Posts Tagged ‘Taliban’

Not Good For GWOT

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

It’s been a rough week on the terrorism front, what with the underwear bomber and the deaths of 8 or more Americans by suicide bomber in Afghanistan.

The problem in Afghanistan remains the same: we’re not going to win a war against the Taliban so long as we: 1) continue backing a corrupt government that is doing nothing for the Afghan people, 2) cannot take the fight over the border to Pakistan, and 3) have no clear exit strategy beyond “surge, wait a year, hit and hope”.

The problem in the global war on terror, or whatever it’s being called this week, remains the same: we’re not going to win so long as we never bring economic development and a sense of hope to backward lands in the Middle East and Central Asia.

We don’t have enough troops or enough intelligence to succeed 100% of the time against suicide bombers, and our political leaders aren’t willing to tell Americans that life is full of risks, of which that of terrorism is infinitesimal.

Gorilla thinks it’s time to move on with some American reconstruction and development, at the time of the worst economic conditions since the Depression: “The GWOT don’t hit the spot!”

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The al-Qaeda Telethon

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

al-Qaeda’s not got as much cash as it used to, according to the US Treasury.

Several fundraising appeals have been made this year. The Taliban’s apparently doing better, mainly because they have direct access to the narcotics trade.

What isn’t mentioned in the Treasury report, of course, are the trillions of dollars being spent by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan to rid the planet of these very small time outfits. So far, all that cash hasn’t had much effect on either al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

You don’t need much money to unleash havoc, as we know from our experiences in Goingbackwardville. 9/11 likely cost less than a million dollars to plan and execute. The Madrid and London bombings cost a few thousand each.

One might conclude therefore that it’s a waste of time and resources for the Pentagon to be leading the anti-terror campaign, when economic development in backward lands, combined with better law enforcement and intelligence gathering at home and abroad, could do the job at least as ineffectively for far less moolah.

But that’s not a debate anyone in Movingforwardville wants to have, much better for the Treasury to claim they’ve succeeded in reducing financial resources for insurgent and terrorist groups. Victory is mine, sayeth the Geithner!

Gorilla says: “If only we’d gotten Wells Fargo to do Option ARMS in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we’d have wiped these guys out by now!”

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Success Continues

Monday, October 12th, 2009

The Pakistani government declared success after the three-month offensive in the Swat Valley.

Oops! A massive bombing today, following on the attack on Pakistani army headquarters over the weekend.

Hopefully, the Pakistani government will recognize that the main threat to the country comes from within, first from the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and second from the Pakistani military and intelligence officers who support terrorism at home and abroad.

At some point, every nation must recognize that cheap, ineffective nationalistic chest thumping is about as much use to development and stability as testing nuclear weapons that will never be used against nonexistent regional enemies.

Gorilla thinks: “So far, the score is Taliban/al-Qaeda 1, Indo-Pakistani War 4, and America knocked for 6!”

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More Idiocy From The Idiot’s Idiot

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Richard Holbrooke, again.

Seems he thinks the Taliban’s getting way more money from Persian Gulf sources than from the drug trade.

Lots of Middle Eastern guys are coming across the borders with suitcases full of cash.

The Taliban are a low-cost insurgency, says the Ambassador, but they can still blow up things down the block from the drones at the Kandahar air base.

No irony here, still we’re funding both sides of a pointless war once again, whether through drug demand or oil demand, whether through Pentagonal budgets or foreign aid budgets, but our Special Envoy can’t be bothered to connect the dots.

Gorilla thinks: “The Dayton airport never looked so good to a man whose times have passed him by!”

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The Barn Door Called Holbrooke

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

When you lack a strategy, but want to pretend things aren’t going south, there’s really only one man to call: Richard Holbrooke.

We’re approaching year 15 of NATO forces in Bosnia, the result of Holbrooke’s last Special Envoy “breakthrough”.

Meanwhile, in Dayton, Ohio, where Holbrooke once gave peace a chance, the unemployment rate’s gone from 3.4 to 11.5%.

I’m certain the locals wouldn’t mind having a few moderate Talibaners, a sharp-dressed man like Hamad Karzai, and the Pakistani intelligence services in town to stimulate the local economy.

Anyhow, firm and resolute, an envoy’s envoy, Holbrooke opines: We need a new task force on Taliban drug money!

And here I thought we had this already, a little thing called The US Treasury Office of Terrorism And Financial Intelligence.

Now granted, this agency’s been doing a bang-up job in places like Mexico and Colombia, you can hear the bangs outside your window most every night down there, but that’s only because we’re financing both sides of the war on drugs.

In Afghanistan it’s vastly different, there are way more than two sides and NATO’s doing its level best to finance each and every one.

Diplomatically, Gorilla is stumped: “We could make Afghan drug lords work for Big Pharma, in the same way Mexican and Colombian drug lords work for American gun dealers, but then how would we fill Holbrooke’s valuable time?”.

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Beginning Of The End

Monday, July 27th, 2009

The British Foreign Secretary has called, again, for the Afghan government to begin negotiating with “moderate” Taliban elements.

This comes after a month in which the British have lost nine troops in Afghanistan and demonstrated that their lack of equipment was a serious obstacle to engagement in serious war fighting.

The “first phase” offensive against the Taliban, now over, has apparently secured land occupied by 100,000 people while chasing the Taliban across the border. How this land is to be secured permanently with a force of 4,000 US marines has yet to be explained.

Gorilla says, “We’re at the beginning of the end in Afghanistan. There aren’t enough troops. Once the elections are over, declaring victory and getting out will not be far behind”.

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“And It’s Not On To Waziristan”

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Seems our ally in Pakistan is complaining, yet again, that the double standards we each deploy against terrorism must be more engaging.

America, having attacked the Taliban, must be sure they don’t end up retreating over the border to Pakistan. Pakistan, having helped to create the Taliban, wants to be sure they stay on the right side of the border, which would be in Afghanistan, making as much trouble as possible for Karzai and his Western puppeteers.

What’s necessary in Islamabad is that terrorism must be fought, but the fighting not actually be seen, or conducted by foreigners, or far removed from the border with India.

In Washington, the view is that terrorism must be fought, but the fighting not actually lead to the defeat of the Taliban, or the capture of al-Qaeda leaders, or to a defense budget somewhat less than the rest of the world’s combined.

“Exit strategies depend on where you’re leaving”, says Gorilla, “we’d really rather be in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis would prefer being in Afghanistan. Guess we’ll both need Somali pirates to make that happen!”

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Ethanol And Other Opiates

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

There’s a new offensive in Afghanistan, in which our vaunted military seems to think that they can throw out the Taliban, and get the poppy farmers some fantastically more profitable alternative living, with a marine force less than 1/100 the size of a Soviet army that also couldn’t control the province.

We’re currently spending $600-800 billion/year on defense, roughly 15 times more than any other country, against: 1) a small band of fifth-rate terrorists we hope won’t get lucky again and/or 2) a small band of fifth-rate countries promoting medievalism and/or mass starvation.

Meanwhile, Senators are cheering themselves for getting the public health care option, whatever that may mean, down to less than $100 billion/year, while unemployment rockets towards 10%.

To pretend to combat global warming and provide national health care, we could be asking Afghan poppy farmers to supply us with cheaper opiates, helping democracy at least to fill time, the donut hole, and rows of corn with New Haven firefighters.

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