CAN OBAMA UNLOAD HIS WAR FAILURE IN AFGHANISTAN ON PAKISTAN?
U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen has accused Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence for everything that has gone wrong with the U.S. failure in the Afghan War! And his frustration may sound understandable – until one looks deeper into the facts of the Afghan war, and the timing of Mr. Mullen’s public outburst!
After 10 years of futility and a bluffing U.S. military bravado in the battlefields of Afghanistan, and after an Obama promise to start withdrawing U.S. troops this summer, Admiral Mullen is just venting the frustration of his boss for the worsening situation in Afghanistan! Obama promised in his 2007 presidential campaign to end the war in Afghanistan, but now – 4 years later- he worries that the Afghan war may scuttle his re-election. And before his Republicans opponents start to pound on his Afghan war failures, Obama’s re-election team invented a whipping boy to take the blame: The Pakistani ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence). But since he doesn’t want to sound desperate or weak in-person on his failures, he assigned his underling admiral Mullen to do the barking at the Pakistani establishment. And since the diplomatic protocol doesn’t allow him to accuse directly the political leadership -his supposed allies, the ISI was the perfect punching bag to pound on!
This is an escalation in the hostility of the U.S.- Pakistan relations as the U.S. defeat in the Afghan war looks inevitable the longer the war quagmire drags on. Obama thought in his 2007-2008 presidential campaign that he could promise “an end to the Afghan war,” on quote, and he will have 4 years to win it, and then sail as a hero into his 2012 re-election campaign. Now he has nothing to show for -even with a 30.000 troop surge in Afghanistan, with 3.000 CIA mercenary army in Pakistan, and with thousands of civilian deaths by CIA Predator drones that has turned Pakistan into a boiling cauldron of anti-American hostility. The AFP reported on March 11, 2011 that 2010 was the deadliest year for civilians in Afghanistan, 2.777, a 15% increase over 2009. In Pakistan, the total civilian deaths by CIA Predator drones were 2.170 so far (Pakistan Dawn Newspaper, April 6, 2011) Add to that many reports that the U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan killed civilians “for sport,” (Chicago Tribune, March 24, 2011), and the U.S. war and bombing in both Afghanistan and Pakistan has gone haywire and it is slipping into an antagonistic brawl with Pakistan. Pakistan’s Chief of Staff, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani complained that “Pakistan has become America’s most bullied ally,” and told his American counterparts -Mullen and Patraeus- “I don’t trust you!” (Washington Post, Jan 1, 2011)
Now Admiral Mullen barbs to the Pakistan army that he “doesn’t trust it,” General Kayani calls Mullen’s remarks “propaganda,” and the ISI calls the CIA an “adversary!” On the meantime, corrupt Afghan officials prepare for life in exile when the U.S. throw in the towel, and the Karzai regime collapse by siphoning $$$$ out. The Afghan V.P. Ahmed Zia Masoud was found to carry bags with $ 52 million in a flight from Kabul to the United Arab Emirates (Bloomberg, Nov. 29, 2010) At the same time, 60% of the poor Afghans “have become depressed or suffer mental problems” as the result of the long U.S. occupation and war. (BBC, Dec. 1, 2010) Overall, the whole U.S. involvement in Central Asia is reaching a frenetic stage. Afghan president Hamid Karzai has accused the U.S. dozens of times that it is bombing Afghans civilians thoughtlessly, and the U.S. has countered with accusations that his thinking is marred by anti-depressant medications. Now we are into a hostile shouting match with Pakistan accusing each-other of mistrust and collusion with each-others enemies. It is becoming clear day-by-day that the U.S. has ” no real allies” in either Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Will Barack Obama win the propaganda war -as Gen. Ashfaq Kayani correctly pointed out- and saddle Karzai and the ISI for his failures in the Afghan war? Admiral Mullen’s barbs are the first propaganda salvos of Obama’s re-election campaign. But I doubt if Obama would be able to unload his failure of the Afghan war on his slandered and bullied Afghan and Pakistan allies. Nikos Retsos, retired professor
CAN OBAMA UNLOAD HIS WAR FAILURE IN AFGHANISTAN ON PAKISTAN? – retsos_nikos - My Telegraph
@ bilalhaider: thanks for the link. thought it would be better to add this article to this ongoing debate.
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