Obama brought the ‘AfPak’, doctrine with him to the White House, ostensibly with the intention of securing Afghanistan, neutralizing Al-Qaeda, bringing peace to Afghanistan. Such urbane jargons did much to soothe the ears of the news viewers in the US but in reality all such slogans were as hollow as the dark hole that the US finds itself in at the moment in Afghanistan.

The Surge in Afghanistan, has all but failed. Over 75% of Afghanistan is in the hands of Taliban. Last Saturday, eight US troops were killed in Nuristan province when, hundreds of Taliban attacked US and Afghan troops by attacking their outpost from multiple locations. ^[1] Today, CNN Europe reports many more civilian dead and wounded in this groteque war.

The last few months have been deadly for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, with an average of fixty or sixty five troops killed each month ^[2]. Just recently there were reports that Obama wants to review the AfPak policy and make some changes in strategy. It was then that Gen. McChrystal, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan said he doesn’t think a change in strategy will work in Afghanistan. The general told the Institute of International and Strategic Studies that the formula that is favoured by Vice Presidnt Joe Biden will not work and would lead to “Chaos-istan”. He went on to say: "Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support."

Trouble at the Ranch

As readers must know by now, Gen. McChrystal has requested additional 40,000 troops to be sent to Afghanistan to secure the country. McChrystal’s announcement in London overrode the president and a flurry of news reports followed. According to Bruce Ackerman, an expert of constitutional Law at Yale, “As commanding general, McChrystal has no business in making such public pronouncements.”

Obama’s White House and Pentagon are not on the same page. It reminds us of the Cuban Missile crisis when the Pentagon and the Kennedy White House were at variance. With so much outsourcing of military and Intelligence business to private military contractors, CIA, NSA and the Pentagon can bypass the White House and continue its wars and covert operations like JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) causing little trouble on the Capitol Hill. The solution to Afghanistan’s mess is not more troops. The USSR had over 500,000 troops and the result was only more casualties in the Red Army, and the fall of the entire Politburo. But the hubris of the warmongers in Washington think it won’t happen to them. They can do “better”. The solution obvious to all is the complete and immediate withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan. But this is easier said than done. Why?

First, it has to do with the intentions of the invader. The US strategic designs in Afghanistan were never about eliminating Taliban, rooting out Al-Qaeda or bringing Osama in, “dead or alive”. If it were such, why did the U.S. give material support to both, the Taliban and Al Queda until just before 9/11/01? When the US and Unocal were involved in dirty oil business with Taliban government why was CNN not talking about Al-Qaeda then? What was Taliban minister doing in the US, when Bin Laden was guest of Taliban in Afghanistan? Why didn’t the US ask Taliban to hand over Bin Laden after African embassy bombings? ^[3]

This matrix of malfeasance can no longer be called "conspiracy theory". In a recent interview with CBS, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, admitted that the US created and supported both, Bin Laden and the Taliban.

“It seemed like a great idea, back in the '80s to embolden and train and equip Taliban, mujahidin, jihadists against the Soviet Union, which had invaded Afghanistan. And with our help and with the Pakistani support-- this group-- including, at that time, Bin Laden, defeated the Soviet Union. Drove them out of Afghanistan, eventually.”

- Hillary Clinton, CBS News
Oct 6th, Washington DC.

Afghanistan is a base from which the US has been working to destabilize the entire region from Iran to China, to Pakistan. At this time, the central target of AfPak policy is Pakistan. Gen. McChrystal is in charge of all the operations for the "AfPak" region. The upshot is that the US will target Pakistan if they can present information, factual or fabricated (remember Colin Powell’s WMD lies at the UN that ushered the attack on Iraq), regarding the most useful villain of the twenty-first century; yeah you guessed it – information on Al-Qaeda and its sister Taliban. This was something political analysts began to predict in Pakistan as soon as Obama's "AfPak" policy was announced. Now top US officials are threatening to attack Pakistani city of Quetta, which is also the provincial headquarters of Baluchistan province of Pakistan, under the pretext of “Taliban”. Their subservient media does not explain the fact that the real Afghan Taliban have nothing to do with the TTP (i.e. those who call themselves "Taliban").

