The Pentagon and the White House are holding their breath, hoping no one notices the deepening of their clusterfuck in Afghanistan. As if to underscore the folly of their escalated military offensive, U.S. troops (mistakenly) attacked and killed more civilians Monday.
from WaPo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041200761_pf.htmlBefore dawn Monday, American soldiers strafed a passenger bus that approached their convoy outside Kandahar City, killing at least four Afghans, including a woman, and wounding 18 others in another incident that Afghan officials warn could hurt the U.S. military effort here. The city, which spawned the Taliban movement, has become the focal point of American military efforts for the next few months. Of the 30,000 new U.S. troops ordered to Afghanistan by President Obama, 13,000 have already arrived, and thousands more are headed to Kandahar in preparation for a summer offensive intended to roll back the insurgency.
The U.S.-led NATO forces are poised to press on into Kandahar City after declaring 'success' and 'progress' in their assault and takeover of the town of Marjah - an operation which also was preceded by the killing of civilians fleeing the announced raid by NATO forces bent on replacing the Taliban-based authority in the town of 80.000 with representatives from the corrupt Karzai regime.
Thing is, they're quietly hoping we don't notice that they didn't actually transform that Marjah misadventure from the leveling of homes, the taking of resistors lives, and the destruction of farmland and livestock into the nation-building success that they intended for the mission to highlight and represent as they press forward.
from the April 12 LAT:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-fg-afghan-marja13-2010apr13,0,425417.storyTwo Marine battalions, about 2,000 troops, remain in Marja along with Afghan security forces. But insurgents continue to plant roadside bombs in hopes of killing Marines. At night Taliban fighters intimidate civilians by visiting their homes.
Villagers interviewed separately told of feeling hemmed in by improvised explosive devices and insurgents, six weeks after the main fighting of the offensive ended. "No one can move about freely. There is no security," said Marja tribal elder Sultan Mohammad Shah, 64. "The Taliban are killing and beating people, and no one knows what is going on the next block over because they cannot go anywhere."
He and others complained that promised government services have been slow to materialize. "If the situation remains like this, people will leave Marja," Shah said.
That's a pretty good description of the chaos that those objecting to the nation-building offensive have predicted from the start of the increase of the NATO force in Afghanistan. It's certainly not the picture the administration wanted to present of a liberating force operating in the best interests of the residents caught in the path of the military's anti-Taliban advance.
In the pending Kandahar advance, as in the weeks leading up to the military offensive against Marjah, NATO has sought to feather their path by warning off potential resistors and allowing them (and the residents in the way) time to flee to other parts of the country. No refugee centers have been established to handle the anticipated flight of residents from the promised fighting on all sides; no provisions of food provided, no medical centers set up, no living quarters contemplated for the residents forced out of their homes by the invading forces.
Does it surprise anyone that NATO forces are killing civilians along with whoever they opportunistically identify as 'Taliban' or 'insurgent' as they mow them down? It's amazing that the Pentagon and the President still believe there are enough Afghans there still willing to invest confidence in our blundering advance across their homeland and ignore the real-life consequences of associating themselves with our destructive, grudging mission.
Declaring that 'This is not Fallujah', NATO announced at the end of March that they were counting on local 'political leaders' to direct the upcoming U.S.-led assault on their neighborhoods and communities in Kandahar.
from McClatchy-Tribune:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2010/03/31/u-s--push-in-kandahar-to-stress-political-change.html“This is not Fallujah. This is not Baghdad,” one senior NATO official said. “There is not going to be house-to-house clearing.”
Instead, military officials are looking to minimize urban fighting by encouraging political leaders to lead the way.
“The solution to Kandahar will not be done through security,” said the other NATO official, who’s a senior U.S. military official in Kabul. “It will be enhanced through security. But the change, the real dramatic change for Kandahar, will have to happen politically.”
It's not very likely NATO will be able to emphasize their 'political' aims over the destructive and destabilizing impact among residents of Kandahar from the devastating, U.S.-led military offensive. Through the force of our weapons - outside the limits that our constitution proscribes for the use of our military defenses - we're representing a corrupt regime and imposing it on the Afghan population, especially in regions which were not engaged in elections that we claim gives the new government legitimacy.
Even our would-be puppet, Karzai, has bristled and balked at the prospect of more destructive NATO conquest in Afghanistan on his behalf. The once-willing accomplice has seen the political writing on the wall and appears to be looking to settle for the assumption of power wherever the Taliban would allow. His reported outburst threatening to 'join the Taliban' was a open-warning to the U.S. that he recognizes there is no 'political solution' that can be reasonably carved out of the devastating, withering military campaign he foresees in Kandahar.
from Reuters April 4:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SGE63300G.htm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitterSpeaking in front of some 1,500 elders at a "shura" or traditional council meeting in the southern city of Kandahar, Karzai said he would block an upcoming major NATO offensive in the area if it did not have the support of local people.
"Afghanistan will be fixed when its people trust their president is independent ... when the people trust the government is independent and not a puppet," Karzai said, adding that government officials should not let "foreigners" meddle in their work.
"The other day, I told Mr. (Barack) Obama: 'I can't fix this nation through war,'" he said. "It has been eight years that this situation is going on, we want peace and security... I'm engaged with all my force to bring peace in this country."
The broad spectrum of individuals in the U.S., in and out of government, who have declared the Afghan president mentally unstable in making these remarks have predictably failed to address the basis of his complaints: The prospect of another Fallujah in the Helmand Province; another Marjah.
What about the ability of the U.S.-led NATO forces to protect the residents of Kandahar against Taliban blowback from their invasion? Nonexistent. The ability to protect innocent civilians from NATO attacks, or insulate them from the negative consequences and effects of the NATO military advance? Nonexistent. The ability of NATO to provide and deliver the services and amenities of the central government to the displaced residents? Nonexistent.
Face it, occupation supporters. We just can't win in Afghanistan.
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