Obama hands over Afghanistan to the Talibs
Posted on 25 June 2011.
We have been predicting it for a couple of years. We predicted the beginning of the draw down in 2011 and we again predict the most US forces will leave Afghanistan much before 2014. The fig leaf of “we will stay in Afghanistan” is as fake as the 10,000 soldiers who stay hidden away from combat. The 10,000 troops will be sequestered in fort near the Amu Darya. This US Aircraft career will stay grounded and as impotent as the one in the Green Zone in Baghdad. President Barack Obama has announced that the US will have 10,000 fewer troops in Afghanistan by the end of the year, from a total of over 100,000, with another 23,000 to depart by the middle of 2012. Its a drawback not a draw down. President Obama’s disappointment was palpable in the speech. His frustration was audible in the words. His chagrin was clearly accented when he failed to mention Pakistan as an ally which had lost more soldiers than any of the NATO countries.
His speech has poured cold water on the Bharati ambitions of keeping the Talibs out of power. Once again Bharat finds itself on the wrong side of history. The US withdrawal send shivers of fear down the spine of the Northern Alliance and their lackeys. The so called Northern Alliance knows that its decade long gig is up–and this time around, neither Iran, nor Russia will be baby-sitting them. One expects Abdullah Abdullah, Sleah, Amin Fahim and the other crooks to be sitting in Mumbai soon. From there they will continue to issue vitriolic statements, just like the Dalai Lama does today.
There is nothing Obama can do about Afghanistan and he knows it. He talked about reconciliation with the Talibs. The UN will take the names off the terrorist list. In one stroke the terrorists will once again become allies–sitting on a peace table put together by Germany. Obama said he has “reason to believe that progress can be made … the goal that we seek is achievable”. He is too busy planning his second coronation after his favorite Rham Emanuel will be orchestrating the charade of a peace conference in Chicago.
The world knows that the Talibs have won the war. All the US can do is try to hide its defeat by blaming Pakistan. The entire region wonders what the war was all about it. As Imran Khan says “the Americans left the mess, and we were left to clean it up’. This time around it will be up to the region to clean up the mess again. Obama tells the world a bankrupt America “has no money for reconstruction”. Obama tells the voters in 2012 “it is time to focus on nation-building here at home.” He brilliantly disarmed his biggest Republican opponent General Petraeus by giving him the CIA–just like he eliminated opposition from the Clinton lovers in the Democratic party by including her in his administration.
As the US walks away from Afghanistan, there will be celebration from the Amu Darya, to Ferghana to the Hindu Kush to the Indus Valley. This jubilation will be tempered by the bloody fireworks that the CIA will throw at Pakistan and Kabul. Michael Sheuer said it best–the US has lost, and the Afghans and the Pakistanis have won. The one message that will resonate across the globe is that the Talibs cannot be defeated, neither by the USSR, nor by the USA.
There is no funeral in Delhi, that is the sound of Bharat being let down–first being promised that there would be no negotiations with the Talibs and then being promised the unsustainable notion of a partitioned Afghanistan. Who will control that partition, the 10,000 US troops? As my teenage kids would righ “Right!” Delhi fully recognizes the new realities and is smoking a peace pipe with Islamabad. Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan are already celebrating Tehran. Iran’s supreme leader accused the America of supporting terrorism, pointing to US drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan that have killed hundreds of civilians. Iran is pleased to no end at the withdrawal. China and Russia are snickering and already sounded very happy in Astana. China and Pakistan come closer and Russia continues to mend fences with Islamabad. All roads to Kabul go via Islamabad.
