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GORDON DUFF: AFGHANISTAN AND AMERICA: OUR DYSFUNCTIONAL APPROACH
PRECONCEPTIONS, MISCONEPTIONS AND “NO FEEDBACK LOOP” LEADS TO AMERICAN DISASTER IN AFGHANISTAN
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
I have only recently returned from the region where I toured as a journalist and lecturer. Our group included Jeff Gates, Raja Mugtaba, BG Asif Haroon Raja and BG Ali Raza and me of Veterans Today and Opinion Maker. We met with some people we will not mention and many we can. Prince Ali of Afghanistan had a delegation with us headed by Fayyaz Shah, as advisors. BG Ali Raza was primary coordinator on the ground for Pakistan during the “Charley Wilson War” against the Soviets. No person has spent so much time “where he isn’t supposed to be” as General Ali Raza. BG Asif Haroon Raja is Pakistan’s best known military analyst and author and an invaluable resource.
I would thank the Director General of the ISPR, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas and Director BG Syed Azmat Ali for their detailed briefing and great courtesy.
Background on the critical border regions was supplied by the former military head, BG Amir Gulistan Janjua. His vast experience in the region was an invaluable aid to our understanding. I would also thank Ahsan Rashid and Col. Javed Mujtaba for their advice, hospitality and analytical skills.
Our primary briefer and advisor for the region and constant correspondent is Admiral I A Sirohey, former Chairman, JCOS of Pakistan. General Aslam Beg, former Army Chief of Staff and General Hamid Gul, former DG ISI, also briefed us extensively on military affairs. These three, along with our companions, BG’s Raja and Ali, are the primary experts on regional military affairs and the Taliban.
We also want to thank Tarik Jan of the ISSI for his kind assistance. I am leaving out two dozen names, some out of kindness. Many political leaders met with us who normally would never see Americans. We were treated with more than courtesy and kindness in some of the most unexpected places.
My close friends and personal advisors, Col. James Hanke, USA SF (ret) former Defense Attache to Israel and Fred Coward, former FBI counter-terrorism expert were a continual help. Their knowledge and extensive contacts in the region were vital.
The question, of course, what did we learn? Does anyone learn anything if weighed down by prejudiced, misconceptions or military and political theories based on flawed analyses or policies? Our job is simply to listen, learn and use our best judgment. Our responsibility is to be honest in our assessments. The findings in this work are entirely my own.
The root of the problems in the region are historical in nature. Unless you go back 200 years or more, something we aren’t doing here, nothing will make sense. The region, Af-Pak, is a creation, primarily of Britain’s, seemingly created out of a design to stimulate instability and conflict to enable “the great game” Britain is famous for to be played, one side against the other. In 1893, when Afghanistan and India/Pakistan were split by Durand, dividing tribes and even families, continual war was guaranteed. In 1947, when Pakistan was created out of a group of peoples, roughly “Islamic” but otherwise unrelated, we were guaranteed even more instability. Pakistan would be a combination of advanced culture, warlike tribes and resentful quasi-independent regions constantly at odds with their powerful neighbor, India.
The alliances that have defined the region, India and the Soviet Union, Pakistan and the United States (and China) and now, India and Israel and the United States(maybe Russia again and part of Afghanistan) and Pakistan and the United States (and China) have led to continual military buildups, including nuclear weapons and other advanced strategic technologies, all within a framework of acrimony and continual terrorism.
India, Israel, the United States, Afghanistan, China and Britain are all accused, on a daily basis, of coordinating terror attacks inside each country of the region, including Iran. Accusations of training and arming terrorist groups, numbered in the dozens, perhaps the hundreds, in each of the countries involved, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, are continually voiced. In the process, everyone denies involvement in the vast drug trade that has reemerged with the American occupation of Afghanistan and the vast network of corruption based primarily on what seems to be an American policy to stimulate waste.
