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KHALIL NOURI: AFGHANISTAN: A PANDORA’S BOX FOR MARJAH & NAD-ALI
BY KHALIL NOURI
STAFF WRITER FOR VETERANS TODAY
“We’ve got a government in a box, ready to roll in.” said triumphantly General Stanley McChrystal as the NATO operation spearheaded by British troops towards Marjah and Nad-Ali districts in Helmand Province last weekend.
It is measured to be the mother of all the tests, using millions of aid dollars to roll out a ready-made administration that intended to allow the Afghan government to quickly reassert its authority in an area where its representatives didn’t dare set foot earlier in the week. But unfortunately a “Pandora’s box” has just been opened with 12 civilian deaths and more foreseen due to Taliban using civilians as human shields.
This dangerous plan intentionally sacrifices strategic and operational surprise, and does so with good reason. McChrystal seeks a “combination victory” in Helmand province, a victory where military success on the battlefield translates into a political and information warfare coup that will ultimately resonate throughout Afghanistan and into Pakistan’s rebellious tribal regions.
With 40 million inhabitants in the Pashtun belt and per UN estimate 4.5 million unemployed men between ages of 18 to 23 are only in Afghanistan, and one percent of that number can exceed four times the current number of NATO and Afghan troops combined and vulnerable for recruitment into insurgency. Hence, we are back to square one for another troop surge.
Per BBC report, public in Afghanistan is widely confused because they see a recent London gathering in the name of peace and reconciliation, and then a quick military operation in Southern Afghanistan.
Next year U.S. and its allies have been in Afghanistan for a decade. There hasn’t been much progress other than installing a government led by Hamed Karzai, who is accused of being corrupt.
No one put the warning to Mr. Obama more baldly than Karl W. Eikenberry, the American ambassador to Afghanistan. Who first raised the alarm during Bush years that the American approach in Afghanistan was failing. Recently he warned Mr. Obama against putting the success of American strategy in Mr. Karzai’s less-than-reliable hands. He wrote in a leaked cable to the State Department “President Karzai is not an adequate strategic partner.” He also added; “The proposed counterinsurgency strategy assumes an Afghan political leadership that is both able to take responsibility and to exert sovereignty in the furtherance of our goal.” Moreover, “Yet Karzai continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden, whether defense, governance or development. He and much of his circle do not want the U.S. to leave and are only too happy to see us invest further.”
Mr. Eikenberry told Congress in December that his worries have since been largely allayed, and he is now perfectly satisfied with President Obama’s strategy. But he seemed to be speaking for a wing of the Obama administration that fears the Obama’s counterinsurgency strategy could crumble in Mr. Karzai’s hands. Hence, this is an additional square one.
The weekend NATO and Afghan troop advancement is not about the battle, it’s about the postlude, or what happens afterwards. Moreover, It will be remain to be seen if the governance effort – the first of its kind in Helmand – expected to begin within days is going to bear fruit or not.
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan are an audience. The essential message is brilliantly plain. They are attracted to martyrdom, and will definitely make the call that “Jihad is the way; sharia is the goal.”
The intention is to defeat the Taliban but also embarrass them by exposing their limitations and portraying these limitations as a weakness. That leads to another local audience: Afghan civilians in the battle area.
Bearing fruit is all about winning hearts and minds, but there is the other side of the Afghan war that in many occasions the U.S. claimed to have killed Taliban, later the local governors and the United Nations have confirmed civilian deaths – including women and children.
The Taliban typically use “human shields” as a cruel defensive measure – which means they take the populace hostage and invite attack. NATO’s insistent warnings anticipate this heinous tactic and serve as a “pre-emptive political counter” (locally, regionally and internationally) to accusations by Taliban propagandists that the U.S. intentionally killed Afghan civilians that engages into a deep cultural and psychological dimension.
So far we have already seen the opposite which Gen. Petraeus said by testifying before the U.S. Congress: “We cannot kill our way to victory in Afghanistan.”
Hence, intentional or unintentional killing is undefined to average Afghans.
