Tuesday, October 27, 2009

US diplomat resigns over Afghan war

US diplomat resigns over Afghan war: "Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people"
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8 comments:

  1. ananOctober 27, 2009 at 5:55 PM

    This article doesn't explain this former Marine Captain's position. He was in Zabul, an area that had very few Americans until this year. The problem in Zabul is that to this day there are very few trained ANP and ANA in the province, and that the provincial government might be corrupt. Not to mention that the province is poor.

    Perhaps what this retired Captain really means is that he thinks that America is supporting the Afghan Government in a war with Pakistanis that he sympathizes with.

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  2. thankgodimatheistOctober 27, 2009 at 6:17 PM

    Perhaps..

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  3. ananOctober 27, 2009 at 6:30 PM

    TGIA, his captain is apparently a respected guy:
    http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2009/10/where-rural-too-urban.html#comments

    This is one of my favorite bloggers. He writes about Zabul and this captain. The comment section is worth the read.

    I still can't make heads or tails of why this captain really resigned. Yes, there is corruption in the GIRoA. But how does that matter to Zabul with 21% male literacy and 1% female literacy? Zabul is almost entirely "biblical" in its rural state of development with no large cities.

    The one thing that Zabul needs, is civilians to facilitate economic development. Isn't this something we all agree on?

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  4. AnnOctober 27, 2009 at 7:29 PM

    "still can't make heads or tails of why this captain really resigned"

    Did you read the whole article?  They buried the most important sentence at the very end:

    "Hoh called for a reduction in US troops, which he said fueled the Taliban-led insurgency"

    In other words, Afghans are resisting US invasion & occupation, which people generally seem to do, and the Taliban happens to be the face of the resistance, so they join w/ the Taliban. IMO of course.

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  5. ananOctober 27, 2009 at 8:04 PM

    Ann, the reason this makes no sense, is that Hoh was in Zabul that had almost no US troops in it until this year. Hell, it has few ANP and ANA in it either; even today.

    Ann read <span>http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2009/10/where-rural-too-urban.html#comments  and the comments.</span>

    Ann, I wish Zabul was occupied, by the ANA, ANP, and some civilian government employees. It isn't occupied by anyone (except for less than a year by Hoh who was trying to run development projects with NGOs and the GIRoA.) The province is extremely poor even by Afghan standards. Local villages have little interaction with or knowledge of other Zabul villages, let alone the Zabul provincial government. There is little to no economic development, few roads, few medical and education facilities (which can't really come to Zabul without roads.)

    Ann, please read Hoh's actual letter. It makes no sense in several places.

    There is no evidence of an "insurgency" by local Zabul residents that I know of, although I could be wrong. Some Pakistani Taliban and Afghan Taliban from other provinces seem to have moved in and are creating problems; which the local isolated villages can do little about. You know what happens to any village that defies the Taliban.

    Zabul doesn't have a recent traditions of large numbers of villages working together jointly to solve problems (such as resist the Taliban); without collective actions; what can they do about the Taliban?

    In any case, Ann, Hoh seems to blame Afghanistan's problems much more on the Afghan government than on the US government or international community. {Until this year, US troops were not in the South in large numbers. The South was the Canadian, British, Danish, Dutch, Australian, and other assorted allies zone. The South was also where about 70% of all Afghan violence was.}

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  6. r.s.October 28, 2009 at 4:51 AM

    It seems that nothing is learned from history and that everything has to be relearned.

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  7. vzaOctober 28, 2009 at 6:10 AM

    <span style=""><span style="color: #000099;">"History doesn't repeat itself; it rhymes."  Mark Twain
    </span></span>

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  8. ananOctober 28, 2009 at 10:15 PM

    Got confirmation from Tintin. Zabul province was a "Romanian" province. But the Romanians sent very few troops and haven't done much. Obama decided to send some US troops to Zabul (for the first time ever); not sure how many have arrived yet.

    Perhaps Hoh was unhappy with the Romanian lead ISAF in Zabul?

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