Who is the Taliban?

In this way, they can fool people in the west to think that there is a single, monolithic AfPak enemy - the "Taliban", thus justifying their war in both countries. When the Pakistan "Taliban" (TTP) perform a terrorist act, the U.S. can in this way, tie it in with their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and at the same time, blame Pakistan for supporting the "Taliban". Listen to CNN’s use of the term, “Taliban” and you will understand. On the surface the US is saying that since our troops are located just the opposite side of the border with Quetta, they are coming under attack that’s why we need to target Quetta. The real reason is that Quetta is only the first of the list of main cities of Pakistan which the US wants to target. The main intent here is to completely destabilize Pakistan, create an environment conducive to demand IAEA inspection, dismantle the Pakistani nuclear assets, cutting down the Pakistan army, finishing off the ISI and dismembering the country. ^[4]

Ann Patterson and Quetta Shura

The US ambassador to Pakistan Ann Patterson said earlier that the US would strike at Quetta in its own interest if Pakistan doesn’t do anything about ‘Quetta Shura’. Quetta Shura is a new word that US jugglers have come up with in order to scare the Pakistan Government into more US submission.

Who is Ann Patterson to threaten a major Pakistani city and Pakistani people in their own country? Imagine If the Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. had done similar things while being in Washington. I am sure war drums would have echoed loud in DC. (By the way, one of the tragedies in this unfolding drama is that the current Pakistani Ambassador Hussain Haqqani elevates the Zionist agenda over a Pro-Pakistani agenda). The Silent majority of Pakistanis completely deplore this move of the US Ambassador and calls for her removal from her post in Pakistan. Of course the lip stuck main stream Pakistani media can’t raise its voice since most of their funding comes from foreign donors but nationalistic independent media (e.g. Pakistan Ka Khuda Hafiz - PKKH) has condemned this with full force. Slowly but surely mainstream media will have no choice but to wake up and open their mouth at this blasphemy. ^[5]

While the Pakistani leadership does not have the courage of even issuing a half hearted statement over aggressive US policy towards Pakistan, the Pakistan Army Chief is clear in saying that no such attack on Quetta will be allowed. Here in Pakistan, we think we see the army is gearing up for a final assault against CIA, Mossad and RAW-backed TTP in South Waziristan, where still pockets of TTP are hiding. Of course the problem is that the border is porous and supplies to TTP will come from the Afghan side. Just as happened during the Swat operation, this clearly shows that the real destabilization in Pakistan is taking place because of US occupation of Afghanistan. The real Taliban (Afghan) represent all Pushtoon population of Afghanistan and Pakistan and during their rule there were no problems between the two countries. Any social problems that existed were strictly internal in nature and certainly not in the "national interests" of the United States or Europe.

Saving Afghan Women from Taliban

The Taliban government of Afghanistan respected Pakistan’s national interests and neither, the Pakistan army nor ISI will not permanently abandon them. The lame alibi that the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in order to save oppressed Afghan women falls apart for two reasons. The first is that the social structure of a society is an internal, domestic matter and when a foreign government intervenes they are violating the principle of national sovereignty. The second reason suggests that the reader visit the reports of RAWA Amnesty International, UN, Boston Globe and various other news media and humanitarian groups, that have shown how much worse off Afghanistan is today than it was under Taliban. The third reason is very simple and transparent. Anyone who knows anything about U.S.-Afghan history in recent years understands the real reason for the invasion was the Taliban's refusal to grant the U.S. right of way to build their pipeline to Caspian petroleum. It had nothing to do with saving women from Taliban oppression and contrary to what many people in the U.S. think, it had nothing to do with 9/11/01 except that the attacks were used to justify the invasion and occupation and eventually ... what still remains a U.S. "Pipe Dream".