Permanent war, in itself, has become the only business of the region, other than drug trafficking, with endless thousands of “contractors” from around the world flocking to the region to suck down the American dollars carelessly thrown at every imaginable perceived threat or ill, often with little or no consideration for end result or attempt at accounting.
This has brought American war planners to a number of disastrous conclusions about the area, ones that defy any historical or strategic model. The gutting of the intellectual capabilities of American policy planners during the Bush administration, based on an overlay of an Evangelical Christian model, applied, not only to the Pentagon but intelligence services, State Department and many key decision making environments has left the United States unable to process and respond properly to feedback. Thus, failed policies are replaced by untested experiments and short term fixes, none based on broad or sound analysis.
All advice comes from groups tied financially to the continuation of the war and even the destabilization of Pakistan. One major unseen actor is Israel, whose powerful lobby in Washington is capable of making policy for the region. Israel’s military alliance with India and extensive investment in the regions gas and oil industry is a major driver in, what has become a suicidal American effort. With Israel benefitting from billions in arms contracts with the United States and India along with becoming a defacto “super power” of the region by proxy, their “special interest” and unique ability to use their control of media, their massive influence over the electoral process in the US and their long relationship with the Pentagon, continual regional conflict may be a hidden agenda.
Current American policies in the region, both military and economic, seem to prove this out. All are doomed to eventual failure, seemingly purposely so and all are the result of reliance on advice from sectors profiting from war and destabilization, not only of the region, but of the United States itself. It is a unique possibility that the series of ill conceived wars begun under the Bush administration may eventually bring about the economic collapse of the United States as had happened to the Soviet Union some years before.
AFGHANISTAN
America claimed they came into Afghanistan seeking the terrorists who attacked on 9/11. This is blatantly dishonest. Osama bin Laden had been a guest of the Taliban for some time but had been put under severe restrictions by that group. There is no evidence any terrorist organizations were being run by Bin Laden in Afghanistan and current intelligence has proven, despite “media” coverage to the contrary, that bin Laden had no involvement in 9/11. Broad evidence exists that bin Laden died during the initial US attack in 2001. All intelligence and informed opinion leads to this conclusion causing both embarrassment and consternation when “press driven” demands for a continued hunt for bin Laden come from the United States.
Less publicly, the United States has long accepted the death of bin Laden yet has spent millions of dollars and hundreds of lives in a dishonest attempt to keep a “branded” big name terrorist in front of the public. This has caused a general distrust of the United States among its military allies who, universally, believe that the phony “hunt for bin Laden” is proof, not of a need to resurrect a phony “boogieman” for public consumption but rather to create an artificial “icon” to cover massive corruption and a history of failure.
At the outset, America’s approach in Afghanistan was flawed. Our dependence on the Northern Alliance, a group of warlords wishing to restore drug production, prohibited by the Taliban, to assist us led to establishing a regime in Kabul that was never accepted by the people of Afghanistan. President Karzai, not only notoriously corrupt and weak but closely allied to India, would make an unlikely leader in a war requiring continual coordination with Pakistan, a country nearly as distrustful of Karzai as his own people.
The decision by the US to support Karzai, even after a rigged election and to build an army and national police force primarily out of tribal minorities from the Northern Alliance who are hated by the majority of Afghanis has led to the need for the current increase in American presence and the stalled military operations in Helmand, the nation’s primary opium producing region since 2001. Current American plans to consider restructuring the massive national police force on regional ethnic lines is encouraging but doomed to failure.
Tribal traditions in Afghanistan are based on a system called Pashtunwali. All judicial and police functions reside within a long established tribal structure, one that functioned well prior to the Soviet occupation and one which could be restored. Replacing this with a “northern occupation” will only lead to continual warfare.
GUN CULTURE
The economy of Afghanistan is almost entirely non-existent. Warring groups are living off American bribes, payments to allow supplies to pass unharmed to American forces or from taxes on the massive opium harvest. With the destruction of tribal cohesion under the Russian backed government and the mining of Afghanistan, the traditional yearly migrations of the large pastoral population within Afghanistan has stopped. This group, numbering as many as 15 million, are a recruiting ground for “gun culture.”
