McChrystal Faces a Tough Road Ahead in Afghanistan

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More than four decades of “Made in Washington” policy in the region under successive Republican and Democrat administration has made a major mess in the region. America is a fair nation and we do not occupy other peoples lands or abuse minorities in our country. When we allow other nations who are occupier of other peoples land or abuse minorities and we follow a policy that is in their interest our image becomes a extension of those occupiers or abusers and is not in American interest.
Because of lack of democracy in Pakistan Military dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq allowed Pakistan to become a frontline State against the Soviet Union for the Western World without understand the longetrm consequences for his country and without getting anything in return for the social upheaval this would cause. The collapse of Soviet Union allowed our policy planners in Washington to pack up our bags and leave the region in a hurry after having won a war on the cheap on the backs of the Afghan and Pakistani people. During the war against the Soviet Union we learned quickly that people were quick to earn a new livelihood as we financed extremist schools to produce unlimited supply of volunteers to fight against the Soviet Union. For decades Historians are going to debate the causes of 911 but one cannot deny the fact we left Afghanistan a fertile territory for any extremist to use for their cause. Back in those days we could have created something similar to Marshal Plan in Europe after the WW 2 in Afghanistan and Pakistan to create jobs for a few billion dollars. Todate we have spent a trillion dollars in Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Post 911 we embarked on the policy of bringing the terrorists of 911 to justice somewhere along the line our policy got sidetracked into putting minority Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras to rule over majority Pashtuns with the assistance of token Pashtun President Karzai who does not have any standing in his own Pashtun community. Before we entered Afghanistan Iran, India and Russia were unsuccessfully backing the Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara also known as Northern Alliance in a five year civil war. American treasure and blood managed to put the Northern Alliance in power but we did not get anything back in return. For hundreds of years the majority Pashtun population of Afghanistan had ruled the region. To achieve this goal we had as our ally another Military Dictator Parvaiz Musharaf who did not ask anything in return to spur investment and create jobs in his country except for a meager allowance below a billion dollars a year which is below the money required and like his predecessor did not take into account the social programs required to support the logistic effort being provided for our troops in Afghanistan and to fight our proxy war.
Today besides our wrong strategy of having a minority rule over majority Pashtuns in Afghanistan is an extension of Iranianian, Indian and Russian policy and we do not have alternate employment programs for the Pashtuns not fighting against us in Afghanistan or Pakistan. There was talk of establishing Free Trade Zones to spur investment and create jobs but that has fizzled out. As a result of Pakistani Military operations in Swat thousands of refugees have fled to the crowded city of Karachi and other cities without any jobs. Unless our Policy planners can include a major Economic Plan to spur investment and create jobs for refugees resulting from Pakistan Army operation we are going to create more extremists.
We have a window of opportunity as Pakistanis turned against the Taliban but we have not been quick in responding with anything economic in return. Afghanistan is a small country and our policy in the past of defeating the Soviet Armies has left us a major mess. Today when we push Pakistan to assist us without getting anything economically in allowing the minority Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara to rule over majority Pashtuns is going to totally destabilize Pakistan and create many more extremists and is not going to be in the interest if United States.
We need to abandon the Iranian, Indian and Russian policy of trying to have minority rule over majority Pashtuns. India in the region has already taken over Goa, Hyderabad, Kashmir etc by force broken Pakistan in two and if it was not for Pakistan become a Nuclear power India may have continued on with their regional aggression. Today we are spending close to $100 billion a year to in Afghanistan war, spending a few billion dollars a year to create jobs will go a long way towards combating extremism.

Rehman of TX 5:55PM June 02, 2010

General McCrystal, This article was posted on June 12, 2009. Could you tell us what milestones have been achieved since last year in Afghanistan? The new dimension came into play is a talk with Taliban is that why Mr. Kazia getting frustrated and upset?

Nadeem Masood of CA 3:26PM April 20, 2010

pull back on the tatical air strike and close air support and reduce on full strength of the military out base defense and leave small forces on top of the hill is not a good tactic it a quick end strategy and a deathly blow to ya force if u set up battle that way. The F-18 speed is at march 1.8 good enought and well accurated to bomb the Taliban much better compare to F-15 and F-16 which are the speed level around march 2 and 2.5 not accurate for low level surgical air strike bombing as i watching fighter jet plane i discover they pulling F-18 back in the US instead of leaving them back in Afgan for the troop to using them as top air cover in 2009 watch this video on you tube ya know what i mean
VFA 143 Pukin' Dogs - CVW 7 - Homecoming 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKnMsoPxi78&feature=related
VFA-103 Jolly Rogers - Homecoming 2009 - CVW 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIRya-3aguE&feature=related
VFA -131 Wildcats - Homecoming 2009 - CVW 7
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Obama another idiot tatic to fight terrorist by withdraw large scale of CA 12:32PM October 04, 2009

