Obama’s Afghanistan policy — Incoherent or perverse?

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There is still no evidence that the U.S. government has any perspective of either withdrawing from Afghanistan or achieving its stated objectives there. The May 25 issue of the Huffington Post carried an article reporting an analysis by the well known—and by no means left—journalist, Andrew Sullivan, which argued that Obama’s policy is “incoherent.”

“He [Sullivan] was responding to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s thus far unsuccessful attempts to secure the town of Marjah in Helmand Province. Earlier this year, McChrystal tried to stamp out Afghan insurgents based in the town and immediately install a new local government, boasting, ‘We’ve got a government in a box, ready to roll in.’

“But insurgents remain active in Marjah, undermining McChrystal’s attempts to gain the confidence of the people living there. One tribal leader told Wired that in Marjah, by day there is government, by night it’s the Taliban [in control]. Earlier this week, McChrystal admitted the Marjah operation was failing, calling it a ‘bleeding ulcer.’”

The operation in Marjah, a small area, was supposed to be a test for a major U.S-led offensive against the Taliban in Kandahar, the country’s second largest city. But it is clear that the test was a failure. What conclusion has the U.S. government taken from that?

Moreover, the U.S. forces’ slaughter of Afghan civilians is becoming more and more of an international scandal. It is notorious now that it is provoking increasing hatred of the foreign interventionist forces among the Afghan people.

The Economist, the most prestigious journal of British big business, reported in its May 27 issue: “The nightmare began with gunfire. Residents of this poor village in eastern Afghanistan were jolted awake by what sounded like shooting from their guards at thieves outside their compound. Moments later, they say, soldiers spilled over the walls in a flurry of grenades and bullets that left at least eight people dead, including a father and his four sons. The American army said the raid’s targets were militants, including a Taliban sub-commander, who was killed. Two insurgents were captured, it said, along with automatic rifles and ‘communications equipment.’”

The local people told a very different story. “Within hours a mob of hundreds of neighbours and relations filled the streets, wielding torches and throwing stones, to chants of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Long Live the Taliban.’ Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, and Gul Agha Sherzai, a former warlord from Kandahar who now governs Nangarhar province, were similarly cursed. Some protesters smashed windows in an attempt to storm local-government offices. The police shot back, killing at least one more person.”

This continues a pattern that became obvious in Iraq. The U.S. military would announce that it had carried out a brilliant operation dealing a powerful blow at the insurgency. And the local people would say that they killed some children and old women.

The U.S. military command has announced some measures to try to limit civilian casualties. But The Economist pointed out that they “do not apply to (Above) Taliban fighters on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan (2001 file photo).

special-forces units. Engaged in ‘black’ operations to disrupt the Taliban leadership structure, they worry consultation might jeopardise their campaign.

“Dozens of commanders are said to have been captured or killed ahead of a southern offensive soon to be mounted around Kandahar. But the tactical impact of their operations has to be weighed against the cost fatal mistakes exact in local goodwill.”

The cost of such “mistakes” is still greater because such special-op raids are being carried out not only in areas controlled by the Taliban but in quiet areas firmly in control of the U.S. client government—such as Koshkaky, a town near Jalahabad . An Economist reporter talked to local people: “A neighbour of the victims in Koshkaky speaks for many: ‘If the Americans do this again, we are ready to shed our blood against them. We would rather die than sit by and do nothing.’”

The Los Angeles Times of May 24 reported another tragedy resulting from U.S. special ops night raid:

(continued on page 15, in “How ‘Democracy’ works”)

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The U.S. slaughter of civilians, shrugged off as ‘mistakes,’ is provoking increasing hatred among the Afghan people of foreign forces intervening in their country.