission.  Instead, the U.S. and NATO hung on in what’s been a hopeless mission from Day 1.  Everyone knows now that the Taliban had nothing to do with pulling off Sept. 11.

            U.S. officals knew since former Presdient Bill Clinton was in office that Bin Laden was based out of al-Qaeda training camps outside Kabul.  Former CIA Director George J. Tenet declared war on Bin Laden in 1998, following attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa.  When Clinton shot Cruise missiles at Bin Laden’s Afghan camps in 1998, its was a feckless response to a dangerous enemy waiting to strike inside the U.S.  When Bin Laden struck again Oct. 12, 2000 during an election year, suicide bombing the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen’s Gulf of Aden, the U.S. failed to retaliate.  Less than a year later, Sept. 11 took place.  Staying in Afghanistan weakens the U.S. military and does not protect U.S. national security.  Today’s muliple bombings in Afghan’s Green Zone show that U.S. and NATO are bogged down in a civil war pitting the fundamentalist Taliban against the two-faced U.S.-backed Karzai government.

            Afghan’s history shows that no amount of Western firepower can reverse a nationalistic Islamic movement.  Long after the Soviets left and long after the U.S. finally calls it quits, the Taliban will continue to fight for Sharia Islamic law in Afghanistan.  Fighting an endless guerrilla war gives U.S. and NATO forces an impossible mission that has little prospects of paying off.  “Several explosions broke out near the German and British embassies and a major NATO military camp, usually a heavily guarded area of the Afghan capital,” said the New York Times, underscoring current vulnerability of U.S. and NATO forces.  Penetrating the Green Zone shows the enemy’s infiltration in Karzai’s government, giving the Taliban covert control over the U.S. and NATO-backed government.  Neither the U.S. nor NATO can fight or win  Afghan’s bloody civil war.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.