Stoopid Stuff

All your base are belong to us

So it's come to this. The Pakistani side of the Khyber Pass is vulnerable to sabotage by Taliban fighters. And now the Russians have successfully convinced Kyrgyzstan to close the US facilities at Manas Air Base. In recent months, more and more of the supplies required by NATO forces in Afghanistan have had to come in by air, as Pakistani militants have had no difficulty interdicting truck traffic on the treacherous road over the Khyber Pass. They've burned large numbers of vehicles and hundreds of containers of supplies, and just this week they dropped a 32 foot bridge - all without meaningful resistance by the Pakistanis.

The thing is, Manas is the only air base available to large American military transport aircraft in the region since the closing of K2 Air Base in Uzbekistan in November of 2005. So when President Bakiyev announced (from Moscow, no less) the decision to shut down American operations at Manas, it was a very bad sign. Bear in mind that the Obama administration has committed to increasing the American combat troop presence in Afghanistan by as many as 30,000 soldiers and Marines. While at the same time the options for resupply have been reduced to one primitive road through a legendary mountain pass that runs directly through the most hostile areas in two countries. Areas that are NOT in friendly control, and appear to be frankly impossible to defend.

I've reached my own conclusion about the American troop presence in Afghanistan. I've concluded that it is utter folly. All of the results of US combat operations in that blighted country are counterproductive to US goals and interests in the world and in the region. They result in more fighters, more hatred, more death and destruction, while contributing absolutely nothing to the economic growth or political stability of Afghanistan.

The Taliban didn't attack us. They are fighting us because we are in their country. If we leave, they lack the interest, funding and operational capabilities to attack us here in America. If there is a hornets nest a hundred miles from your house, the hornets will never bother you. Unless, of course, you drive the hundred miles to where they are and whack them with a stick.

Of course, there certainly IS an al Quaeda presence in the Afghan/Pakistan border region. And yeah, we have a bit of business with those gentlemen. The question, then, is using 50,000+ troops with armor, artillery and air support the best way to fight al Quaeda? If we haven't figured out the answer to that question in seven years, we're simply being intentionally obtuse.

Nope. At this point America is wasting time, money and lives fighting in Afghanistan. It is clear that nothing good nor productive can come from it. It's why the leadership can't just come out and say what our goals are, and how we'll know when we're done. Any goal that had value is impossible to accomplish, and anything that is possible is utterly worthless at best, and in many cases counterproductive.

The Bush/Cheney administration was noted for making decisions based upon ideological theory rather than the actual conditions extant in the real world. Obama's insistence that what's required in Afghanistan is thousands more American combat troops is beginning to look similar. Nothing to be accomplished, much harm to be done, lives lost and money spent, but doing something is preferable to doing nothing. Even when doing nothing - or at least a whole lot less - might just be the wisest course...

posted by mikey @ 2:37 PM