Replacing normal occupations, farming, husbandry or small industries is a vast number of fighters, many simple bandits and criminals but untold thousands fighting out of a belief they are opposing a foreign occupation. Discerning the difference between the two and restoring a traditional economy to replace warlord-ism, drug production and mercenary activities is the only way of bringing about stability. The cost of these programs, some of which the USAID is working on now, is low in comparison to military action.
However, too little is being done and, for every successful program, ten “boondoggle” programs are put in place, building useless projects with massive cost overruns and corruption.
MILTARY ACTION
American military planners are currently trying a variety of approaches, including working with the Afghan army, a vast mercenary group, primarlily of the northern tribes that is, on the whole, both unsupportable economically and totally helpless when used in any independent capacity. Afghanistan has a tradition of compulsory military service, a “people’s army” of lowly paid but highly motivated soldiers from ever area of the nation. These troops are paid as little as $5 per month but receive food subsidies for their families and extensive training in civilian trades as part of their service.
This successful system has been destroyed by the United States and the Karzai government, replaced with a “paid” professional army untrusted by any group within the country. Pakistan fears that this army will fall under Indian command and threaten their borders and, perhaps, rightly so. The model used is based on Blackwater, a private military contractor, not any national army. The new national army in Afghanistan is quite likely to work for any group capable of paying them. The nation of Afghanistan itself will never have that capability.
American efforts to occupy destabilized regions thru “civil affairs” operations used in Vietnam with some success can only function as they did in Vietnam, as part of a permanent occupation force which will be immediately replaced by an opposing “occupation force” of domestic fighters, the enemy, when Americans leave. In fact, Taliban units simply melt into the civilian population when confronted by American forces beyond their capability of defeating.
Only the foreign fighters in Afghanistan, those who came to fight and die, continue action against the US forces under unfavorable conditions. Others, trained in “irregualr warfare” from birth, simply wait out America’s resolve, exactly as had happened in Vietnam. Pentagon planners understand this, thus making our current efforts by cynical and deceitful.
WHEN ALL DISSENT IS QUELLED, IDIOTS RULE
America is unaware that most of the Taliban live in Pakistan. The total number of Taliban exceeds 50 million, a number America and Pakistan can never fight successfully nor do they need to. The vast majority of those the US considers enemy combatants can be rehabilitated, but not under programs currently being initiated by the United States. The idea of paying “fighters” or members of the “gun culture” to stop resisting is hardly a thoughtful strategy but it is the one the United States has chosen.
There are forces that need to be defeated and that could be defeated by an Afghan army, a traditional force based on compulsory service and fighting for a government with wide support among the tribes, a government Afghanistan currently doesn’t have.
Current military operations are likely to recruit more fighters against the United States and the unpopular Karzai government and, as things are going, eventually lead to a wider conflict in Pakistan and the economic destruction of that nation, a vital US ally. We are well along that road already and are more than well aware of it despite our protestations to the opposite and the total lack of media attention to any “reality based” assessment.
Economic development programs being enacted in Afghanistan are primarily based on supporting a corrupt culture and maintaining “cover” for the massive drug trade that powerful groups among all the players, Afghanistan, Israel, the United States, India and Pakistan, are growing immensely wealthy and powerful on. A restructuring of the economies on both sides of the Durand Line separating Pashtun regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan along lines suggested by Imran Khan and Jeff Gates and groups supporting Prince Ali Seraj may be the best solution.
Simple “grass roots” development built on supporting and expanding traditional industries while providing improved delivery of educational and health care services is a start. Only education of men and women can fight the cycle of extremism, broad public education delivered at village level within a social and economic environment supporting a traditional model. These plans exist, are inexpensive and have broad support among nearly all tribal leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The only thing stopping their implementation is the current much more profitable and corrupt system that is creating a new ruling oligarchy based on American money and continual chaos.
