Politicians & Generals Should be Jailed for Treason
“We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”
Attributed to Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
Thankfully, the West still has Freedom of Information (FOI) laws. If someone has the patience and deep enough pockets, despite deliberate government functionary obfuscation, documents are to be disclosed. The Washington Post backed reporter Craig Whitlock’s quest for the truth regarding the Afghanistan War and spent their own treasure and time suing the US government to turn over war documents. The following is a brief synopsis of the book’s contents.
Part 1 (2001-2002): Who am I supposed to shoot?
After Al-Qaeda spectacularly attacked America and traumatized the Nation, President George W. Bush invoked NATO articles and launched his ‘War on Terror’. Al-Qaeda was routed in their stronghold of Afghanistan forthwith and Osama bin Laden barely escaped across the border into Pakistan. At this point, the NATO forces could have high-fived and gone home.
Nope!
The Americans were all dressed up and ready for a party, so they looked around for a reason to stay. Well, the Taliban had harboured Al-Qaeda, were ‘mean’ to women, and most of the country was illiterate. Besides, if they could build a ‘Western’ style Nation in Afghanistan, they could keep an eye on the pesky Russians. Hooray, we’re here to stay! Everyone loves the States, they all want to be just like us, shoot all the Taliban if you can figure out who they are, what could go wrong?
Part 2 (2003-2005): Peek-A-Boo, where did you go?
Not content with one major war, President Bush went after his father’s bête noire in Iraq chasing after fictitious ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’. Immediately, the action in Afghanistan became an afterthought.
The Afghanistan conflict seemed to be running smooth enough at that point. The major players, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban seemed to be on the ropes despite that pesky bin Laden still being at large. Afghan women were liberated and the process of educating kids could start. An emphasis was placed on training the Afghans to take over their own security with a comprehensive training program to create their own National Army and police force.
The fly in the ointment was the constant hit and run attacks originating on the southern border with Pakistan. It was obvious that enemy combatants were hiding and launching strikes from across the border. But like Vietnam, NATO forces refrained from pursuit lest they raised the ire of this nuclear armed country. Pressure was put on Pakistan to sort this out themselves but they just played both sides.
Part 3 (2006-2008): We’re back!
Five years into the War, it became apparent that it was not going to wrap up neatly. The Taliban just would not lay down and disappear. A quote from one of their leaders, “You have all the clocks but we have all the time.” meant they were content with waiting it out until the Americans tired of the conflict and went home.
President Bush was disappointed with Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense and swapped him out for a former CIA Director, Robert Gates. The conflict was described as ‘on automatic cruise control, without a roadmap or a destination.’
In addition, it was coming to the attention of the World through Human Rights groups that America had taken up with war criminals who were now ensconced as Afghan government leaders. The ‘puppet’ government was a cabal of warlords protecting their fiefdoms. Many of these mini empires ran off the lucrative opium industry which was a cash crop for the country. In the ultimate irony, the Taliban had outlawed the poppy in 2000 as against the will of Islam. Then with the arrival of the NATO forces, the poppy flourished under the corrupt Afghan government and the inept military strategies to eradicate it.
Part 4 (2009-2010): Enter Obama.
It was the new kid on the block’s turn at the tiller. President Obama put a new General in charge of the War, committed thousands of more troops to the fighting, and opened the funding gates to rebuild the country.
Instead of a decisive turn of fortune, Obama had to deal with Hamid Karzai running a corrupt election to get re-elected, Afghan’s largest private bank liquefied due to fraud, and anti-corruption efforts amounted to nothing. Ordinary Afghans were losing faith in anything connected to the Allies and the Taliban were waiting in the wings.
Part 5 (2011-2016): Got the dirty bastard, time to go home right?
In 2011, American forces in a clandestine mission into Pakistan finally took out America’s Public Enemy No. 1 thus symbolically removing the reason for invading Afghanistan. But America was going to stay because they were ‘winning’.
The Americans had a loose understanding on what ‘winning’ was supposed to look like. After years of training, the indigenous Afghan security forces were a joke. In fact, infiltrators were posing as Allies and there were numerous occasions where they would turn on their benefactors. The military was full on using weasel words to spin the ‘winning’ narrative but the Taliban were making more incursions and American soldiers were dying.
When asked point blank what would end the stalemate, the Generals trotted out the old chestnut of ‘more troops and more guns’.
Part 6 (2017-2021): Elvis has left the building.
Although President Trump had campaigned on getting the troops home and the States out of foreign Nation building, he ended up keeping the status quo. Massive corruption stymied any attempts to reform the country, it was still a money pit for massive amounts of American dollars, and tepid attempts to talk to the Taliban leaders led to nowhere. When Trump left office, nothing had really changed.
President Biden finally decided to pull the plug on twenty years of blood and treasure spent on a land described as ‘where Empires go to die’. The last American troops pulled out at the end of August, 2021.
The book does not go into the fantastic speed with which the Taliban retook the country but it was obvious that the staggering sums of treasure spent on the local military and police were spent in vain. For a more complete accounting of costs of the Afghanistan war in blood and treasure, I refer you to the Brown University Watson Institute figures.
Craig Whitlock’s reporting makes for fascinating reading but this chronicle is not just about a confusing conflict which took place in a faraway, foreign land. It goes to the very heart of the rot gripping the West. For twenty years, the political and military establishment misled, varnished, and mangled the truth over what was really going on in Afghanistan. They outright lied. It is a classic case of the elite believing the ends justify the means. If they are not held accountable, then what is to stop them from adopting this pattern of behaviour as OPS Normal for all forms of governing?
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.