Khalil Nouri is the cofounder of New World Strategies Coalition Inc., a native think tank for nonmilitary solution studies for Afghanistan. www.nwscinc.org
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Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=16698
Posted by Khalil Nouri on Feb 18 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under AfPak. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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The Helmand area have been out of Karzai’s control for a long time, and he never had the courage to clean that region out of Taliban’d hand, so the coalition forces came out with a plan that ofcourse Karzai had to prove it, because he is a puppet of the western forces, not a leader by all means.
But somebody had to do something about it, because the British & Canadian forces were not strong enough to defeat Talibans all these years, so the big show of force is working temporarily,and they may push Taliban out , but for how long, and who is gonna take care of the region after the coalition forces leave again.I agree that the Pandora Box have been opened, and there is one thing that doesn’t leave the Pandora Box is, hope, if that leaves then we are all in big trouble!
I am sorry but I can’t find hope in the Pandora box. It hasen’t even entered the box in order to leave. Yes hope sure is an uplifting idea, but if you or anyone else sees it in the box please describe it so that we could also see it
Somebody had to do something about Helmand Region, because the Karzai’s government alone, couldn’t face the Taliban there, so we have to give the Operation Mushatarak a chance, and hope for something good come out of it, and we shouldn’t become close minded and criticize them for trying, while we have no better alternatives, and if you have a better idea of dealing with this situation, I’m listening.
BTWY………..hope was the last thing that Prometeus god of fire, was able to keep in the Pandora box, before it was lost, so human being could not survived witout it!
USA has lost the war in Iraq, lost the war in Afghanistan, lost face and credibility and lost their economy – If ever they stood for freedom they have lost that.
Sorry you feel that way Bente. You are so lucky to live in a perfect place.
Tom Houston, Texas Veteran
Well written Khalil. Before we can get the large, diverse set of tribal leaders to sit down for REAL, healthy Afghanistan solution, we first have to get their attention. Helmand Province is a first step. It’s sad, as you say, that the Taliban uses civilian human shields. That tells you what kind of thugs they are; it will take years (decades?)for them to change. But, every journey begins with a first step.
I hope your family in Afghanistan is doing well.
Tom Houston, Texas
The Taliban used a tactic they perfected against the Russians. They mined and booby trapped the place and left a few mortar teams and snipers to harass our forces while they clear the ordnance. McCrystal fell for it.
As to the war itself. We are there for TAPP(Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan Pipeline)and of course the heroin. The Taliban who were our boys until the False Flag Black OP known as 911,had wiped out the opium trade for all intents and purposes. We went in and production is over 6,000 tons a year! We have been posting some articles from this excellent site over at http://whatreallyhappened.com/
This is a pipeline war and an opium war,not a war on a word-terror!
Nouri Sahib Salaam:
Thoughtful article. The operation so called “Mushtarak” isn’t much news here as it is over there in US. It was like a drop in the ocean. For a day or two some photo op for defence and interior ministers. They are back in Kabul declairing victory. As you said the big news was the casualty of 11 civilian mostly children and women of the same family. Now, the governer of Farah calls for help because the so called insurgents moved to that province.
NA from Kabul
As stated before, we need to nstart somewhere, and continue to show a force thqat can’t be stopped.
Yes, there are going to be casualties outside of the militant realm. It is unfortunate to say the least. However, they were told in advance to evacuate the area. They knew what was comming. Now, if they wanted to get away, they should have left.
If they want this war to end, they need to cooperate with the Coalition Forces and tell the Taliban to get out of their house.
[...] for He has counted our gray hairs and asks only that we trust Him always.Related blog postsKHALIL NOURI: AFGHANISTAN: A PANDORA'S BOX FOR MARJAH & NAD-ALI …KHALIL NOURI: AFGHANISTAN: A PANDORA'S BOX FOR MARJAH & NAD-ALI [...]
“Let the key guns be mounted, make a brave show of waging war, and pry off the lid of Pandora’s Box once more”
Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country (Karzai and NATO) who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in.
Afghanistan “is the graveyard of empires”…
Really? You don’t say. It’s good to look to history before you leap.