SOLUTIONS?
They have always been there but real solutions have been opposed by those profiting off the war and the environment the war has created. Too many with too much money and power want the wars to continue for too many reasons, including long term geopolitical goals unfavorable to the United States and Pakistan. With a lack of strong leadership within the United States compounded by the disastrous policies of the Bush administration, US foreign policy will continue to be a “runaway train.”
The first step toward enacting known solutions would be getting real information to decision makers and keeping the American people properly informed. Currently, media in the United States is so heavily skewed toward misinformation and propaganda that political accountability has nearly disappeared. An systematically misinformed populace negates all concepts of democracy and representative government. There can be no accountability and no national policy as long as the mechanisms for disinformation that have taken control of America’s news media exist.
Defacto control of Americas media by foreign nations and a cabal of corporations tied to the war economy has ended effective public participation in American policy and decision making and, in the process, ended Congress’s ability to oversee policy. Grassroots movements in Afghanistan, while America remains the “prime mover” depend on restoration of similar authority in the United States.
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=21276
Posted by Gordon Duff on Mar 13 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under AfPak, WarZone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Very good read and pretty much explains all the ins and outs of why we are there. If only someone that is ‘in charge’ would read it, but of course they are probably on that ‘train’ mentioned.
If splitting up the area was the beginning of the problems, WHY don’t the people of the area take COMMAND of their lives and put their countries back together as THEY DESIRE? If you don’t like what somebody did, UNDO it!
Then with that excuse gone, see if the problems start to disappear.
Duffy privitazation of intel,security and logistics is the root problem.their the brown shirts of the oligarchy,and don’t give a tinkers damn about the lives,history or traditions or whose boarders are in the way.its like a giant smash and grab with your tax dollars flipping the bill. if we ever pullout your right the country will implode a garruanteed bloob bath for generations and a new blackmarket source for the weapons industry(who’d athunk it).and when the funds dry up and they will,in will come the guy with the poop scoop at the end of the parade,the humanitarian organizations,they will attemp to put peoples lives together,clean up the mess with security profided by nato.its de-jevu all over again.you will not find factual reporting like this anywhere except at VT!thanks for the great lengths you go to to keep us properly informed.
Thank you Gordon,
I am impressed with the contents you wrote.
We all know there is no military solution to Afghanistan but they keep pushing forward with their military might.
As I am writing this comment the thombstone for the graveyard of the Empires naming NATO and US is being made and ready to be installed.
Enjoyed your article.
Khalil
Afghanistan might be a military contractors paradise, but we’re turning it into a living hell for the Afghans.
Our permanent war or GWOT is just another way to scare the hell out of Americans and keep us fighting phantoms for the next several decades, if we last that long.
Our country is falling apart, due in no small part to the wholesale looting of America by Wall Street bandits. The same thieves who are making obscene profits off the wars we’re fighting against an al Qaeda boogieman that doesn’t exist.
Eventually, the federal government will be too broke to do anything, except to keep the Pentagon running to fight wars for Wall Street and Israel and keep Ninja looking federal police agencies running at home to keep Americans living under the boot of tyranny.
The Bin Laden lies are getting stale, so now they’re slowly moving the ‘terrorists’ who ‘hate our freedoms’ closer to home, to justify Patriotic Act renewals and more repression.
And yes, Bin Laden is DEAD, but that fact won’t stop pseudo-news outlets like FUX and the Cartoon News Network, CNN, from keeping his ghost alive to scare us into slavery.
