Having posted palpable nonsense from Donald Trump and Thomas Friedman recently, it's time for someone who knows what he is talking about - Pepe Escobar on the Afghan endgame:
As in all things AfPak, wishful thinking remains the law of the land. Washington has been abuzz with "secret discussions between US and Taliban officials".
Not so secret after all. Washington wanted the Taliban to renounce all weaponry. The Taliban said "no". Washington wanted the Taliban to renounce any links to al-Qaeda - and in this case Taliban prisoners would be released from Guantanamo. The Taliban said "let's talk".
Wishful thinking also pervades the notion that the political office in Doha will somewhat isolate Pakistan from the Taliban leadership. Mullah Omar, as every grain of sand in the Balochi deserts know, lives in Quetta, undisturbed by ubiquitous US surveillance.
Even though Islamabad was not consulted about the Doha office, Washington assumes the Pakistani ISI is not monitoring each one of these steps - as it keeps monitoring its ironclad Taliban connections. Read more.
I remember reading Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden in 2002. And if I remember correctly from that book, it took a decade of hard intel collection and meticulous planning on the part of DEA, the Colombian military and the police, and the Delta Force, to hunt down and kill the drug kingpin. I fear neither the CIA nor the executive branch of the US Federal Government has put in that much effort to systematically extirpate the Taliban. At least not after Bush invaded Iraq in 2003.
ReplyDeleteI feel that even if they had put in the effort to physically extirpate the Taliban, surely that is an impossible objective. To even attempt it, as the Russians did with the Mujehadin over many years, is a self-perpetuating exercise and futile.
ReplyDeleteTrue. It would be an impossible and a self-defeating task. Isn't that why the Americans are running with their tail between their legs from Af-Pak come 2014?
ReplyDeleteYa thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteBut then I look at your sister site Wolves in the City and who do I see staring at me?
None other that Rick Perry.
Another village idiot half-wit.
What in the world would make any one think that the U.S. wanted to eradicate A/Q or the Taliban.
They were both nurtured for years.
They needed a boogey man to continue the "Long War".
Lets not forget that the Taliban were invited to the White House under Clinton. The Unocal pipeline was the deal to be made.
When that fell through - - well the rest is history.
Not many people would disagree with your Perry assessment. But even village idiots deserve to be exposed when they are potentially political 'leaders', God help us. I am no defender of the UK political classes, but Perry couldn't happen here. He would have been ridiculed off the stage years ago.
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