I believe that if a country is going to wage a war (and I’m all for the GWOT) it must be well-planned and well-executed, and as such the commander of the armed forces must truly understand and address the challenges involved in the operation before sending his troops off to fight. Ah, well, “bygones”!!!! History is for spinning , not for learning!
Now, as it is projected in the national security team’s dismal assessment of the war in Afghanistan, this operation will take years just to “turn around”. Notice they didn’t say “end.”
Which is why we have to send 30K more troops out there. After all, as Gen. Petraeus said (in perhaps my favorite quote of the day), “You can’t commute to work in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations”. His proposed strategy, similar to his strategy in Iraq, looks promising.
The CIA left the Pandora box open when they left Afghanista after the defeat of The Soviet Union in late 80s, because Afghanista wasn’t important to the US,anymore.
The western world got what they want after the collapse of the communist regyme, but leaving Afghanistan in the hands of those Mujahiddins that fought for a decade the common enemy, but never agreed among eachother after the defeat of the Russians who would be in charge, the result was a chaos, and ended up to a civil war and the destruction of the Twin Towers.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were a big part of it, and still they are. Pakistan created Taliban with US money under Benazir Bhutto, wha wanted a pipeline running through Afghanistan from Khazakistan Oil Field to Karachi, so the cost would be less to the American Oil Companies.Russia didnot allow them to go through Erope. Who are Talibans?
Talibans are the Mujahids who went to the Madrassas that were built in Pakistan by Saudi Arabia’s money and preached and brain washed by Wahabist mullahs of the Saudis,and sent to Afghanistan to create an Islamic country that rules under the Sharia’s law. As long as Pakistan build those Madrassas, and Saudis pay for them, there will never be peace in Afghanistan, because these Talibans are the fighters that are recruited and financed by Saudis from all over the world, and sent to Afghanistan to fight Imperialist America and her allies. Operation Mushtarak is not the end, but the beginning of a huge operation in order to cotrol the area, and the US, and coalition forces need to be there for a long time, if they want a stable government in Afghanistan.
It’s easy to blame the CIA, as I do often,and agree are ,shit stirrers, however, the course of events described is a manipulation of events intentionally ignored, until, people even I will suggest , such as yourself, will demand action in a certain direction. We have created Pandora’s box in that maybe US, and coalition forces don’t need to be there at all. Let’s work diplomatically, and keep Mossad harvesting Alfalfa Seeds, Amen…and maybe actively working to improve lives on the Kibutz’s. Maybe they can develop an operation which makes their harvest more productive. If US and Coalition Forces are not there, Then the Heroin production needs to go back underground to the Mafia. AMERICAN GANGSTER, allegedly, ‘My Negro’. One man from Harlem was not going to get Military Airlift Command, Military Police, and Various other operators to smuggle drugs into the US via Body Bags, distributed by police and Officers, without the consent of Operatives.. Ask the Mossad…
Thanks for your article.
The US does not need a final victory over the Talibs. Despite their widely advertized ferocious conflict, the US and the Talibs manage to coexist quite successfully in Afghanistan…
Come on folks, it’s just good sense, there is no way the Empire can actually win the war in Afghanistan. It’s not about ‘winning’ but clearly occupation. I agree with (Big Red’s note above); Afghanistan is basically a stepping stone on the way to some place else and leaving an oil pipeline behind with a friendly government in place to protect it. Ah, but the best laid plans of mice and men etc…
And this is why it bears no comparison to the idiotic occupation that the Soviets got sucked into, except for the slaughter of course. But from a strategic and economic perspective, along with Iran, Pakistan and India, Afghanistan commands the entrance to East Asia and there’s gold in them thar hills!
Just as with Iraq, Afghanistan has been turned into a garrison state, hence the strategic ‘retreat’ into the cities that has been proposed by the ISAF consiglieri. It’s basically screw the peasants, let ’em rot, as long as we can hold the centre ie, Kabul and a couple of other strategically important towns, why waste ammo and lose, by comparison with the number of Afghan deaths, and what is for a war, a small number of ISAF fatalities (230 UK troops).