GREAT ARTICLE FROM Mr DUFF AS USUAL BUT…
STEVOR, HOW NAIVE CAN YOU BE ?, HOW THE AFGHANIS ARE GOING TO TAKE COMMAND ? HOW AS AN INVADED COUNTRY COMPLETELY DESTROYED BY THE INVADER (US) WITH NO REAL ARMY (AFGHANISTAN HAS NO AIR FORCE ONLY PEASANTS HIDING IN CAVES USING LEFT OVER WEAPONS THEY GOT FROM RUSSIA IN THE 70′s AND AMERICA LATER) ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR COUNTRY BACK ?.
IT IS WHAT THE TALIBANS TRYED TO DO FROM THE RUSSIANS AND WE HELPED THEM AT THE TIME, NOW A COALITION OF AMERICANS BRITISH FRENCH ETC ARE BOMBING THE HELL OUT OF THEM, TO PROTECT THE UNICAL NATURAL GAS PIPELINES AND THE HEROIN TRADE WHICH THE CIA USE TO FINANCE THEIR MULTI MILLION DOLLARS “BLACK OPERATIONS” (TRAINING TERRORIST GROUPS TO BE USE LATER AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR OUR “WAR ON TERROR” WHICH REPLACE THE FORMER “COLD WAR” TO MAINTAIN A PERPETUAL STATE OF WAR TO BENEFIT THE OLIGARCHY AND THEIR MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (WHICH IS COMPLETELY PRIVATIZED LIKE MRG SAYS)
IF YOU WERE A DEFENSE CONTRACTOR WHO MAKES BILLIONS OUT OF UNCLE SAM CONTRACTS AS LONG AS AMERICA IS AT WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST….WOULD YOU REALLY WANT PEACE AND LOOSE YOUR INCOME ? DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT KBR, BLACK WATER AND OTHERS ARE THERE TO PROTECT OUR LIBERTY ? OR TO PREVENT ANOTHER 9/11 WHICH WAS MOST LIKELY A
“FALSE FLAG ATTACK” INVOLVING PRIVATE DEFENSE CONTRACTORS WORKING FOR INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES AND A SMALL GROUP OF POWERFUL ROGUE ELEMENTS INSIDE OUR OWN GOVERNMENT.
I HOPE THAT I AM WRONG BUT I BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE PLANNING ANOTHER ONE (9/11 TYPE) BEFORE 2012 , (INVOLVING “SMALL NUKES”) AND THEN ACCUSING IRAN TO BE BEHIND IT TO JUSTIFY ANOTHER WAR,BUT THIS TIME IT WILL BE WW3.
DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT THE PEASANTS FROM AFGHANISTAN CAN TAKE BACK THEIR COUNTRY AGAINST OUR REMOTE CONTROLLED PREDATORS (COST $11 MILLION EACH) OUR TANKS, OUR AIR FORCE OUR DEPLETED URANIUM BULLETS OUR MISSILES …WHAT WAS THE REASON WE WENT THERE AT THE FIRST PLACE ? : BIN LADEN A FORMER CIA ASSET THAT WE LET ESCAPE AND WHO PROBABLY DIED YEARS AGO (THE VIDEOS ARE FAKE AND MADE BY “INTEL CENTER” ANOTHER DEFENSE CONTRACTOR, COINCIDENCE ?).
WAKE UP FOOL !
The political situation is more complex than the American media realize. Don’t confuse the Taliban with the Mujahdeen, the people the US supported in the anti-soviet war. Actually the people who now are the Taliban were supporters of the Russians in the Kandihar area. They represent a progressive rural movement among peasants who are opposed the urban landowners (often called warlords at times) who the US is now supporting.
If Americans think that the Taliban we are now fighting were once the Mujahdeen that we supported in the fight against the soviets, they are badly misinformed. Actually we are fighting the same people as before, a communist-inspired peasant movement. We were able to defeat it when the soviets supported it because the people were still comfortable with the feudal regime in the areas with greater agricultural potential. Things have changed. The country has been racked by war for many decades. The feudal system has been corrupted and has lost legitimacy.
I wonder how many people believe we armed the Taliban to fight the Russians. This nonsense shows how badly we have been misinformed by American media.
