Posted on 07/09/2006 11:17:23 PM PDT by neverdem
IN 2003, the Bush administration left the war in Afghanistan unfinished and moved on to overthrow Saddam Hussein. This grand diversion of military, intelligence and diplomatic resources not only jeopardized success in Afghanistan but also initiated the collapse of international support and respect for the United States.
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, American and NATO forces are fighting a resurgent Taliban. Leaders like Mullah Muhammad Omar remain at large, and Osama bin Laden emerges regularly to threaten the West and inspire his followers.
It is true that Afghanistan has taken historic steps toward democracy. President Hamid Karzai is doing his best to unify the country, and there has been no insurgency comparable to the one in Iraq. But Afghanistan is hardly the shining example to the Muslim world that George Bush and Tony Blair promised. With warlords and drug barons largely in control and the Pakistani border still porous, the country has become the forgotten front in the war on terrorism.
On June 28, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Kabul to insist that Washington is still committed to Afghanistan. But I was also in the Afghan capital last week, as well as in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. What I heard from military officials, politicians, diplomats and aid workers was this: Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan is still winnable, but American involvement is insufficient.
Back in Washington last week, partisan warfare had erupted over a Democratic proposal to establish a timeline for withdrawing American forces from Iraq. Even though the top commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., was working on just such a plan, Republicans battered the Democrats as quitters, unwilling to hang tough in the fight against terrorism.
Next time, the Democrats should try a different strategy. Instead of...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
James P. Rubin, aka Mr. Amanpour, an assistant secretary of state from 1997 to 2000, is the international news anchor for Sky News.
God help us if this fool goes back to Foggy Bottom. It's obvious he doesn't grasp that if we are perceived as having lost in Iraq, there will be hell to pay. The battle for Iraq is fundamental to the war against islamofascism.
Rubin is a myopic idiot.
If we'd fought the Democrats' war in Afghanistan, the place would be overrun with Iraqi trained Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists wielding weapons paid for by Oil for Food money.
And we'd have left right after capturing lots of empty tents, because there'd be no point in staying in Afghanistan if Al Qaeda has fled.
Has ONE GENERAL in Afghanistan EVER asked for more troops or resources? And NOT GOTTEN IT?
Osama Bin Laden sure was ticked off that we whacked his #1 "distraction", Al-Zarqawi. Incidentally, Zarq was the most active terrorist in the entire world during the post-911 era. And he was in IRAQ.
Minister of Defense (Afghanistan): "We are happy to see the Taliban return to the conflict .. now we can KILL THEM!
"Afghanistan is hardly the shining example to the Muslim world that George Bush and Tony Blair promised."
When did they EVER say anything like that?
Promise? WTF is this guy smoking?
Myopic democrat hack, you mean. And an idiot, yes.
There are all sorts of fruitful policy debates to be had. Let's have at them. I like the idea, though outlandish seeming, of Democrats actually helping to win the war on terror.
But this piece is tainted by dishonest rhetoric on Iraq regarding timetables. Somehow the date certain aspect of their proposals became a forgettable detail. It's like that bit of propaganda the Left/Press foisted on President Bush about Katrina by disingenuously conflating breeching and over-topping.
When you disregard that attempted sleight of hand, all that is left of this positioning proposal is to say: when we are able to redeploy from Iraq, let's send 'em to Afghanistan. And that move will be owned by Democrats because they pushed it.
Bush has moved on from Iraq to NK and Iran. Try to keep up guys!
IN 2003, the Bush administration left the war in Afghanistan unfinished and moved on to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
the consistency of the slimes, first line starts off with a lie.
Interesting - the same folks that say we should get out of Iraq and let them sink or swim are of the mind that we should stay more heavily engaged in Afghanistan to ensure they swim...
It appears that the 'Rats want us to re-fight the Soviet-Afghan war: 500,000+ grunts up against guerillas that know the terrain. IIRC, the Russkies had their a$$es handed to them.
Does anyone else think the Afghan Islam is even MORE messed up than Iraqi Sunni and Shia Islam?
According to Wikipedia, the Red Army in Afghanistan averaged between 80,000 and 100,000 troops. 100,000 agrees with my memory from news accounts of the time of the total number of troops deployed at any point during the decade after the Red Army initially invaded. I wonder what would have happened if we didn't supply the Afghan mujihadeen with "Stinger" MANPADS.
