Marine Offensive Will Test New Strategy in Afghanistan

Still a wrong strategy

The turnout in the current election was very low with widespread accusations of fraud. Neither Karzai or Abdullah (Tajik origin) represent the majority population. Supporting the Tajik opponent Dr. Abdullah Abdullah is like going from frying pan to fire as neither represent the Afghan majority. We need to abandon the policy of allowing 20% Tajik Minority (Northern Alliance) with token Pashtun Karzai in Afghanistan to rule over the majority 70% Pashtun population. To achieve this goal we need the inclusion of Pashtuns in the Government, Politics, Army, Police, and Security Forces etc. There has been no census in Afghanistan for the past three decades. The policy of having this minority rule over the majority is providing Pashtun recruits to extremism and also destabilizing Pakistan that has a 20% Pashtun population of its own of which a large percentage serve in Pakistani Armed forces. Our goals should look at American long-term interest rather than Iranian, Indian or Northern Alliance long-term interest. We are not in the region to get rid of Iranian foes on their Eastern border or to prop up their allies The Northern Aliance rule on majority Pashtuns in Afghanistan or to suppress Kashmiri Freedom movement for India. The west has won the cold war against the Soviet Union on the backs of Afghan/Pakiastan(mainly Pashtun) people and we need support a true democracy which is to include the disenfranchised Pashtun population back into the fold. We need to have a American solution that looks after our national interests and stop listening to elements in our media that are acting as mouthpieces of Indian agenda that want to blame everything on Pakistan who is itself suffering both economically and militarily because of being our ally. Kashmir today remains the crux of the problem between India and Pakistan. We cannot convince Pakistanis to ignore their Eastern border when they have seen their larger Eastern neighbor gobble up smaller neighbors like Hyderabad, Goa, Junagarh and Kashmir and broken up Pakistan in 1971 into 2 parts thru military force. It was only after Pakistan got the nuclear deterrent that the two countries did not have war. There have been more than 100,000 civilian deaths in Indian Kashmir at the hands of Indian forces. Kashmiri Freedom movement is an indigenous freedom movement. We need Kashmir back on Richard Holdrooks agenda. One big confidence building measure between the 2 countries would be to recognize Pakistan as a nuclear power to win the hearts and minds of 99% of the population and also the military. This will remove any doubts in the minds of Pakistani people and the military that US is after the Pakistani nukes.

Avoid the above post like an IED:

"When the DEA locates a large marihuana field growing in some out of the way place in a state in the US, do they leave the marihuana growing to prevent economic 'damage' to the region and remain camped in place for the next ten years to A) apprehend the actual marihuana traffickers and B) 'persuade' the locals to otherwise grow legitimate crops???"

Let's compare apples to apples here and be pragmatic, ummmK?

OK. Will the British troops continue to moan, complain and whine as the going gets tougher. Can we depend on them to hold their own? I don't think the entire US did this much whining when US troops liberated UK from Nazi's 60+ years ago.

The utter absurdity of Obama's Afghanistan...

When the DEA locates a large marihuana field growing in some out of the way place in a state in the US, do they leave the marihuana growing to prevent economic 'damage' to the region and remain camped in place for the next ten years to A) apprehend the actual marihuana traffickers and B) 'persuade' the locals to otherwise grow legitimate crops???

Are you kidding? NO! The rule of law takes control. The crop is totally destroyed. Anyone caught growing it or trafficking it is arrested. Assets of traffickers are also seized.

Yet our 'new strategy' in Afghanistan is to leave the poppies alone, go after the Taleban, and persuade/bribe farmers in Afghanistan to grow legitimate crops.

To begin with, we shouldn't be there. But thanks to President Obama, we ARE there, so secondly, any 'strategy' that excludes TOTAL, COMPLETE, and UNEQUIVOCAL elimination of the poppies in Afghanistan -- by choice OR possibility -- is doomed to a long, protracted, expensive failure. If the poppies continue to grow, SOMEONE WILL PROFIT FROM OPIUM/HEROIN TRAFFICKING!!!

How much more obvious can it be?

Alright then, from another angle: On one hand there is a 'war' on drugs. On the other, we are at absolute ground zero of the opium/heroin trade and not doing what any person advocating a 'war' on drugs would be doing. So the rule of US law is subverted -- in order to bring about the rule of law via the Karzai 'government.'

An Afghan farmer sees a large group of US Marines invade who want to be his new best friend. And he sees the poppies left alone. What is he -- or us -- left to conclude other than the US wants to secure total control of the poppies for the 'official' Karzai government?

And it's not just the US version of the rule of law that is subverted. A 'quaint' image of the Afghan farmer raising poppies has been painted in the West wherein the poor but noble Afghan farmer is caught between extreme poverty and the Taleban. Yet in Muslim countries -- with an actual government -- drug trafficking is punishable by death. What country in the world -- Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or other -- would object to major interdiction of the opium/heroin trade?

Only one. The US.

Get over your celebrity love affair with President Obama and you'll sooner see his ruinous Afghanistan policy disconnect between image and reality. Get rid of Al Qaeda? Get rid of the poppies for ALL -- or stay out of Afghanistan.