PakTribune,
Pakistan
Washington too 'Selfless' to Succeed in Afghanistan
June 13, 2006
Pakistan's Pak Tribune - Original Article (English)
Washington: Unlike America's seemingly endless war in Iraq, the
campaign in Afghanistan has been widely considered a "war on terror" success.
Pakistan's policy makers tell us that we have nothing more to fear from
Afghanistan, because the war accomplished its two main goals: al-Qaeda and its
sponsoring regime, the Taliban, are long gone, and the country has a new,
pro-Western government. But in reality the war has been a dramatic failure, as
the daily news from Afghanistan shows.
Legions of undefeated Taliban and al-Qaeda soldiers have renewed
their jihad. Flush with money, amassing recruits, and armed with guns, rockets
and explosives, they are fighting to regain power. In recent months they have
mounted a string of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against American and
NATO forces; more U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan in the last 18 months
than during the peak of the war.
Taliban forces have effectively besieged several provinces in
southern Afghanistan. Local officials estimate that in some provinces the,
"number of Taliban … is several times greater than the police and Afghan
National Army."
Taliban fighters are said to amble fearlessly through villages,
brandishing their Kalashnikovs, and collecting zakat (an Islamic donation) from
peasants. With astounding boldness, they assassinate clerics and judges deemed
too friendly to the new government, and fired rockets at schools for using
"un-Islamic" books.
How is it that four years after the war
began - and in the face of America's unsurpassed military strength - Taliban
and al-Qaeda fighters once again threaten American interests?
Victory in Afghanistan demanded two things. We had to destroy the
Taliban and ensure that a non-threatening, non-Islamic-warrior-breeding regime took
its place. But we never thought we had the moral right to do either.
Our [Pakistan's] military was ordered to pursue Taliban fighters
only if our soldiers simultaneously showed "compassion" to the
Afghans. The U.S. military dropped bombs on Afghanistan - but instead of
ruthlessly pounding key targets, it was ordered to gingerly avoid hitting holy sites
and mosques (known Taliban hideouts) and shower the country with food packages.
The U.S. deployed ground forces - but instead of focusing
exclusively on capturing or killing the enemy, they were also diverted to a
host of "reconstruction" projects. The result is that the enemy was
not destroyed and crushed in spirit, but merely scattered and left with the
moral fortitude to regroup and launch a brazen comeback.
Even with its hands tied, however, the U.S. military succeeded in
toppling the Taliban regime - but Washington subverted that achievement, too.
Any Afghan government based on a secular constitution that respects
individual rights would be a non-threat to America's interests. The Bush Administration,
however, declared that we had "no right to impose our beliefs" - and
instead endorsed the Afghan desire for another regime founded on Islamic law.
A U.S. soldier in the Afghan countryside:
One hand tied behind his back?
------------------------------------------------------
This avowedly Islamic regime has already jailed an Afghan magazine
editor for "blasphemy"; and Abdul Rahman, an Afghan convert to
Christianity, faced a death sentence for apostasy. The new Afghan regime simply
cannot be counted on to oppose the resurgence of Islamic totalitarianism.
Ideologically, it has nothing to say in opposition to the doctrines of the
Taliban (two members of the Taliban leadership are part of the new government).
It is only a matter of time before Afghanistan is once again a haven for
anti-American warriors.
The failure in Afghanistan is a result of Washington's foreign
policy. Despite lip-service paid to the goal of protecting America's safety, the
"war on terror" has been waged in compliance with the prevailing
moral premise that self-interest is evil and self-sacrifice a virtue. Instead
of trouncing the enemy for the sake of protecting American lives, U.S. leaders
have sacrificed our self-defense for the sake of serving the whims of Afghans.
The half-hearted war in Afghanistan failed to smash the Taliban
and al-Qaeda. It failed to render their ideology - Islamic totalitarianism - a
lost cause. Instead, at best it demonstrated Washington's reluctance to fight
ruthlessly to defend Americans. How better to stoke the enthusiasm of
jihadists?
America cannot win this or any war by embracing selflessness as a
virtue. Ultimately, it cannot survive unless Washington abandons its
self-sacrificial foreign policy in favor of one that proudly places America's
interests as its exclusive moral concern.
VIDEO FROM AFGHANISTAN: TALIBAN LEARNING FROM IRAQI INSURGENTS
AL-JAZZERA TV, QATAR: Excerpts from an interview with Taliban military commander Mullah Dadallah, May 31, 2006, 00:09:16 MEMRI
"The bombings we carry out - we learned it from them. We learn other types of operations from them as well."
Mullah Dadallah, Taliban Military Commander