Afghanistan? Redux
An interesting article* on Afghanistan caught my eye today. In it, a powerful Afghan warlord predicted the U.S. will pull out of Afghanistan at the same time it pulls out from Iraq, and that both will happen this year. I don't agree that it will happen this year, or that the withdrawals will happen on the same time frame, partly for reasons I mentioned in a past blog; that the Afghan theater gets less attention.
However, the warlord does make some statements that echo my previous posting, namely:
"The occupying forces...have only one successful way and ... that is to pull out of Afghanistan as soon as possible." Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister whose forces operate in southeastern areas near Pakistan.
Notice, he refers to the "occupying forces." It doesn't matter where they are from, they all eventually get forced out, in other words. This guy isn't just shooting off his mouth, either. He and his militia were basically responsible for ejecting the Soviets from Afghanistan and killing about 15,000 of them in the process.
Let's learn a lesson from history at least, and find a new way to keep tabs on al Qaeda in Afghanistan, because conventional military occupation is just going to get a lot of people killed.
*Please read the article at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070222/ts_nm/afghan_hekmatyar_dc
However, the warlord does make some statements that echo my previous posting, namely:
"The occupying forces...have only one successful way and ... that is to pull out of Afghanistan as soon as possible." Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister whose forces operate in southeastern areas near Pakistan.
Notice, he refers to the "occupying forces." It doesn't matter where they are from, they all eventually get forced out, in other words. This guy isn't just shooting off his mouth, either. He and his militia were basically responsible for ejecting the Soviets from Afghanistan and killing about 15,000 of them in the process.
Let's learn a lesson from history at least, and find a new way to keep tabs on al Qaeda in Afghanistan, because conventional military occupation is just going to get a lot of people killed.
*Please read the article at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070222/ts_nm/afghan_hekmatyar_dc
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