But remember, one Western death is considered to be the equivalent to a lot of ‘ragheads’, ‘gooks’ or whatever dehumanizing derogative derives from the latest slaughter. So as far as the Western public is concerned a few hundred ISAF/USUK/NATO deaths translates to maybe thousands having died? Whatever, having the citizens on the side of the Empire is vitally important!
I believe Afghan society is very complex, and Afghanistan has a very complex culture. Part of the reason it has remained unknown is because of this complexity.
For generations, the Hindus of India prayed for deliverance from “the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger and the vengeance of the Afghan.
Please don’t try to open the pandora’s box.
Parwin Maiwandi
Salisbury, England
What Parwin Maiwandi is saying was said in Rudyard Kipling’s poems, long time a go, but revenge is not what we are looking for, we want a solution in Afghanistan, we want peace for poor people of Afghanistan who have gone through wars for decades, it’s easy for you and me who live comfortably in a foreign country and talk about the old Afghan ancient codes, but that will not solve the probem today. We live in 21st. century and we have to come up with a way to work this problem no matter how complex the situation is, and believe it or not, the Panndora Box has been opened long long time a go!
Zahir Khosrow
Seattle, Washington
I appreciate the comment, and understand the first two. Why were they fearful of the vengeance of the Afghan? This to me means a retaliance, or fear, of the Afghani people. Why? I would like to know, if possible. Thankyou. Apparently unrest or worse, came from this region against the Hindu’s? I would love to understand, Thankyou.
Afghan people have been fearce warriors through the history against the invaders like Alexander Tha Great, The British, and The Russians, and they all failed in Afghanist.
Alexander had to marry Roxanne from the northeastern part of Afghanistan to create an alliance with the tribes to let his army live in peace, while his campaign to India continued. The British invaded Afghanista in 1800s many times, because of the fear of the Russian invasion of India, Every time they got defeated by the Afghans, and The battle of Maiwand in south western Afghanist was the first Britsh defeat in one of the colonies, and The british lost many soldiers and most hi rank officers, and today in suburb of London there is a shrine in the name of the soldiers who died in the battle of Maiwand
in Afghanistan. Revenge is one of the important factor in Afghan Code of Honor, if somebody kills your brother the resposibility comes to the older brother to get revenge, if he gets killed it goes down to the rest of the family, and so on, till they get revenge and they are satisfied, if they fail there is ashame to the whole clan. BTWY, the only other country that has such a code of honor is Sicilians. When the British fought Afghans they used the Scotts, and Sikhs of India, at front to face the Afghans, the english were affraid to face Afghans in the battle fields, and they wlaked behind the cavalry and artilleries. When the battle was over and the defeated side left, then the Afghan women were coming to the field and killing and mutillating the enemy soldiers, so RudyardKipling also wrote a poems that says: if you face the Afghans in a battle pray that you are dead, not injured, if you get injured kill yourself, if not a very painful death will be waiting for you.
When the British got defeated in late 1800s for the last time, they left Afghanistan for good and decided to punish the Afghans and devided Afghanistan and India with a boundary that’s called The Durant Line, which seperated Pashtoon brothers from eachothers which is on the news everyday and in today’s Pakistan is called region of Waziristan which pakistan government has the problem of controlling the area. In the eyes of the Afghans the Durant Line never existed and Afghans always crossed it to visit relatives on the other side, and vise versa.
I agree with Parwin as her comment reflects the well-known history.No wonder, no empire ever subjugated the Afghans etc. As for helmad, read Rudyard Kipling’ advice or ask the russians!
Thank you booglede,
History speaks for itself.
If I had a way to help my birth country I would have done so, but now going to be close to 40 years of war. Therefore, something is fundamentally wrong.
Afghanistan is the only country that prolonged this far.
P. Maiwandi
We all know the history of Afghanistan as an Afghan, but should we just let set and not do anything about what is going on there. Ofcourse there is something fundamentally wrong with Afghanistan right now, because we don’t have a good leader who has the trust of the people of Afghanistan and unite all the tribes, like the late King Zahir Shah did. Afghanistan always had a strong central govenment, and we lost that, since the war with the Russia.
GO USA!!! Proud Marine Mother
Operation Mushtarak “a government in a box?” ! sure why not, end result ?
