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Robert Scheer: A War of Absurdity
There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaeda back. On the contrary, all of the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it’s their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise.
Every once in awhile, a statistic jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd. That was my reaction to the recent statement of the president’s national security adviser, former Marine Gen. James Jones, concerning the size of the terrorist threat from Afghanistan: “The al-Qaeda presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.”
Less than 100! And he is basing his conservative estimate on the best intelligence data available to our government. That means that al-Qaeda, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan — so why are we having a big debate about sending even more troops to fight an enemy that has relocated elsewhere? Because of the blind belief, in the minds of those such as John McCain, determined to “win” in Afghanistan, that if we don’t escalate, al-Qaeda inevitably will come back.
Why? It’s not like al-Qaeda is an evil weed indigenous to Afghanistan and dependent on its climate and soil for survival. Its members were foreign imports in the first place, recruited by our CIA to fight the Soviets because evidently there weren’t enough locals to do the job. After all, U.S. officials first forged the alliance between the foreign fighters and the Afghan mujahideen, who morphed into the Taliban, and we shouldn’t be surprised that that tenuous alliance ended. The Taliban and other insurgents are preoccupied with the future of Afghanistan, while Arab fighters couldn’t care less and have moved on to more hospitable climes.
There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaeda back. On the contrary, all of the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it is their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise.
As such, while one wishes that the Afghan people would put their houses in order, these are not — even after eight long years of occupation — our houses. Sure, there are all sorts of angry people in Afghanistan, eager to pick fights with each other and most of all any foreigners who seem to be threatening their way of life, but why should that any longer have anything to do with us?
Even in neighboring Pakistan, the remnants of al-Qaeda are barely hanging on. As The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, “Hunted by U.S. drones, beset by money problems and finding it tougher to lure young Arabs to the bleak mountains of Pakistan, al-Qaeda is seeing its role shrink there and in Afghanistan, according to intelligence reports and Pakistan and U.S. officials. ... For Arab youths who are al-Qaeda’s primary recruits, ‘it’s not romantic to be cold and hungry and hiding,’ said a senior U.S.
official in South Asia.”
It’s time to declare victory and begin to get out rather than descend deeper into an intractable civil war that we neither comprehend nor, in the end, will care much about. Terrorists of various stripes still will exist as they have throughout history, but the ones we are most concerned about have proved mighty capable of relocating to less hostile environments, including sunny San Diego and Southern Florida, where the Sept. 11 hijackers had no trouble fitting in.
There is a continued need for effective international police work to thwart the efforts of a widely dispersed al-Qaeda network, but putting resources into that effort doesn’t satisfy the need of the military establishment for a conventional field of battle.
That is the significance of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s leaked report calling for a massive counterinsurgency campaign to make everything right about life in Afghanistan, down to the governance of the most forlorn village. The general’s report aims not at eliminating al-Qaeda, which he concedes is barely existent in the country, but rather at creating an Afghan society that is more to his own liking.
It is a prescription, as the Russians and others before them learned, for war without end. That might satisfy the marketing needs of the defense industry and the career hopes of select military and political aspirants, but it has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. In the end, it would seem that some of our leaders need the Afghanistan battleground more than the terrorists do.
— TruthDig.com editor in chief Robert Scheer‘s new book is The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America. Click here for more information. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 10.10.09 @ 06:32 AM
Mr. Scheer is correct. The Taliban sure made the donkeys run on time. Screw the Afghan women and children who will get to go back to being chattel. Really, what have they done for us? If we get out, the Europeans will get to go home, too, which should make us more popular in Europe. I’m tired of not getting good service while skiing in St. Moritz because I’m an American. Besides, it looks bad to get a Nobel Peace Prize while you’re waging a war.
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» on 10.10.09 @ 07:43 AM
Well Andy, if you are truly concerned about the treatment of women and children then I guess the U.S. needs to invade about 50 countries around the world. Look at Saudi Arabia. Do you really think this conflict is about freedom for the Afghan people and reducing the terriorist threats? Do you think their last election was free and democratic. How about an oil pipeline to the Caspian Sea and the need to spend more money on military equipment to keep the Military Industrial Complex extremely profitable. Much of the money spent over there could be diverted to basic domestic problems that are in very bad shape such as education, infrastructure, healthcare, employment etc. It is not about skiing service. The high school graduation rate in America has dropped below 70%.
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» on 10.11.09 @ 05:17 AM
Local, If you want more money spent on domestic problems, well then you got your wish. I think we have room in that $1400 billion deficit to fix Afghanistan correctly so that we can leave and not have to go back. Government spending is so out of control that money really is meaningless. As for women around that rest of the world, I have absolutely no delusions that Obama gives a crap about them. Look at Iran. Obama wouldn’t even say a kind word about Neda. Words are free. Wouldn’t take away the first dollar from infrastructure spending. But we’re already in Afghanistan. There’s no reason we should start shoveling dirt on the women there.
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» on 07.20.10 @ 04:16 PM
As a shareholder in a variety of aerospace, defense firms and military contractors I DEMAND a continuation of America’s endless wars of aggression against any and all enemy states, real or imagined. Making killing machines and waging war are the two best qualities of America and you could say its most important reasons for existence. Hear me now all who might suggest we turn off the human meat grinder: Shut up or die.
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