Are we really supposed to get excited and rejoice in the targeted assassination of enemy leaders? President Obama might end up making things worse for the opposite reasons Liz and Dick Cheney tell us. He's so unsure of himself in military matters he's leaving the big decisions to shortsighted generals.
Drone attacks are terrorism too. Killing entire families, including women and children, in the "border" areas of the "AF-PAK" theater to hit one "militant" or "extremist," without charge or trial, repeated countless times. This kind of thing is a recipe for a hundred years of war.
Al Qaeda didn't exist inside Iraq until the United States invaded. The U.S. toppled the apple cart away from the traditional Sunni (mostly secular) elites toward untested (mostly religious) Shia elements (tied, ironically, to Iran). In the 1980s, blind Cold War logic led the secular U.S. in Afghanistan to aid some of the most backward Sharia-law practicing fundamentalists.
Imperialism choked off many Islamic countries' secular resistance movements leaving only the mosques where political activity could survive. Power reinforces certain religious brands over others, like right-wing Christian evangelism in the United States or right-wing Shia fundamentalism in Iran. But powerlessness can also reinforce religious brands. (It's no surprise that the Iranian revolution of 1979 became Islamicized given that the Shah wiped out any viable secular movements for social betterment).
Since 1945, the U.S. has supported a fundamentalist theocracy in Saudi Arabia. If the problem with Al Qaeda is that they hate the West for "religious" reasons then why do they also hate the government in Riyadh? A U.S.-supported theocratic dictatorship hoarding oil wealth for a tiny elite. Here is where Osama bin Laden gets to appear honorable because he renounced his elite station in life to fight jihad. He even released a video recently citing global climate change, and the United States' disproportionate contribution of greenhouse gases, as yet another reason to hate the infidels.
People resisting occupation whether they believe in God, Jehovah, Allah, or the Great Spaghetti Monster in the Sky will resist with what's readily available. In the current context that means I.E.D.s, suicide bombs, and car bombs, the newly improved and perfected instruments of urban guerrilla warfare we can thank certain U.S. and U.K. leaders for making a permanent fixture of 21st Century life.
The invasion of Iraq was the greatest terrorist recruitment program ever. It destabilized one of the most important big cities in the Arab world. It fueled pan-Arab nationalism as well as jihad against the West. It caused a sectarian bloodbath because of the jolt given to power relations by external military force.
People are brutalized for decades and then we're "shocked" -- "shocked" -- that the brutalized people turn around and behave brutally themselves. Bitter, long-term power struggles have been unleashed in the heart of the Middle East and in South Asia. They certainly will not be resolved because of some drone attacks and targeted assassinations. The only thing these desperate actions accomplish is to further radicalize and Islamicize people who would otherwise much rather peacefully coexist. How long can the U.S. go on ignoring the underlying social and political causes of "terrorism?" Nobody wants to acknowledge that there might be grievances on the other side that need to be looked at. We couldn't hear it nine years ago after 9-11, and we still can't hear it now. Ostrich-like we bury our heads and push forward.
Follow Joseph A. Palermo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/N/A
The struggle was made worse by the Iraqi invasion and Bush/Cheney disastrous policies in Afpak.
HOWEVER, surrendering Afghanistan to Taliban is not an option.
Not for the West, and certainly not for Afghans themselves.
I suggest isolationists get honest with themselves and review the reasons why their agenda became morally and politically bankrupt in the 20th century.
I strongly recommend Chalmers Johnson's trilogy on our inevitable fate if we continue to pursue the Sorrows of Empire.
This sounds to me exactly what the suicide bomber did today in Afghanistan. He was after a military leader who opposed the Taliban and who aided the United States. Unfortunately he took out a bunch of civilians along with his intended target.
See, that's TERRORISM. That's what we're fighting AGAINST. The civilians that die from our drone attacks or other military activities are COLLATERAL DAMAGE. Can't you see the difference???? Sheesh!!
More generally, it's far too easy (and stupid) to demonize "our" enemies. In particular I suspect the stuff we've been hearing about Taliban guerillas using "human shileds" to aovid being chopped because of our restrictive rules of engagement are likely either cut from whole cloth or overblown from a few incidents.
The Taliban are fighting a guerilla war against an exceedingly powerful enemy. If they had the sort of relationship with the Afghan people that, say, al Quaeda fighters have with OUR people (which is sometimes how they are portrayed in our media -- purely evil, purely terroristic/nihilistic), this war would have been over looooong ago.
For our troops, following the restrictive rules of engagement is vital to their mission and possibly even to their career advancement (though having soldiers die under your command because you can't or won't call in airstrikes probably won't look THAT good on your fitness report). For Taliban guerillas it's a matter of life or death. You piss off the fish you're swimming with and you're dead pretty quick.
The premise that our troops are headed into Marjah to "protect" civilians from the Taliban, if that's anything more than PR for homefront consumption, is fatally flawed. If our "new strategy" is based on that fundamental misreading of the situation in Afghanistan, this new strategy will wind up just as f*ced as the old one, whatever that was.
So our choice and Europe's choice is "fight" or "convert" and this has been so for over 1000 years.
Remember, Constantinople was once the capitol of Orthodox Christianity, it is now called Istanbul
The feeling of hopelessness, just waiting for your number to come up in the next attack, has its own consequences.
Is it morally superior to use a $67,000 Hellfire missile from 10000 feet.....or to bury an old 105 MM artillery shell in a hole in the roadway?
Both of them may harm innocents.....non-combatants and unintended victims...how can anyone defend these terr or rist actions by the USA?
Won't they just get us more misdirected v i o l e n c e?
