Afghanistan and US in a Nutshell

Charlie — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:10:39 +0000

I mean not to tell the people that read my blog things that they already know and I definitely don’t intend to talk down to those who are nice enough to indulge me. I simply find so many things fascinating, infuriating or downright ridiculous about so many things in our world.
When we were attacked on 9/11, at first I was shocked and saddened. But, secondly I was incredibly intrigued. My naivté on the issues of Muslim fundamentalism led first to anger, but then on a quest to find out why. And why it had all festered in Afghanistan? Over most of the past decade I figured out some fascinating things pertaining to some of the history of America’s involvement in Afghanistan. My abridged understanding is ridiculously surface, but it may just help to understand why we are where we are.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the 70s, America’s main concern was the spread of Communism but we understood that by directly confronting the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan, it would quite possibly lead to WWIII and nuclear conflict. Considering our options, our government decided to actively train and fund radical jihadists to use insurgency to drive out the Soviet Union. The University of Nebraska at Omaha was even responsible for publishing a text book that taught insurgency to Afghan children and the already functional opposition. In fact, the U.S. for the entirety of the the Soviet occupation funded and armed the many of the same opposition that we fight today. Like any good empire building exercise, while the Soviets were occupying Afghanistan, they installed a “puppet” government that would be sympathetic to Soviet needs and wants in the region. When The U.S.S.R. faced bankruptcy and a dismal economy back at home, they finally had to pull the plug on their occupation and pulled out. Seeing that our interests had been fulfilled and that we no longer had responsibility in the region, the U.S. also pulled out and left a devastated and exploited Afghanistan to fend for itself. America and Russia had basically waged their war and then left the battlefield smoldering. That’s not to say that Afghans didn’t get what they wanted, but it is to say that our short-sightedness left us facing what we do today.
Pakistan, while recognizing the weakness of an unsupported puppet government, formed what would become the Taliban, and began to fund and push for the takeover of the Afghan government. When they were successful, the Taliban were basically given control over Afghanistan with the understanding that they were ultimately answerable to Pakistan. This is one reason why Pakistan has been so resistant to taking on the Taliban until it was faced with a Taliban that wanted to take over huge swaths of Pakistan this last year. Pakistan has no interest in helping America. They only hope to help themselves to survive and to continue to drain billions of dollars from America in the form of aid packages and arms. With a fundamentalist government in place, Al Queda was given the keys to the castle and allowed to run rampant throughout the country. Left to their own devices, we all know what happened next.
Now we basically face the same thing. There are no great solutions to what we’re up against, but one thing is for sure, the current Afghan government is weak, the jihadists and insurgents are chomping at the bit to get back into power and, from my thinking, that just might lead to another “situation” that we have to deal with in the future. Hopefully this time we can use our American ingenuity to figure out how to at least leave our Afghanistan in a little less of a shit storm. Oh boy.

Charlie Bicycle » jihad

Afghanistan and US in a Nutshell