Just one example is the speech of Mariam Rawi, Member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) at the University of South Australia on April 27, 2006, five years after the invasion:

“You might expect me to talk about Afghanistan as a free, peaceful and liberated country but painfully and unfortunately the reality is not what you might be aware of through media. After the 9/11, and the subsequent US military intervention in Afghanistan in the name of "war on terror" and "liberating Afghan women", despite tall claims of USA and its allies, Afghanistan is still burning in two-fold fire. On one hand, there are the brutal and horrific Jihadi fundamentalists of the "Northern Alliance" who are supported by the USA and on the other hand, there are the Taliban and Al-Qaida terrorists who have the support of all the fundamentalist and terrorist regimes, parties and organizations in different parts of world”. Rawi continues, “The USA and its allies have always been hypocrite in war on terror. They have never been concerned with the main cause behind terrorism. The US government keeps promising not to repeat its past mistake. But the agonizing truth is that the USA is committing the same mistake by replacing the Taliban with infamous 'Northern Alliance' fundamentalists. And by bringing them back to power, USA proved that they are not concerned with the establishment of peace and democracy in the region."

Rawi tells of conditions in Afghanistan under the current U.S. occupation which can hardly be described as success:

"I speak of a land where 11 year old Rahima, fourteen-year old Fatima and her mother were raped by warlords, gunmen; a land where Amina was stoned to death; where 9 year old Saima was easily tortured and scarified for her father's violence; where Gulbahar was burnt by her husband when she refused to go back to his house; a land where young UN worker Muska --exactly on the election day-- after being kidnapped by gunmen, had to immolate herself to save her honor; where despite the presence of more than six thousands UN peace keeping troops in only in capital city of Kabul, aid workers are kidnapped in broad day light;” ^[6]

Ahmed Karzai, Drug Runner

It is well known that Ahmed Karzai, the brother of the U.S.-installed puppet, Hamid Karzai is the narco lord of the country. Ahmed is operating a drug wal-mart in Afghanistan supplying to Middle East, Europe and South Asia in plain view of the U.S. military, the CIA and Mossad.

It’s interesting that neither, NATO nor US troops are able to stop this drug trade, when Taliban eliminated majority of drug trade during their rule. The CIA's use of drug money to fund their operations against unfriendly governments in Latin America is another well-known "secret". In Afghanistan, we posit that an organised Mafia, comprised of the Karzai brothers, the CIA and Mossad, is working to control - not eliminate the multi-billion dollar heroine traffic out of Afghanistan. ^[8]

Farzanah Shah reports for Pakalert Press:

“In Afghanistan, U.S./NATO have put the blame on Taliban for poppy cultivation to finance their resistance to allied forces. Ironically, it was only in Taliban era when the world had seen a sharp decline in opium crop in Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban had banned opium cultivation nationwide, probably for the first time in Afghan history. A more important question is how and when this business of drug production and trafficking started in region? CIA has been using drug money since long to generate money to support its operations all over the world. It did not start in Afghanistan it was brought here after experimenting somewhere else. This is something which is not a lead story in international media for obvious reasons despite the fact it is harming millions of lives around the globe ... Without active support of Pentagon and CIA it is not possible to export drug prepared with more than 8000 metric tons of opium .... To make sure undisturbed trade U.S. appointed all Northern Alliance drug lords at key posts in Afghanistan and most prominent appointment was none other than President Hamid Karzai. Karzai’s brother, head of Kandahar’s provincial council is proven drug trafficker facilitating the transportation of heroin from Kandahar eastward through Helmand and out across the Iranian border."

The US has now focused its attention on Pakistan for a couple of reasons. The first of course, is destabilisation which they think will lead to their control. The second is to mask their obvious failure in Afghanistan. Establishing their military in Pakistan would give them a base for continued operations in Afghanistan after they hae been forced to leave. When they do leave, instead of admitting defeat, they will brag about their defeat of the Taliban in Pakistan and the generals will blame politicians for not allowing them to kill enough people. Vietnam anyone?

The Kerry-Lugar Bill

The latest misadventure of the U.S. was the recently approved Kerry-Lugar Bill. This bill is basically asking Pakistan to surrender its sovereignty to the US for just $1.5 billion per year. The U.S. thought that Pakistani nation will sleep and not respond. It's another gross miscalculation on the part of the U.S. They may have some Pakistani politicians in their pocket, but the people will never surrender their freedom to this foreign invader. Short of surrender, the U.S. hopes to Palestinize Pakistan with perpetual war.                      

