Failing US’ Afghan strategy

This mission to launch an all out attack on Kandahar by end July 2010 could not be materialized. An average American or NATO soldier was well aware of the difficulties faced during a drill attack on Maruja operation. Everybody was quite clear that the Kandahar offensive would only bring more humiliation and deaths for the NATO and Afghan troops. Last month General David Petraeus fainted during a meeting at Washington, due to immense pressure on US Army commanders in Afghanistan by so called civilian masters at White House.

General Mcchrystal must have 87 deaths of his troops in mind when he refused to obey the orders of US President Barrack Hussain Obama. Interestingly, President Obama failed to airlift additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, which were agreed in principle during last years high level meeting at White House. President Obama kept on insisting General Mcchrystal to launch offensive with handful of demoralized western soldiers and newly raised Afghan Army soldiers. It is important to mention here that the capture of US intelligence agent from Chitral along with arms and ammunition and drugs and shooting down of US helicopter, killing important personnel, all happened in a row, which demoralized foreign forces in Afghanistan. The change in command at a juncture when US has withdrawn bulk of its combatants from Afghanistan and replaced them with additional Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) is going to further embarrass Washington.

To cover up embarrassment of questing wisdom of the White House in killing more innocent Afghans and getting own soldiers killed, General Mcchrystal was summoned at Washington and sacked on alleged comments published in a magazine. It is yet to confirm that the publication of his comments was a handiwork of agencies or what, as no journalist can dare to publish anything against the foreign occupying forces in Afghanistan. No doubt, the cover up does not fit, as had this been the case, General Mcchrystal would have not fainted a week earlier than publication of the article in a magazine. The new US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus seems an experienced General but he might be ignorant of the under the table talks between the US and Indian officials and representative of Al-Qaida through American agents in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By the time he gets acquainted with ground politics, the holy month of Ramadan would be there to prevent Afghan soldiers from participating in any pro-active operation against anti-western forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Taking over the command by new American General is not going to make much difference unless Washington listen to its military commanders in Afghanistan and stop its experimentations on Muslim countries.  The new non-combatant bases that are popping up in Afghanistan smells suspicious. One wonders that during the last ten years, US and allies were unable to carryout long promised development and reconstruction work , what they are going to achieve in next couple of months.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is not a free man but from his inner heart often weeps in solitude for those killed and martyred in the ugly so called War on Terrorism. President Karzai developed some understanding with General Mcchrystal, at least, he was the one who stopped objecting sacking of Afghan Intelligence Chief who was bent upon consolidating New Delhi proxy setup under his command. Due the same reason, President Karzai had expressed his complete confidence on General Mcchrystal’s capabilities and maturity. The changing scenario reflects that the Kandahar operation seems impossible as scheduled. Since US and NATO forces have even started loosing their grip in areas which were once considered as western strongholds in Afghanistan, a folly of launching a ground offensive would cost very heavy death toll, all time high. Some sources have indicated that in May 2010 a plan was chalked out which deployed the newly trained Afghan Army as first line of defence in the offensive. Had this plan materialized, thousands of Afghan soldiers would have been killed in the operation. Afghan President needs to be careful in engaging in such operations in which the US and NATO soldiers are not ready to actively participate or doesn’t conduct joint operation. The ongoing talks between Afghan government and Mujahideen on one hand and western agents on the other, is not a new development. The western intelligence agents had been doing this since long to track them by the combination of coordinates provided by ground agents and aerial reconnaissance for the elimination through guided missile systems. Peace cannot be restored in Afghanistan unless the Afghan government takes all issues in its own hands and pressurize all foreign forces through the office of UN to leave the country for good.

By Afshain Afzal

Short URL: http://www.daily.pk/?p=19259

on Jul 28 2010. Filed under Editorials, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry