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Afghanistan Counterpoint: When We Go, How To Go?
A Rantburg Opinion by trailing wifeKeep the satellites and the drones in place. Watch the Taliban. I can find little to disagree with what Dr. Steve has to say, below, until that prescription. He has laid out the situation squarely for our review. That said, please go read his piece first; mine will make more sense afterward. The only point I would add is that while the government of Pakistan, such as it is, does not wish to be at war with us, and while Pakistan's Army of the Pure does not want us to think they are at war with us, the People of the Land of the Pure are mostly in full support of the hard jihad of the sword against the Crusaders and the Jews, and against the Hindus and the non-conformists who live down the street between times. The few who openly disagree are very careful to write about it in English; we've been reading their increasingly impassioned op-eds here at Rantburg for years, their cris de coeur for common sense, reason, and the rule of law instead of favours and bribes given and received by a religion-mad populace. Like the countries of the Arab Spring, bad as the rulers are, on average the people of Pakistan -- as a group noun -- are worse. Once upon a time this was perhaps not so. But the generations have been carefully taught, and have learnt even more on their own. Pakistan once had Anglo-Indians and Jews, Ahmadis were as Muslim as Shiites and Sunnis, covered women were scorned as ignorant and old-fashioned. But then the land shed its English overcoat, and the worm emerged from its first molt. There have been several more molts since then, and each time the worm has emerged larger and grosser, acquiring nuclear weapons and ever more jihadi groups that the ISI put to ever more specific purposes. Meanwhile, out on the street a riot can be raised to lynch a man and destroy part of a city merely because he threw out a business card with the name of Muhammed on it, somehow profaning the name of the holy prophet himself. Because the thing is, Afghanistan is the place where the chess pieces of Pakistan play out only some of their moves. The game -- continuing the Great Game of Britain, they fondly flatter themselves -- is half played and all plotted on the Pakistan side of the border. Brave as the people of Afghanistan have been this past decade, with their new schools, new roads and wells and household biogas power plants, new East Point officers for their new army, the border provinces of Afghanistan stand against the need for jihad of all of Pakistan. Even much of the leadership of the Afghan Taliban are comfortably ensconced in Pakistan -- in Quetta, if I recall correctly. It is not merely a bedraggled remnant we leave behind when we pull out of Afghanistan, to keep close watch on from a distance. It is the Pakistani worm, somewhat reduced to be sure, but with the full-throated faith of the people in their war of choice, quietly supported by Saudi money as well as Taliban opium, that we have been fighting. They are not so reduced that we can safely watch from above against future outbreaks, trusting that our shadows will have a deterrent effect. So now to my counter proposal: I can agree to pulling out the main body of troops. They aren't being allowed to do their work, and have become targets of opportunity for every posturing boob in the region. BUT, I believe we should keep satellites, armed drones, and the ghosts of the night in place, killing off as many Taliban, Haqqani, Hizb-ut-Tahrir and everyone else associated with jihad on both sides of the border as we can. I want it to be bred into the DNA of the Pashtuns and Punjabis -- and by example to the rest of the Ummah -- that to act on the hard jihad of the sword is to die. Anything less, in my ignorant and sheltered opinion, will lead to an explosion of jihad upward from Pakistan to Afghanistan to the world, like an antibiotic resistant desease once the threshold of infectious cases is crossed. I am not a soldier. I do not treat the wounded. I am not aware of having any relatives actively involved in the fight. Those who are or do may well be justifiably angered that I would put them further at risk, and I cannot defend myself against the charge. I have no answer except that I believe the drive to violent jihad cannot be contained; it must be eradicated, like smallpox or polio or all the diseases that spring back into life as soon as enough people stop inoculating their children. Our current president appears unconcerned about such issues, I realize. And our senior generals and admirals and such do not appear to have succeeded in convincing him otherwise. Nor has the new head of the CIA, the much-lauded General Petraeus, Ret'd, though the CIA appears to be doing a very nice job indeed of reducing the number of bad guys on both sides of the Af-Pak border. As, apparently, are the ghosts in the night, while all attention is on our brave troops attempting to be hammer and anvil, ink spots, and whatever other concepts the strategists come up with while having two hands and one foot tied behind their backs by whoever it is that makes such decisions far from the scene of the action. Soon, I hope, we will have a new president. And backing him, both Houses of Congress with Republican majorities beholden to the Tea parties, who understand what is at stake, and understand that extending an open hand to such people is a good way to get your arm cut off at the neck. Posted by: trailing wife 2012-02-26 |
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