Petraeus Blows More Afghanistan Smoke

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 15, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

            Making the rounds on Sunday talk shows, Centcom Commander Gen. David Petraeus told NBC’s “Meet The Press” that the American people needed to show patience in Afghanistan.  Nearly nine years since former President George W. Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom Oct. 7, 2001 to punish the Taliban for hiding Osama bin Laden, the U.S. finds itself in a bloody guerrilla war, losing 66 soldiers in July.  Petraeus called the Afghan War an “up and down process,” referring the efforts to purge Southern Afghanistan of the Taliban.  Stating new U.S. goals, Petraeus insisted, like Bush and his former VP Dick Cheney, that the war’s goal is to keep the Taliban or al-Qaeda from seizing power.  Petraeus knows that Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders haven’t been in Afghanistan since they fled Tora Bora over the Khyber Pass Dec. 12, 2001, one month after the fall of Kabul.

            Selling the Afghan War faces stiff headwinds, considering that too much information contradicts the Pentagon’s report.  “We’re here so that Afghanistan does not once again become a sanctuary for transnational extremists the way it was when al-Qaeda planned the 9/11 attacks in the Kandahar areas,” Petraeus told “Meet The Press” during an interview in Kabul.  Petraeus won’t acknowledge that U.S.-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai has close family ties to the Taliban, hailing from the Kandahar area.  His survival over the past nine years underscores just how close those ties really are.  Before Operation Enduring Freedom, the CIA threw cash at Afghan opposition group called the United Front or Northern Alliance, led by Ahmad Shah Massoud. Massoud, who fought the Soviets side-by-side with Bin Laden, eventually succumbing to a Taliban suicide blast Oct. 9, 2001.

            Karzai’s longevity directly relates to his ongoing collusion with the Taliban, tipping off the renegade Islamic group with key intelligence about U.S. troop movements.  Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been on the CIA’s payroll for years and controls a significant piece of the Afghan opium trade.  Since taking office, Obama has added over 50,000 U.S. troops, putting the total at 100,000.  He’s followed through with his campaign promise to end the Iraq War, promising to complete of combat troops by summer 2011.  Bush and Cheney repeatedly warned of an al-Qaeda takeover in Iraq if the U.S. threw in the towel.  Now Petraeus makes the same claim in Afghanistan.  Few military or national security experts believe that al-Qaeda or Taliban leadership remain in Afghanistan.  Petraeus insists that the U.S. mission still includes capturing Bin Laden and Taliban’s Mullah Mohammed Omar.

            Saying the fight in Afghanistan would require “character and its size being scaled down for years,” Petraeus insisted that a military loss would invite a bloody civil war, inviting extremists back in the country.  If the U.S. succeeds, Petraeus promised a “Silk Road” to mine Afghanistan’s trillion-dollar mineral wealth.    He knows that any strip mining would require major commitment by multinational corporations, not likely when the country faces an unending guerrilla war.  With Taliban forces receding into the civilian population in Kandahar, it presents a difficult target for U.S. forces.  Petraeus counterinsurgency strategy, like Iraq, involves buying off warlords and remnants of the radical Taliban regime.   He thinks the military can pay off key members of the Afghan Taliban that haven seen hide-nor-hair of its leader Mullah Mohammed Omar or Osama bin Laden 

             Petraeus indicates that he’s following Taliban chatter among its remaining leadership in Afghanistan, questioning the whereabouts of Mullah Mohammed Omar.  He suggests that remaining Taliban leadership is open to proposals from the U.S. military, much the same as insurgents in Iraq.  Petraeus thinks Afghan Taliban leaders feel abandoned, while Omar remains with Bin Laden in Pakistan.  Petraeus refuses to criticize Hamid Karzai, insisting that he meets or talks daily with the 52-year-old Afghan leader.  “We have the kind of relationship, that I believe, we can each be forthright with the other and that means occasionally, again confronting issues that are difficult for either of us,” said Petraeus, not admitting to Karzai’s serious lapses.  His close relationship with the Taliban should alert Petraeus to limit the kind of intel he shares with the Afghan president.

            Petraeus faces an impossible task of preserving the illusion that there’s measurable progress in Afghanistan.  He currently serves as a face-saving buffer with Congressional skeptics on both sides of the aisle that believe Afghanistan is a lost cause.  Unless Petraeus can get some inside track on the whereabouts of Bin Laden and Omar, the U.S. mission remains in doubt.  Nearly nine years after the fall of the Taliban, the U.S. is no closer to getting Bin Laden or Omar, attesting to shifting landscape in the mountainous graveyard of conquerors since the days of the Greek warrior-king Alexander the Great [356 BC to 323 BC].  Since former Afghan Commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal questioned White House strategy and was fired June 23, growing doubts have crept into Congress.  Petraeus neither has the time nor credibility to follow the same old strategy.

About the Author    

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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