Attack on remote Afghan outposts kills 8 US troops
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By LORI HINNANT, Associated Press Writer Lori Hinnant, Associated Press Writer – Sun Oct 4, 7:39 am ET
KABUL – Militant fighters streaming from an Afghan village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistani border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest battles of the eight-year war.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack for coalition forces since a similar raid in July 2008 killed nine American soldiers in the same mountainous region known as an al-Qaida haven. The U.S. has already said it plans to pull its soldiers from the isolated area to focus on Afghan population centers.
Fighting began around dawn Saturday and lasted several hours, punctuated by American airstrikes. Jamaludin Badar, governor of Nuristan province, said the two outposts were on a hill — one near the top and one at the foot of the slope — flanked by the village on one side and the mosque on the other.
Nearly 300 militant fighters flooded the lower, Afghan outpost then swept around it to reach the American station on higher ground from both directions, said Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, the provincial police chief. The U.S. military statement said the Americans and Afghans repelled the attack by tribal fighters and "inflicted heavy enemy casualties."
Jangulbagh said that the gunbattle included U.S. airstrikes and that 15 Afghan police were captured by the Taliban, including the local police chief and his deputy. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said a council would decide the fates of the police, confirming the capture of the two top local officers.
Badar said five or six Afghan soldiers died, as did one policeman.
Afghan forces were sent as reinforcements, but Jangulbagh said all communications to the district, Kamdesh, were severed and he had no way of knowing how they were faring Sunday. The area is just 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Pakistani border and 150 miles (230 kilometers) from Kabul.
"This was a complex attack in a difficult area," U.S. Col. Randy George, the area commander, said in the American statement. "Both the U.S. and Afghan soldiers fought bravely together."
Jangulbagh said the bodies of five enemy fighters were found after the battle.
U.S. Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a military spokeswoman, said American forces continued to man the outpost and there was scattered fighting early Sunday. She said was unclear if the attackers were Taliban or from another group linked to them.
She said American officials were working with the Afghan army to relay messages to Afghan forces in the area.
Separately, a roadside bomb southwest of Kabul killed a U.S. service member on Saturday, Mathias said.
Nuristan, bordering Pakistan, was where a militant raid on another outpost in July 2008 claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to allegations of negligence by their senior commanders. Army Gen. David Petraeus last week ordered a new investigation into that fighting, in which some 200 militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars pushed their way into the base, which is no longer operating.
Badar said he had sought more security forces for Kamdesh district. He said Taliban fighters had fled to Nuristan and neighboring Kunar province after Pakistani forces drove many extremists from the Swat Valley earlier this year.
"When there are few security forces, this is what happens," he said.
He also complained about a lack of coordination between international forces and Afghans.
The U.S. statement said the attack would not change previously announced plans to leave the area.
Afghanistan's northeastern Nuristan and Kunar provinces are home to al-Qaida bases as well as those of wanted terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose military chief Kashmir Khan has been unsuccessfully targeted by U.S. missiles over the past eight years. Kamdesh district has no regular cell phone or landline contact and few roads, dirt or paved. Local security forces communicate by handheld radio.
The region was key for Arab militants who battled alongside Afghan warriors during the 1980s U.S.-backed war against invading Russians because it is a rare place in South Asia where the Wahhabi sect of Islam is practiced — the same sect followed by Osama bin Laden and most Saudis.
Many Arabs remained in Afghanistan, marrying Afghans and integrating themselves into local society. Many also belonged to Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami group, now sought as terrorists by the U.S.-led coalition.
Bin Laden also considered the region a useful hiding ground, his former bodyguard, Naseer Ahmed Al-Bahri, told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview in Yemen.
It sits directly across the border from Pakistan's Bajaur Agency, where bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al Zawahri, was last seen.

why american pulling F-18 pumkin dog and wild cat back in 2009? of CA 12:12PM October 04, 2009

Too much troops in Afghanistan is not a good way to secure the poor nation and its people.It will trigger more attacks and just like the upper commenter said more mothers will suffer from sorrow of the grave of their sons.The US army 'd better withdraw and give Afghanistan the sovereignty.You know a lot of attacks happened because they want US army get out of their country.

Feizhi Wang 9:49AM June 15, 2009

Sir, it is not winnable war. It is winnable only if You are able to change middle-age thinking of all ( maybe even 80 %) Afghan population to force them to think as modern nation. Leave them a and give them more 50 years of own development. You wuill spare lot of sorrow of many American mothers above the grave of their sons. Jan Petraneki, old czech journalist, who know Afghanistan and coutries around for last 50 years

Jan Petranek of MA 5:21AM June 15, 2009