This bill asks the Pakistani government to take action against any target within Pakistan that the U.S. tells them is a “terrorist hideout”. It happened this week when the Pakistan army attacked a suspected “hideout” killing “dozens of people” (CNN Europe). The Kerry-Lugar bill is designed to legitimize their future operations. They did the same thing by passing the Patriot Bill in March, 2006. In that case, they plan to control any possible domestic reaction to their foreign and domestic policy and failing economy with legislation enshrined for that purpose. They are doing the same thing in Pakistan. For example, if the US tells Pakistan to strike at Quetta, or Mureedkay (both places mentioned in the bill) then, according to the bill, Pakistan army must do so.

Further the bill says that the US authorities can question any Pakistani official working on Pakistani nuclear program if the US thinks that person is involved in “suspicious activities”. The farce continues ... the US demands that Pakistan must get a certificate of good behavior from India (Pakistan’s arch enemy), showing that Pakistan is behaving well with India before the US will give aid to Pakistan. It gets better; the bill says that civilian government (installed by CIA) will monitor key appointments in Pakistan Army and ‘Intelligence Agency’ of Pakistan. The bill doesn’t mention the name of the Intelligence Agency because Pakistan has six agencies and they are trying to hide the identity of their cohort in this crime. But of course any kid on a Pashawar or Islamabad street would tell you it is the ISI. Previous attempts to clip the wings of ISI have resulted in dismal failure and the results of this plan remain to be seen. These are just some of the highlights among the imperialist clauses in the bill. The tactic can be summarized thus: Plan a crime but before you carry it out, decriminalize the plan through corrupt legislation.

The Pakistan Army

We think that the Pakistani Army is in no mood to allow this drama to unfold. They have drawn a line in the dirt which in our view, will not even be breached under direct US pressure. While Zardari was in the US, the Pakistani opposition parties learned from the Pakistani establishment that Zardari will come home with the Kerry-Lugar bill. The opposition were also informed that the bill contains clauses that are outright disastrous for the national interests of Pakistan and that it must be stopped. Now the bill will be presented to Pakistani parliament and we will be very surprised if they ratify it, at least in its present form. Gen. Kayani met with Prime Minister Gillani on Sunday and informed him of the serious reservations that the Army High Command have with regards to this bill. Earlier, it was also reported the Gen. Kayani had met with Shabaz Sharif, brother of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. After this meeting PML-N and PML-Q (party of former president Musharraf), have come out more openly against the bill. This political opposition to the bill was something that the US was not expecting. It doesn’t stop here, the High Command of the Pakistan Army high is meeting in its closed door, secretive corps commander meeting to discuss the Kerry-Lugar bill. ^[9]

On Tuesday Gen. McChrystal met Gen. Kayani at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. According to Kamran Khan of The News,

“General McChrystal returned from the GHQ with an unambiguous message that the terms set in the Kerry-Lugar Bill on the national security interests of Pakistan are insulting and are unacceptable in their present formulation”.

A concerned citizen of Pakistan has also filed a petition in Sind High Court of Pakistan against the KL bill.

The bottom line is that even if President Zardari and his corrupt cronies are willing to tag along with this US dictate, they will run into the growing domestic resistance against U.S. imperial designs.

It appears that the US objectives in Pakistan and Afghanistan are on a collision course with Pakistan’s national interests. Zardari being an able servant of Uncle Sam realizes this; hence he met secretly with former President Musharraf in the USA to learn some tricks to appease his masters. Musharraf also in a fix at the moment wants to get back into Pakistani politics (apparently he learned nothing from the assassination of Benizar Bhutto), advised Zardari to try and maintain control over the army. That is also what the US would like, i.e. a Pakistani President who has control of the army. Zardari would really like to remove Gen. Kayani but the questions are how and what would be the result? During the last couple of weeks the Pakistani Prime Minister seems to be expressing disagreement with the direction being taken by the government. But we all know that the words are not his own; rather, he is receiving some guidance and support from opposition parties and members of the Pakistani establishment. The US was trying to bring opposition party chief, Nawaz Sharif (PML-N) under their umbrella as well; however, a former Pakistani ISI official once disclosed that Nawaz had met with Bin Laden on at least on three separate occasions during the early nineties. So Nawaz is out of that picture. The US can’t really be seen supporting someone who has met with Bin Laden in the near past. The internal politics of Pakistan are complex, as always.

