Taliban Blast Kills 17 NATO Troops

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright October 29, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

              Driving a truck bomb into a NATO bus on a highway just south of Kabul, the Taliban served notice that they have no intent of giving up the fight.  Since former President George W. Bush toppled the Taliban Nov. 14, 2001, the shadowy group has gone into full guerrilla mode, ambushing U.S. forces with improvised explosive devices and suicide bombings.  Since taking office Jan. 20, 2009, President Barack Obama escalated the Afghan War, adding roughly 70,000 troops, quintupling U.S. casualty rates.  Just like the Afghan War went dormant March 20, 2003 the day Bush started the Iraq War, the Iraq War was put on ice the day Barack took office.  Today’s suicide blast was the deadliest attack on NATO forces since Operation Enduring Freedom began Oct. 7, 2001.  When Barack announced an end to the Iraq War Oct. 21, it raised the question of when to end the Afghan War.

             Given the 17 NATO-member massacre, the White House must assess whether the troop surge has worked in Afghanistan.  By anyone’s measures, the NATO hasn’t dented Taliban operations, continuing to sabotage U.S. and coalition forces.  Questions arise now whether or not Afghan President Hamid Karzai can broker any kind of truce or deal with the Taliban.  While Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s Pashtun clan hails for the Taliban stronghold Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan, its 53-year-old president can’t reconcile with the Taliban while accepting aid-and-comfort from the U.S.  Karzai’s security service and military are heavily infiltrated by the Taliban, leaving U.S. and NATO forces vulnerable on the battlefield.  With today’s blast, it raises the question of whether or not the Taliban was tipped off with respect to the timing and movement of the NATO bus.

 `            Obama’s plan to end U.S. combat operations by 2014 should be reevaluated in light to repeated Taliban attacks.  When seven CIA operatives were killed by suicide blast at a remote outpost near Khost, Dec. 31, 2009, more questions were raised about the safety of U.S. forces.  When 31 U.S. and NATO troops, including elite special forces, were killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit a NATO Chinook helicopter Aug. 6, 2011, it showed the extreme dangers in Afghanistan.  Another NATO convoy was suicide bombed in May 2010, killing 18 people, including a Canadian colonel and numerous U.S. troops.  Apart from the obvious dangers in Afghanistan, the U.S. must reevaluate its Afghan mission.  Back in 2001, Operation Enduring Freedom was designed to fight key elements of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.  Today’s operation bears no resemblance to the original mission.

              When al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden and Taliban’s Mullah Mohammed Omar fled Afghanistan via Tora Bora Dec. 14, 2001, the U.S. and NATO should have changed their mission.  Instead, the NATO has been tilting at windmills trying to eradicate a national Islamic movement, whose roots run deep in the Afghan people.  Soviet forces left Afghanistan Feb. 15, 1989, after a bloody 10-year war that decimated its military and treasury, hastening the collapse of Berlin Wall Nov. 9, 1989 and eventual fall of the Soviet Union Dec. 26, 2001.  Since Obama escalated the Afghan war after taking office, U.S. and NATO casualty rates have quintupled.  While U.S. death rates are one-tenth the Soviets during the same time frame, there’s little measurable progress toward ending the Taliban insurgency.  U.S. and NATO troops find it difficult to attack Taliban, deeply embedded in the Afghan population.

                Today’s tragic loss of U.S. and NATO troops should help Barack reach the same conclusion as he did in Iraq:  That the presence of U.S. forces is no longer vital to U.S. national security.  Putting more U.S. troops in harm’s way doesn’t help the military or U.S. national security, only causes more casualties, injuries and loss of tax dollars.  Obama’s Oct. 21 decision to leave Iraq caused quite a stir with former presidential candidate and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.).  McCain believes that a U.S. pullout would hand Iraq to Iran on a silver platter.  That’s the same logic that led Bush to call Iraq “the central front in the war on terror,” when Iraq had nothing to do Sept. 11.  McCain knows that Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been in bed with Iran since taking office with U.S. blessings May 20, 2006.  Al-Maliki will do what he wishes with Iran.

             Obama is finding out the hard way that contrary to Pentagon hawks, including McCain, the U.S. has no business in the opium and heroin invested graveyard of Afghanistan.  No invading country in history has found Afghanistan’s desolate landscape hospitable.  There’s been no real U.S. mission since Bin Laden and Omar fled to the ungoverned lands of Pakistan in Dec. 2001.  Putting U.S. troops and the U.S. economy into harm’s way to protect the current government completely ignores Karzai’s ties to the Taliban and opium trade.  Now that Barack finally pulled the plug on Iraq, it’s time to do the same in Afghanistan, where the progress is even more dicey.  No matter how valiant the U.S. military, Afghanistan is still quicksand.  Unlike the U.S. and NATO, the Taliban is in Afghanistan for the long haul.  No matter what the price, they’ll still fight for their landlocked rock-pile.

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.

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