Green on Blue

The notion that the United States and its NATO allies are doing anything at all of lasting value in Afghanistan flies in the face of both history (look at the failed Soviet effort before that nation collapsed) and current events. That we have hobbled the Taliban, rendering them impotent, is a staggering lie. That Americans, particularly policy-makers, adhere to that mantra is particularly disturbing. What we have hobbled is al Qaeda, by cutting off financial flow, killing their leadership and tapping into their communications. Al Qaeda also did itself in by espousing such extreme views – murders and bombings without the slightest concern for collateral damage. But al Qaeda was a glitch in history, and the bigger Islamist fundamentalist movement has only grown – whether through the Arab Spring or because our years of mishandling regional issues (remember the photos of U.S. troops humiliating detainees from Iraq’s Abu Graib prison) creating recruiting posters for extremists seeking to discredit if not destroy the West.

We are now stuck with a policy of training Afghan soldiers to function as post-NATO peace officers when we are gone. Our continuing presence in a land where we are no longer welcome is costing us a precious $2 billion a week, and our very recent legacy of Qur’an burning, urinating-on-corpses Marines, a rogue sergeant breaking into homes and executing innocent civilians on the spot has left us with a pernicious label that only makes the otherwise ruthless Taliban look good. Our attempt at regime change has fostered one of the most corrupt governments on earth, and this greed-driven Karzai administration has not been able to extend its feeble and unwanted control much beyond the capital city of Kabul and its immediate environs. We are occupying foreigners who have lingered a decade, soldiers from an alien and unsympathetic culture who just do not understand local values.

So just how well is our “training” effort going in Afghanistan? They call them “green on blue” attacks – where soldiers in Afghan uniforms turn on their NATO training officers. It’s the second greatest cause of death among NATO allies these days (improvised explosive devices remain number one). These Taliban infiltrators have created a barrier of mistrust between NATO training officers and their Afghan military and police trainees. “Already this year, 22 coalition service members have been killed by men in Afghan uniform, compared with 35 for all of last year, according to coalition officials… The attacks, and the personal animosity that officials believe have driven most of them, are threatening the joint-training model that is one of the remaining imperatives of the Western mission in Afghanistan.” New York Times, May 15^th.

Indeed, trust is in profoundly short supply: “After watching Afghan soldiers kick down doors and clear mud-brick farm compounds, ‘it’s hard not to like some of those guys,’ said First Lt. Nicholas Olivero, 24, of Fairfax, Va. ‘But I’d be lying if I said there was trust across the board.’… Another American soldier added: ‘I don’t always need to have them walking in front of me now. I did for a while.’ … Yet Afghan soldiers still complain of being kept at a distance by the Americans, figuratively and literally. The Americans, for instance, have put up towering concrete barriers to separate their small, plywood command center from the outpost’s Afghan encampment. .. Also still in place is a rule imposed by the Afghan Army after the attack requiring most of its soldiers to lock up their weapons when on base. The Afghan commanding officer keeps the keys.” NY Times.

The messages that the Taliban are sending us are very clear: we’re in control, we will be here when you leave, we will drain you and attack you every minute that you remain and nothing you can do is going to have the slightest impact on Afghanistan’s future. Unfortunately, history teaches us that they are correct, and unless we want a million-man military presence in that nation for the foreseeable future, every day that we remain in Afghanistan, we lose a little more ground. Our efforts in that rugged mountainous nation define futility and waste. As the NATO nations confer on the timetable for withdrawal, there is only one thoroughly obvious conclusion… and it must be implemented with all due and deliberate speed. Now!

I’m Peter Dekom, and for the largest military on earth by far to have failed to achieve a major victory since WWII, it is time to question the notion of fomenting regime change with boots on the ground every time we respond militarily to an ominous enemy.