The Media and the People

The US policy makers have always seen the world through idealistic lenses that let them see what they want to see. There is absolutely no contact between the U.S. public and the Pakistani public. In all honesty, under the current environment, it’s not possible to have people to people contact because anti-US fervor is increasing in Pakistan, just as is happening in the rest of the Muslim world. The U.S. doesn’t want their public to know the truth about what is happening and thus the Muslim-bashing that continues in their corporate media. This bourgeoning antipathy is fed on the Muslim side by what they have seen in the wars, occupations and misery caused by the U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and now, Pakistan. Among the public in the west, it is fed by the propaganda machine of mass media. Currently, the US is trying to micro-manage every single detail of Pakistani internal politics. This is the same foolish idea that the US once tried in Iran during the Shah’s dark era. The result of that effort is plain to see: a potentially nuclear weaponized, Russia and China-backed Iran.

Obama's Decision

The next few weeks are going to be crucial: Obama will decide whether to continue watering the deadly plant that Bush planted in the White House Lawn or to pull it out by the roots and plant a new peace plant in its place. The choice should be his but it may be a choice he has already sold for "a mess of pottage" - to the neo-cons and hawks that surround him. Further continuation of the Neo-con agenda will result in expanded war and catastrophe in this region and further destruction of the US economy.

Will Obama send in 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan? Does he have them to send? (Today, CNN reports that Obama may send an initial 10,000 “non-combat personnel” which will not be counted among the deman for 40,000.) Or will he resort to throwing more money at new mercenaries who typically fight to earn their paychecks, but not with the risk and sacrifice of someone who is defending his honor and country. The sweet indulgence of the U.S. war in Afghanistan is costing about $5 billion dollars every month. It, along with its other misadventures, is bankrupting the "land of the free and home of the brave". That amount could have been used to give scholarships to 800,000 US college students or to rebuild the collapsing U.S. infrastructure with a new a jobs program or to pay off mortgages of  people who are losing their homes to the blood-sucking banking industry. The entire cost of war in Afghanistan to date has been a staggering $228 billion. ^[11]

Conclusion

Unfortunately the US government is not concerned about the welfare of its own people, so would we expect them to have a kind thought about the people they victimize in other lands? This is not a new phenomenon it happens to empires when they overstretch themselves in their imperial hubris and paranoia. The British Empire once boasted, ‘the Sun never sets on the British Empire’. Well, that empire reached it's high water mark and has now been transformed into the Global Corporate Empire with the U.S. as head of the beast. But my oh my, how life turns the best laid plans on their head! We may now be seeing the first signs of the demise of the beast in the forms of the collapse of the world capitalist economy, defeats of the U.S. military in the East and the rise of the Bolivarian Revolution in Latin America. How long it takes a beast of this size to die remains to be seen.

As far as Pakistan is concerned we are moving towards an ideological revolution and things are moving fast. We, the Pakistani people, are determined to kick out the sick-minded, defeatist US bootlickers who currently occupy important offices in Islamabad. Their U.S. masters will also be packing their bags as well. Our valiant neighbors who are fighting them off in Afghanistan inspire us to do the same. The entry into Afghanistan and now, Pakistan, was easy for the U.S. But the exit is a trapdoor and has been so for any nation or empire that has tried to invade the region in the past.

Notes:

1. CNN
2. Iraq Coalition Casualty List
3. Texas Straight Talk  (Ron Paul site)
4. DAWN (Pakistan)
5. Ahmed Quraishi
6. RAWA
7. New York Times
8. Pakalert Press
9. The News (Pakistan)
10. The Daily Times
11. Asia Times
12. Axis of Logic
13. Pakistan Muslim League

READ HIS BIO AND MORE ANALYSES AND ESSAYS BY
AXIS OF LOGIC COLUMNIST, TALHA MUJADIDDI