US Predator Kills 30 in Pakistan;
Obama snubs Karzai;
US Succeeds Soviets in Afghanistan?
A US predator drone hit a guest house of supporters of Baitullah Mahsud in South Waziristan on Saturday, killing about 20 persons and wounding 15. Mahsud is the leader of the Movement of Pakistani Taliban Those killed were mostly foreign fighters, especially Arabs and Uzbeks. NATO and the Karzai government blame Pakistani tribal agencies like South Wazizirstan for giving safe harbor to forces that go across the border to hit Afghan police and other targets.
Such strikes, ane especially the civilian casualties they often cause, are extremely unpopular in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. But Senator Diane Feinstein let the cat out of the bag when she said that the predator flights are flown from Pakistani bases. That would indicate that the Pakistani government, which loudly protests the attacks in public, has made a secret deal to protect its policy of cooperating with the US against the Taliban from bad publicity.
Jonathan S. Landay of McClatchy asks the good question of whether the US is repeating the mistakes of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The Soviets were mainly urban-based, and launched a war against the tribal counrtyside, which they considered reactionary.
Reuters asks the same question, which tells us something.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai tells Aljazeera that he has not spoken to President Barack Obama since the latter was sworn in in January. It seems clear that the Obama team views Karzai as a Bush crony who is personally corrupt and ineffective, and are willing to risk bad realtions in order to push the Afghan elite to adopt new policies.
Karzai is said to have told Fareed Zakaria, in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, "Perhaps they have not been given the information yet. And I hope as they settle down, as they learn more, we will see better judgment."
Karzai was responding to comments by Obama that the Karzai government seemed uninterested in controlling the provinces, far outside the capital. I don't know when the central government in that country ever really controlled people throughout its territory. It is not Sweden, and an attempt to make it so will be a costly failure.
Obama's envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, met with Karzai on Saturday and the US and Afghanistan issued a joint statement that the US will try to be more careful, in air strikes, about killing innocent civilians.
Despite the frosty relations between the new US president and Kabul, Obama is said to have made a concession and will allow Afghanistan to be part of the administration's policy review on that country.
A recent poll found declining Afghan support for the US/NATO military mission in Afghanistan, now at 61 percent. Some 77 percent said that NATO airstrikes that put innocent civlians at risk were "unacceptable."
End/ (Not Continued)
posted by Juan Cole @ 2/15/2009 12:33:00 AM
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13 Comments:
Even though the media and possibly the Administration likes a simplistic approach of blaming Karzai for a lack of progress, just sitting here early on Sunday morning, I can think of several factors.
For instance, how come the U.S. likes to blame Karzai for being corrupt and not reaching out to the provinces while the U.S. is doing whatever they can to undercut Karzai’s ability to control or influence the various warlords? Afghanistan’s political system is grounded upon a patronage system. But, the Americans support the warlords to an extent that they are beholden to us more than to Karzai. So, what responsibility do we have for a corrupt drug dealing system? If we want to reinforce this kind of division, then exactly what are our goals, anyway?
Bob Spencer
Jonathan S. Landay of McClatchy asks the good question of whether the US is repeating the mistakes of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Reuters asks the same question, which tells us something.
And The Guardian goes with NATO being deeper in its Afghan mire than Russia ever was.
How would Americans react if foreign drone aircraft were hoovering over America and firing missles killing scores of people? Would it win our hearts and minds? Obama does not understand something this simple?
Feinstein hardly let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. Google the whole thing and you can find several articles about them being stationed in Pakistan.
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2465
Any thought that she was letting out state secrets is strictly a GOP talking point.
It is disgraceful that Obama has not spoken to Karzai yet, even if the current Afghan government was Bush's mistake. Does the Obama administration honestly believe this kind of statesmanship will get them anywhere?
This is America in Vietnam only now Afghanistan and Pakistan. We are intent on bringing the very finest of puppet democracies to benighted peoples we are colonizing or something.
Now is the time to ask basic questions of ordinary Afghans:
Would any central government be legitimate to the Pushtun people, or should we be thinking in terms of a future Pushtunistan?
If Afghanistan means something to its own people, what do they think the role of Kabul should be?
If, as one organization has advocated, the poppies were bought up for legal drug production, would the taxes be sufficient to support the government? Could this resolve corruption and rob the rebels of income and a source of resentment?
Do Afghans think NATO is subtle enough to support a government that can work?
In the opinion of those who live their, if the West had a road out of Afghanistan, could the rebels still hold on to bin Laden and al Zawahiri or would someone in their ranks take the cash and sell out the rebel protectors?
As an Afghan it's amusing to hear Americans like Scott speak of a pashtun and a so-called pashtunistan. By and large the "pashtuns" living in afghanistan consider themselves afghans first and foremost. Afghans have intermarried with one another for centuries, so the idea of creating a separate nation would be laughable-a separate nation from who? ourselves?
Secondly, the "Pashtun" population if you want to call it that is found throughout the country, not just in the south...a myth spread by the Western media with no knowledge of the country and its history. It's not an easy split, north and south. The vast majority of the educated population that left Afghanistan is Pashtun and speak both Dari/Pashto with Pashto being the secondary language (Pashto was taught in schools with Dari speaking areas and Dari was taught in schools with Pashto speaking areas to further encourage integration)
Secondly within our community and in our radio and newspapers, there is no talk of such a separation, it's unthinkable. It reminds me of the Bush administration's talk of splitting Iraq into three (who did he think he was?) Everyone, all Afghans see each other as one nation and want to rebuild our country as such.
If you do hear any such talk it's by extremists who get disproportionate amount of the news coverage on Western and Arab satellite tv stations. Listen to the Afghan and expatriate media and you'll hear a different story.
"Anon - if the USG was harboring, for example, small armies trying to overthrow the government of Mexico and Mexican intel killed these ppl, some Americans who supported the rebels would be angry, but so what ? Should the government of Mexico sit on it its hands and regard Texas and Arizona as safe havens for their enemies?"
As a matter of fact USA IS harboring not so small terrorist armies (anti-Cuban, for ex). Should the government of Cuba sit on it its hands and regard Florida as safe havens for their enemies?
Notorious terrorists got sanctuary and even gov. job in USA - Posada or Otto Reich
Not mentioning Al-Qaida itself being made in USA (see Brzezinski bragging about it in 1996)
the very finest of puppet democracies
Not to mention, the very first Poppy Democracy ever.
Happy days.
"Members of the Taliban, al Qaida ( Uzbeks, Arabs )and their tribal allies should be killed as they are military targets."
Uzbeks, Arabs?
Uzbeks, Arabs?
Uzbeks, Arabs?
Huh?
Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.
So, Mark, by your logic, the Cubans have every right to bomb Miami gatherings of anti-Castro operatives like Luis Posada Carriles who have carried out terrorist acts against Cuba? Interestingly, the U.S locked up five Cubans who were collecting intelligence on these folks. Imagine that, eh!
To read more about Pakistan and the region surrounding it, please visit
http://real-politique.blogspot.com
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