The War in Afghanistan Part 2 of 4

by Clifford F. Thies

On September 11, 2001, radical Muslims, trained and organized in Afghanistan attacked the United States of America. This was not their first attack. But, this was by far their most successful. Two of the four commercial airplanes that their operatives hijacked slammed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, touching off implosions that resulted in the utter destruction of the buildings. A third plane
slammed into the Pentagon in Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. And, the fourth, believed planned to destroy the White House, crashed into a rural area in Pennsylvania, after the passengers rose up to wrestle the plane from the terrorists.

Immediately after this, the Congress of the United States authorized the use of force against “those responsible” for the attack. In the House of Representatives, the vote was 420-1 (the one nay being from a Democrat; and, yes, Ron Paul voted aye). In the Senate, the vote was 98-0.

The President approved a bold plan developed by CIA Director George Tenet and General Tommy Franks of Central Command. The plan involved setting up a base camp in Kazakhstan and working with the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, popularly known as the Northern Alliance, which was then engaged in a civil war against the Taliban government and their allies from Al Qaeda and Pakistan. In November, the army of the Northern Alliance, joined by U.S. and British special operations personnel, met the army of the Taliban north of Kabul. The Taliban army of 25,000 included 8,000 Pakistanis.

As the Taliban army approached, it was pucker time for the fighters of the Northern Alliance. Then, an aging rock band from the U.S. known as the B-52s arrived and discharged their bombs on the Taliban army. So high were the warplanes, their bombs just seemed to come from out of nowhere. As the valley became engulfed in dust, and the Taliban army just disappeared, the fighters of the Northern Alliance roared out “Allah Akbar!”

Remnants of the Taliban army fled south, eventually to Pakistan. A provisional government was set up in Kabul. And, an area about that city was secured by a NATO force commanded at one time by Turkey and at another time by Germany. The U.S. hoped for something of a political resolution among the various tribes of the country; but, deeply-rooted tribalism combined with the religious fanaticism of the Talban made that impossible. Eventually, the mission of our involvement in that country morphed from kicking ass, at which our military is very good, to reconstructing a country that was never constructed in the first place. It is not clear that the U.S. Congress ever gave its approval to this mission creep, but it never is.

After President Obama took office, he made a review of the situation and announced a “surge” along with a timetable for withdrawal. From 30,000 at the time President Bush departed, U.S. troop strength was increased to 100,000. With other coalition partners, troop strength totaled 150,000. Taking the war to the Taliban and their allies in Pakistan, coalition fatalities rose to 500 in 2009 and 700 in 2010 and are currently running at about 500 on an annual basis. These numbers are not reported by the media. Implicitly, in announcing a drawdown of 20,000 troops though next year, the President committed a force of 80,000 for the next two years; and, the war has already passed the War in Viet Nam as the longest war in which we have been engaged.

The strategy, at this time, appears to be to continue to kill as many Taliban and Pakistani fighters as possible, and to train up an indigenous Afghanistan army capable of taking our place as we withdraw. Complicating this plan is continuing tribal jealousy, rampant political corruption, and Pakistani duplicity. Oh, and might I mention that opposing the fact of the complete dependence of the government and army in both Afghanistan and Pakistan on aid from the United States is the fact that a large segment of the population - perhaps a majority - hate us.

Photo credit - History commons