James,
There are many divisions in the Taliban, both Afghan and Pakistani. Most are insurgents but some are pure bandits and criminals. We are not seeing any communist activity in Afghanistan. What we are seeing is Dodge City.
g
I should not have used the word communist. The Taliban and practically all Afghan political movements are vehemently anti-communist. They had a very bad experience with the Russian takeover. The Russian communists are now labeled as godless infidels.
My problems is that I am trying to figure out why the Taliban are so popular with the peasant people. They seem to have something in common with current Maoist movements in Asia. That is why I incorrectly used the phrase “communist-inspired,” which I now recant. Mao said he was a communist in order to cotton up to the Russians to get aid. However Mao’s communism was a rural anti-landowner peasant movement. It had nothing in common with the worker-based anti-capitalist communism of the Russian Bolsheviks.
There has been some thought that the original Kandahari Taliban organized by Mullah Mohammed Omar was influenced by Marxist-Leninist schools that were set up before and during the Soviet involvement. I have also seen comments that they were basically an offshoot of the Wahhabi schools set up there in the last century. The most cogent argument has been made by Ahmed Rashid who links them to the Deobandi movement in Pakistan.
However, all of these Islamacist movements are rather academic. The Taliban were fed by recruits from the Deobandi madrassahs in Pakistan, but they adapted their ideology and political program to rural Afghan peasants who were by and large from the more independent rural regions of the Pashtun east. How they did this and how they are continuing to do this is the question. It looks a lot like the work of the Khmer Rouge, who, incidentally, became quite violent like the Taliban, or the Vietminh, who undertook radical collectivization in North Vietnam during the first Indochina war. It is too bad, from an academic point of view, that the Taliban did not remain in power long enough for them to formulate a clear expression of what their social revolution was all about. Their outrageous imposition of their distorted version of Islamic law so shocked outsiders that any dialog with them became impossible.
The best insight I have comes from Taliban so-called “Islamic” reforms. It is a harsh and tough version of Islamic law that very much resembles the rules that govern rural life in the Pashtun belt, otherwise known as Pashtunwalli. I don’t know if they have a social or economic program going beyond pacifying the country with harsh laws. Most peasant movement do develop a social-economic reform program, built often on Maoist lines. If that has happened already, then the Taliban will be a difficult force to confront, but one that is more inclined toward peace.
Cogent observations from a vet journalist who did his homework on the ground in places where his life was in jeopardy. Its a shame the Pentagon princes don’t do the same level of research witnessing and listening to experts who actually LIVE the
broken country of AFghanistan and the duplicitous nature of the Paki military & government.
Great article Gordon,, an amazing trip,, and finally some real on the ground insight into what is really happening there. Bravo.
While we still had a draft, there was a very important element that existed in our military,, and that was the drafted citizen soldier,, who was not there for the money. He was there to put in his time, serve out his obligation,, and who was not concerned with his long term career military future. This is one of the checks against a separate military,, a military that is not really a citizen military,, but a professional military,,, not the military of 1944 or 1969,, but the military of today,, where there really is decent money to be made and decent benefits to receive,, much like any other large corporation. This quite separate professional soldier of today, who sees his life long career tied with his ability to simply shut up and do the job,, is in a much different situation than he was in 1969. In 1969 he was surrounded by a bunch of fellows who quite easily saw through the “lifer” mentality of many of their officers. I called them “Rah Rahs.” Now we have a military that is pure Rah Rah,, through and through.
The draft also had a significant effect on our intelligence community. More than a few college students,, at some of our finest schools, were offered alternative service in the CIA or various other intelligence groups. A few young men who had amazing scores on that old Army IQ test were also offered various roles of alternative service,, so there in the midst of some of our career intelligence officials were young fellows who somehow very luckily escaped the draft, and who were serving in basically civilian type positions. Some of these fellows went right on into Graduate school or law school while employed by our intelligence community to become political analysts,, but my point is that the “lifers” were still often in the company of the citizen soldier,, not just surrounded by the men or women who were there to make a life long career out of working for our government.