As per a study collating all strike data in 2009, the casualties up to July 18, 2009 surpassed the hits over all of 2008. The strikes also became much more lethal with an increase in average kills per strike. The strikes were also found to be concentrated in Waziristan.[30] According to separate statistics provided by Pakistani authorities, US drones were behind 44 missile attacks on Pakistani soil in 2009. Of those 44, only five successfully hit their intended targets while 708 people died in all attacks combined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan#2009
Or perhaps you are referring to the targeted missile attacks that have gone off course and killed civilians? Or the air strikes called down upon civilians because the military cannot be bothered to confirm the information someone sells them?
Straight out ter r orism...conducted by the USA to prop up a corrupt illegitimate PUPPET regime that could never get democratically elected....what are we doing in God's name?
These drone attacks are carried out without due process.....a corrupt warlord and illegitimate puppet government afghan official that wants to put his rival in the drug smuggling bidness out of bidness drops a dime on a neighbor and calls him Towlieban....so we hunt him down follow him for weeks confirm his contacts with other crooks and criminals....and hit him with a hellfire missile during salah.
These are not AQ....never.....not at all....but their surviving children will be...
Sudden mystery dea th from a bove without warning or trial....no wonder Viet Dinh says Obama's executing too many of them this way...we can't tor ture them and get them to give up more neighbors or rivals if we just smoke them from afar....we're running out of terr orists!
Have a nice day!
Nato airstrike kills 27 civilians in Afghanistan
Officials said three vehicles were bombed, killing at least 27 people, including four women and one child, while at least 12 others were injured. The death toll had earlier been put at 33.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7035978.ece
Slightly off-topic (but not entirely). This sentence caught my eye and reminded me that – in similar vein – in Communist Eastern Europe, where political dissent was oppressed, it was the church that provided a focus and meeting-place for those opposed to the regime.
From the mid-50s in the GDR, the church was subject to repressive measures – publications banned, funding cut off, clerics arrested. Somewhat ironically, that actually strengthened the role of the church as a symbol of “progressive” thought and political resistance, even for people who were not religious.
Nuclear material, in the hands of people sympathetic to the cause of Al Quaeda isn't that good of a situation to be in, especially when Iran is right there and they've been openly talking about their wish of seeing Israel blown off the face of the map, with possibly a nuclear weapon, as their intentions have shown.
Iran looking to develope nuclear weapons you say? They would be crazy not to go after Nuclear weapons. They do need them. They have mortal enemies, the USA and Israel poised to attack at a moments notice and as soon as they can make a lie big enough and believeable enough for the world to sit by and let it happen.
Iran is in eminent danger of being bombed because they will not adhere to the US and Israeli line. They will not bow down to these two tyrants and so the tyrants are plotting it's demise. They would have to be stupid to ignore the danger they are in.
That is just silly. The "Pentagon" has great controls over our Nukes and will not let them fall into the hands of terrorists.
"Israel poised to attack at a moments notice"
Read a history book.
Israel has NEVER invaded a neighbor but has been invaded many times. Iran threatens this daily. Israel and US are NOT planing an invasion but of course must attack Irans Nuclear plants if they don't stop on there own.
In Iraq, things could still lead to some unneccesary bloodshed, but Iraq would make it through such an event in quasi-decent shape. if the Sunni re-intergration into Iraqi political society goes relavtively well, the last impediment to their process will have been completed. Iraq has been redeveloping their own fighting force and, though probably short-manned currently, they are is decent enough of a position to hold reasonable control of their country.
In Afghanistan, this couldn't be farther from the truth. You take NATO forces out of Afghanistan, and President Karzai returns to barely maintaining authority beyond Kabul. Helmand and Kandahar Province are already under pretty solid control by the Taliban and there are Taliban fighters in 24 of the 25 provinces, so NATO pulling out immediately gives the Taliban a decent foothold to go about their retaking of the country. A resurgent Taliban force, with guns and money being provide to them from the Pakistani Taliban and Afghan Taliban hiding in Pakistan, against a fighting force with very little consolidated control outside of the capital is going to lead to a bloody civil war, and the Taliban possibly winning.
With the Taliban back in control of Afghanistan, the avenue opens up again for Al Quaeda to come back into the country, providing the additional necessary cover for continued attempts to directly attack the U.S.
People engaged in terrorism don't believe what they do is terrorism. Slavery was an abomination, but I never had any doubts that John Brown was a terrorist; but when I mentioned this to a friend, he replied with horror "Oh no, Brown was fighting against slavery!" Like Muslim extremists - and perhaps like Clinton - Brown thought he was doing 'God's work,' and apparently my friend still thought so.
The required first step toward really dealing with terrorism is defining it for it's origins and concrete actions. It is violent criminal behavior of an individual or small group or nation in furtherance of a political cause adopted as an act of faith in a religious or quasi-religious ideology. Once we have this set in our minds, we can then decide not to engage in it and to bring those engaging in it to justice. Otherwise it is just one kind of terrorism opposing another kind of terrorism, which, politically, amounts to a boxing match between bullies - guaranteed NOT to win any hearts and minds - Clinton's frankly heartless response certainly failed to persuade any of the students in her audience; as one put it after her remark, regarding the drone attacks: "we have a 9/11 every day.."
Yet doesn't the official definition of terrorism sound familiar? What else does one call an operation called "Shock and Awe," or secret prisons employing torture, or the everyday and careless killing of people through drone bombs? Come on, America. Terrorism has nothing to do with religion or the work of gods - it's a tactic, and we employ it each day.
Your enemies within are one hell of a lot more dangerous than your enemies from without.