Editorial: Warning To The US: Beware Treating Afghanistan Like Iraq

The Independent:

President Obama is likely to announce in the coming days that he will withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq by August 2010. Many of these soldiers will end up in Afghanistan where the Taliban is getting stronger and the US-backed government weaker by the day. How much has the US learnt from its debacle in Iraq?

One lesson not learnt in Washington is that it is a bad idea to become involved in a war in any so-called "failed state". This patronising term suggests that if a state has failed, foreign intervention is justified and will face limited resistance. But the greatest US foreign policy disasters over the last generation have all been in places where organised government had largely collapsed.

Read the whole story: The Independent

Comments

[JoeBlough]

Historically, Afganistan has broken the back of all invading empires. How will we be different?

[sonoffestus]

Market below 7000 , looks like Osama Bin Laden had a better war plan than ours. He stated his objective and is well on his way of accomplishing his goal. Mission nearly accomplished.

[uglyhumanbeing]

strategically, afghanistan isn't iraq and the military missions are quite different.

unlike iraq, afghanistan has few important natural resources, is not in close proximity to the the western mediterranean, and does not afford a corridor between iran and the western mediterranean.

[sixx]

The objective should remain clear and concise, get bin-Laden, punish al-Qaeda, and get out.

[carnelld]

Obama should pull the military out of Aghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Militarism is destructive to men, women, children, the elderly and all in those poor third world nations.

Our government has not been honest about our reasons for the military action in these countries.
Their explanations just don't not make sense.

America's economy is on the verge of imploding partially due to the obscene spending on wars in Iraq,
Pakistan and Afghanistan. We neglected our nation's infra structure to "build schools and improve Iraq's electrical power grid"?

We have spent ouselves into a recession and pouring our treasure in the deserts of Iraq , Pakistan, and Afghanistan. ......Why?

The explanations don't add up.

[TJCole]

"The one thing history teaches, is that man learns nothing from history..!"

Simple as that...

[SadButWiser]

The success or failure will depend on the mission. If the mission is to capture Osama dead or alive and eliminate al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, then there is a great possibility that it will succeed. Anything else is doomed to fail. Remember, the Afghan Taliban only Interest is to gain power in their own country. They hardly have any other interest such as defeating the 'Christian Crusaders' or wiping Israel off the map.

[billw8017]

Cockburn's point is that we aren't succeeding in Iraq, shouldn't suppose that we are, or that the Iraqi occupation is a good model for anywhere else. American's foreign policy is a display of hubris.

Has anybody looked at a map of the region: Afghanistan is a landlocked nation in some of the harshest terrain in the world. We have logistics problems, not a good sign for the world's most mechanized military. Even as we strive to impose our will upon an unsympathetic country, we should not lose sight of the possibility of a massacre. The Afghans will unite to attack an unsustainable force.

I do favor an increase in the military forces. It may be necessary just for our soldiers to defend themselves.

[Doomestic]

Cockburn gets it.

[4TJefferson]

Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban are the real enemy; he/they must be defeated. (Sadam was a two-bit thug that got what was coming but at a price way to high.) According to Pakistan, they have them on the run. Now, with a block of the Afghan side of the border they may, and I say may, have him/them trapped. If Obama kills, captures or somehow finds a way for Bin Laden to surrender watch what happens to the outlook on the world then; including those fickled bankers on Fall Street and others. "Hope is a good thing."

[Indie2008]

Please get us out of there Mr. president. Surely with our technology we can monitor terrorist cells, and strike them strategically, without boots on the ground.

[blood1]

I think that Pres. Obama has received this message. As he recently discussed our military "leaving" Iraq, can only hope he is looking to do the same in Afganistan. As he is looking to draw down the DoD budget, it seems that is where he is heading...and for all of our military troops, the sooner they get out of both countries, the better.

Once we get the military out, we need to re-think our "embassy" in Bagdad - one of the worst examples of our arrogance and how not to spend money. Keeping that monstrosity full of Americans is a target too big to ignore. Let the Iraqis have it! We need(?) an embassy in Iraq, but not the behemoth that some fool who thought that the Americans would be seen as "liberators" dreamed up!

[jbd]

I loved the video of our AMRaps stuck in the mud in Afghanistan today on the evening news. We stick out like Martians in that country. Get out and let them figure it out. We are fools and never learn. Meanwhile many Afghanis will die as we figure it out, just like in Vietnam.