A man who desires no longer a government connection than the one he has already agreed to serve, is much more likely to smell the rat,, and to say something about it,, and usually much more willing to call a superior on bullshit when he sees it. This citizen check on our intelligence community existed during the draft,, and it does not exist today.
That flow of citizens who went begrudgingly into government service to avoid being drafted into the military, I suspect,, were probably the sharpest knives in those drawers.
All areas of government were made wiser and smarter by the draft,,and in some odd ways,, made much more accountable.
I wish I could have said my point more succinctly, but I hope you understand what I am trying to say.
Add to this Rah Rah factor the revolving door factor of Pentagon officials sliding back and forth between the military suppliers and defense giants and back into the front door of the Pentagon. One day they’re an active duty general,, then two years on the board of Raytheon,, then back in as an active duty general. But it is not just the generals,, many lower level officers are doing the same exact thing.
Then, just occasionally,, one of these sharp knives slips through under the radar,like Matthew Hoh.
After serving as a Marine Captain Hoh became a political officer in our foreign service and was sent to Afghanistan. This was in his letter of resignation;
“I feel that our strategies in Afghanistan are not pursing goals that are worthy of sacrificing our young men and women or spending the billions we’re doing there,” Hoh said. “I believe that the people we are fighting there are fighting us because we are occupying them — not for any ideological reasons, not because of any links to al Qaeda, not because of any fundamental hatred toward the West. The only reason they’re fighting us is because we are occupying them.”
Looks like the truth really mattered to Hoh,, and so he acted on it. Bravo.
My type of hero.
So,, I hope I have made my point. Our military is more than 99% Rah Rah,, our intelligence community is more than 99% Rah Rah,, and with both groups going in and out between the private defense giants,, we now have a corporate mil/industrial/intel/congressioanl apparatus that we have lost control of.
It is very nice here today. Think I’ll take a walk. I know I have none of the answers,, I only have some questions and a few comments. I certainly hope and pray that there are more Matthew Hohs in this world,, on all sides of every issue,, and a few more writers willing to listen to what they have to say. Just a few more decent writers asking the important questions,, the really important questions, would be a good start. A few more writers like yourself, willing to risk the journey to do the work.
Keep up the good fight Gordon,, your pages spark some interesting debates.
I think I’d like to switch to your brand of coffee. Where do you get all the energy ?
Identify suspected bin Laden AO, claim as U.S. territory, sweep AO, bomb AO ND MOVE ON TO NEXT BIN lADEN ao.
Thomas,
Crawford to Dallas?
g
I was also wondering Gordon,, absent from all the countries you did mention,,Pakistan, China, Russia, Britain,, was Saudi Arabia. I have read that they are very active in the region. Was Saudi Arabia mentioned in any of these discussions ? Both Israel and S.A. are our allies,,but that Royal Family has a way of slipping beneath the radar quite regularly. So very glad I live here, and will not be poked in the rump tonight because I asked that question. Any reports of what the Saudis are doing these days? Oh yeah,, that’s right,, they never really do anything themselves,, they just hire someone else to do it. Well,, just in case you hear of something.
Shea,
We know. They always foot the bill, terrorists, counter-terrorists, anyone as long as they are left to their devices.
g
Iraqi civilization goes back to 8000 bc – Iranian-Persian that included some of today’s Afghanistan goes back to the Zoroastrians – 1400 bc – - who believed in the power of good thoughts – good words – and good deeds – some present time barbarians – can only clock 200 years – but has it exceptions like Gordon Duff. Thanks Gordon.
What a great article. USA has made some big mistakes and this writer has done great work. Lets help him so that dishonesty by the US leadership and the media and greedy syndicate barons that are helped to expand these wars are eliminated forever.