We will see it to believe it. This is a drop in a ocean as one said in this forum. The entire Afghanistan has to be transformed, but at what cost? We will be bankrupt by then. Russia lost its states now the breakaways, similarly we will see ghost towns all across US before we resolve Afghanistan’s problem.
Besides,
~ All 9/11 terrorists came from Arab states, ( as we know Afghanistan is not Arab ) their nationalities were from oppresive governments that we support. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and UAR
~ All 9/11 terrorists were trained in US flying schools.
~ 9/11 terrorist operation was coordinated from Hamburg
Germany……..
We are in Afghanistan because ?
We are in Afghanistan because the head of Alqaeda, who masterminded the 911 terrorist act, is still operating from Afghanistan/Pakistan border, and trying to terrorise this country, and the allies.
Helmand is the largest opium producing region in Afghanistan, this is another reason to be in Afghanistan, and the most important of them all is, to bring peace to the people of Afghanistan, so they can’t be terrorised, and ruled by Talibans again. Leaving Afghanistan again before bringing an stable government that can operate by it self, is a huge mistake, just like the one US, made after the Russian left Afghanistan.
I hope we have learned from our past mistakes of not finishing what we started in the first place, in Afghanistan.
I wonder if the powers that be in the Pentagon, State Department, White House, or whoever is actually running the Afghan ‘country remaking’ (I just made that one up, because ‘occupation’ would be politically incorrect, and not really accurate, [I guess?], so I can’t call it that, and ‘nation building’ is trite and developing a negative connotation) was trying to lure all the world’s jihadists into one tiny town (Marhah) so that they could be eliminated, like in Fallujah? After what the Marines did in Fallujah, if I were a jihadist, I think I would check out of Hotel Marjah a bit early. I bet they had to leave behind a lot of expensive drug laboratory equipment. Aren’t good Muslims supposed to stay away from that stuff? Once again, my role model image is shattered.
yaa right, it’s those pajama panted Afghans supplying the world with Opium, and Heroin on a grand scale. ‘Those guys’ with their ‘drug laboratories’!? That’s a classic. Many are growing poppies, more so than before we ‘Invaded’, but that should be looked at as Suspect. We Invaded at the correct time for harvest. BLACK OPS RUN THE SHOW. Have a nice day.
General McChrystal’s population-centric “New Deal” in Afghanistan opposed, among others, by Veep Joe Biden and Ambassador General Karl Eikenberry is a curious but confusing concoction that deserves much more than a cursory glance.
JW
It is time for the Taliban to jettison the NATO-ISAF cold war jellyfish from the heat of Afghanistan once and for all.
Afghan Women’s Voice
You are right it has just started.
The ISI must be getting a little worried. They gave up, ah, I mean captured, the top Taliban military commanded, Mullah Baradar. I guess they watched and listened a while first?
Fascism rules right now. AND THIS IS NOT OUR PRESENT PRESIDENT! Remember this, When the Children, women , and men were slaughtered in Waco Texas, Bill Clinton was President for Three months! All The Trigger Fingers Joined with Bush Senior, and Reagan. They still had the Mindset of a Fascist, like their Predecessors. Rambo, Wannabe’s…Yes Reno, the trembling Attorney General, possibly not ready for her manipulated job, over acted, to appear, ‘tough’, and Fascist. Liberals need to understand, in order to be tough, stand staunchly, true in your compassionate understanding. However, never underestimate the Fascist, and their severere, caustic, subversive, lieing manipulation. Hence- the American Media ad all. Sans (NOT) KPFK, 90.7 Los Angeles, and some of the Troop at KTLK, 1150 AM, Los Angeles, even though some of THESE individuals always fall back on the alleged fact that ‘boxcutter boys’ took down four jetliners…!!! What a joke. These two radio stations get more truth out there than all the paid manipulated, bought and sold corporate owned media in the world. G. E. Does not want it’s sibling owned station, N.B.C. talking shit about them. They pay them to stroke, G.E. Hence feel good broadcasts promoting G.E.’s interest.
Support Our Troops. Be Informed.
Blind allegiance is not always true patriotism.
Thanks for the article.
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