IMHO, Afghanistan's current strategic significance is that it is part of Iran's eastern flank. Other than growing poppies, which would mean little without the War on Drugs and the money that generates, and its location in Central Asia where our presence alarms many of its neighbors, including the Russkies and Chicoms, Afghanistan is little more than a footnote for the Taliban hosting Al Qaeda. It differs little from the primitive to feudal 'stans' around it. Many of the same primitive to feudal ethnic peoples straddle its borders.
Transforming Afghanistan into a modern state will take decades, if it is possible. We can lose in Iraq with the dems taking control of the next Congress, just like we lost in Vietnam with the loss of Congressional backing, but with worse consequences. Check out the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
I'm basically on your side and moreover I deplore the critics' exaggerations and handwringing over the "loss of honor" (due to the Abu Ghraib thing and on through the litany).
However, I do think the diplomatic situation has been pretty bad. That was a cost, no matter how justified the US' actions were. We are unfortunately continuing to see elite opinion blind to their own shortcomings, UN scandals, etc. But the thing is that Western elite opinion does matter. Condi Rice et al have been currying it fairly well.
Crazy Kim, Cozy Carl, and the Bow Wave
Do You Know That...? - More good news from Iraq.
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Thanks for the ping!
Thanks for the ping. Outstanding FReeper comments bump!
Rubin is a moron. NATO is busy killing Terroists in Afganistan. It is another front in the war. Just another Clintonite out screaming the lie that Iraq is not the War on Terror. Yes it is Rubin you utter idiot. It is the PRIMARY front. HERE is how Iraq is part of the War on Terrorist
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/part1.html
10 WAYS THE LIBERATION OF IRAQ SUPPORTS THE WAR ON TERROR
With the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq is no longer a state sponsor of terror. According to State Department reports on terrorism, before the removal of Saddam's regime, Iraq was one of seven state sponsors of terror.
Saddam Hussein's regime posed a threat to the security of the United States and the world. With the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime, a leader who pursued, used, and possessed weapons of mass destruction is no longer in power.
Saddam Hussein would not uphold his international commitments, and now that he is no longer in power, the world is safe from this tyrant. The old Iraqi regime defied the international community and seventeen UN resolutions for twelve years and gave every indication that it would never disarm and never comply with the just demands of the world.
A senior al Qaida terrorist, now detained, who had been responsible for al Qaida training camps in Afghanistan, reports that al Qaida was intent on obtaining WMD assistance from Iraq. According to a credible, high-level al Qaida source, Usama Bin Laden and deceased al Qaida leader Muhammad Atif did not believe that al Qaida labs in Afghanistan were capable of manufacturing chemical and biological weapons, so they turned to Iraq for assistance. Iraq agreed to provide chemical and biological weapons training for two al Qaida associates starting in December 2000.
Senior al Qaida associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi came to Baghdad in May 2002 for medical treatment along with approximately two dozen al Qaida terrorist associates. This group stayed in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq and plotted terrorist attacks around the world.
A safe haven in Iraq belonging to Ansar al-Islam -- a terrorist group closely associated with Zarqawi and al Qaida -- was destroyed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In March 2003, during a raid on the compound controlled by the terrorists in northeastern Iraq, a cache of documents was discovered, including computer discs and foreign passports belonging to fighters from various Middle East nationalities.
The al Qaida affiliate Ansar al-Islam is known to still be present in Iraq. Such terrorist groups are now plotting against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Law enforcement and intelligence operations have disrupted al Qaida associate Abu Musab Zarqawi's poison plotting in France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Russia. The facilities in Northern Iraq, set up by Zarqawi and Ansar al-Islam were, before the war, an al Qaida's poisons/toxins laboratory.
Abu Musa Zarqawi, the al Qaida associate with direct links to Iraq, oversaw those responsible for the assassination of USAID officer Laurence Foley in Amman, Jordan last October.
Saddam Hussein's Iraq provided material assistance to Palestinian terrorist groups, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, HAMAS, and the Palestine Islamic Jihad, according to a State Department report. This included paying the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, according to testimonials from Palestinians and cancelled checks. Also, according to State Department reports, terrorist groups the Iranian Mujahedin-e-Khalq and the Abu Nidal organization were protected by the Iraqi regime protected by the Iraqi regime
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