His empathy for other countries and his knowledge about this war makes him such different writer whom all readers should admire.We can help him by shouting against this war and saying enough is enough!!!! Gordon Duff you are a sincere person and have done a great job. God bless you!!!
At the outset let me say that it was a great pleasure to meet Gordon Duff and Jeff Gates in person during their visit to Pakistan. I found the two personalities amiable, knowledgable, practical; they had down to earth approach. While Jeff is scholarly, affable and friendly, Gordon is a practical soldier, scintillating, warm hearted, bold and forthright with a touch of humor. Both shared their views with coherence, rationality and conviction. They have made a place in the hearts of Pakistanis.
I am so glad to hear from Gordon that he and Jeff enjoyed their stay here. Talking to them, I recollected my American acquaintances in US Embassy Cairo whom I found open hearted, gregarious and very friendly. I fail to understand the contrast of behavior pattern between common Americans and the ones sitting in corridors of power who are arrogant, scheming and callous. It is because of arrogance and dual-faced policies of American leadership that has triggered anti-Amricanism in Pakistan.
Gordon Duff has penned down his impressions brilliantly for which I extend my appreciation. Obama Administration, Pentagon,the Congress and others in USA should read it. An excellent report.
I avail this opportunity to convey my best wishes, healh, happiness and prosperity to Gordon Duff, Jeff Hunt and all those in America who are friendly towards Pakistan and are struggling for the righteous cause. May God crown your efforts with success. Many thanks to Jeff Gates for his book. Brig Gen Asif Haroon Raja
BG Asif Haroon Raja,
Having you as a regular companion during my visit to Pakitan made my visit far more productive and enjoyable than it would have been otherwise. We have so much work to do. Jeff and I, and so many more of us, are ready to move forward.
Americans have no idea about Pakistan or its people, only what they hear. Reality is so very different with those who America typically sees as potential enemies the only real people we can trust.
g
Being moderately disabled at birth, I never was in the military, but I worked for them once. I quit to study anthropology, because I saw how disconnected American foreign policy was from reality. I am now a retired professor. I have lived with peasant people and have studied their political reactions to Western intervention. I am glad to see that Duff and people with connections to the American military are alert to the costly misdirection that our government has taken.
I sympathize with the soldiers who are the tip of a spear managed by a greedy military industrial complex. They are being thrust into conflicts in which they have no real part. The American public is being misled by propaganda. Kudos to Duff for exposing it.
Over the twentieth century, peasants in many parts of the world have engaged in revolutions. I recommend reading the book “Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century” by the anthropologist Eric Wolf. For some reason I have yet to fully understand American leaders are blind to the political dynamics of peasant revolutions. They had no idea of what they were facing in Viet Nam. Now they are just beginning to understand Afghanistan. The feudal structure of the Afghanistan political system is breaking down. Thirty years of war in any peasant culture will do that. The current program of trying to reinstate the Durani feudal state under Karzai’s leadership is doomed.
Unfortunately Afghanistan is at a geopolitical crossroads. Take note of the states around her: Iran, Russia, Pakistan, and India. No wonder Israel is in there trying to stop Iran from gaining a foothold. Thanks Duff for making this known. If the US is going to play in this geopolitical game, the cost will be tremendous. I think it is an immoral game to play, but that doesn’t stop the politicians. It is neither moral or politically smart to invade people’s homes with weapons. However, the military-industrial complex loves to play this game, because the taxpayers shell out billions to them. This game has nothing to do with Al Quaeda or Bin Laden. Thanks again to Duff for letting this cat out of the bag.
Unfortunately four of the powers contending, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Russia have nuclear weapons; however, I still don’t think that it is a power game that the US should be in. Fighting the Taliban is not a successful way to keep peace between these nuclear powers. Eventually Afghanistan will be ruled by the Afghanis, so the US should try to create good relationships with a government that will emerge from local politics, not try to force the country back into a state that it already has left behind.