The German Bundeswehr's Afghan Nightmare (DER SPIEGEL)

[Call Me Wesley]

It's not getting better. Here's a recent interview about the situation with former (conservative) German minister of defense (under Chancellor Kohl), Volker Rühe: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6325830

How the Taliban Are Taking Control of Kunduz


Six years ago, German soldiers came to Afghanistan's Kunduz province to carry out reconstruction work.
Now they are engaged in a bitter struggle with the resurgent Taliban, who are trying to sabotage Thursday's presidential election.

By Markus Feldenkirchen, Matthias Gebauer and Susanne Koelbl (DER SPIEGEL)

Six years ago, German soldiers came to Afghanistan's Kunduz province to carry out reconstruction work. Now they are engaged in a bitter struggle with the resurgent Taliban, who are trying to sabotage Thursday's presidential election. Many local people no longer believe the Europeans can help them.

The war in Afghanistan now revolves around men like Khanzada Gul. The West is fighting for him, and so are German soldiers. They want to prevent people like Gul from changing sides and joining the enemy -- the Taliban.

Gul, who is dressed in jeans and a striped T-shirt, is leaning against a railing in front of the city of Kunduz's only ice cream parlor, which is on the same street as the main bazaar. The 26-year-old's face is clean-shaven and his hair hangs over his forehead in carefully gelled curls.

Read full article here.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Call Me Wesley]

2. Thank you!

:hi: We seem to always forget Afghanistan.

[Solly Mack]

4. You're welcome!

Thank you for posting the story!!

[Heidi]

3. We are AMERICANS!!!! We don't care about you and your unwashed, unshaven HEATHEN comrades!1!!!

SERIES!1!!! We'll stay there for a century just to teach you HEATHENS to properly shave, wash and pray to the right God!!!! By the time we're done, you'll ALL be MANSCAPING! :sarcasm:

:kick:

[FarCenter]

5. Unfortunately Obama doesn't seem to be reconstituting the Northern Alliance

The Northern Alliance that pushed back the Taliban and nearly liberated Afghanistan was an alliance of the Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen, Hazara, and Aimak ethnic groups that live mostly north and west of the central mountain range.

However, after the initial victory and liberation of Kabul, the Bush administration caved to Pakistani pressure and re-established Pashtun supremacy in Afghanistan under Karzai, who is a Pashtun. This has allowed a resurgence of the Taliban, who are mainly Pashtuns.

The only hope is to repudiate the Pashtuns, reconstitute the Northern Alliance, and push the Pashtun population back to the mountain ranges and valleys adjacent to Pakistan. At that point, just hand the Pashtun problem over to Pakistan and reconfigure the border. The Durand line, which is the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, runs down the mountain divide on the border, but it also splits Pashtunistan in the middle.

The North and West of Afghanistan should be reconsituted as a Pashtun-free and Taliban-free state.

[SoCalDem]

6. The sad fact, is that we "lost" the Afghan war back in the 80's.

We bailed on them after they tossed the Russians out, when we should have immediately set out to build REAL schools, and hospitals & roads & decent housing.

Afghans were ready to recover..and then we left them high & dry..and now we have a big problem

But we always try to do foreign policy on the cheap, and like Midas always says "Pay me now, or PAY me later"..we pay later..with blood & more money than if we had done the "right" thing.

We missed an opportunity to "change" Russia, in much the same way when the soviet union collapsed.

republican "now" thinking, always comes back with a vengeance..later..

[FarCenter]

8. True, that was the second missed opportunity

First, we should have never lured the Soviets into the country -- thank Carter/Brzezinski.

Second, we should never have left them to the Pakistanis and the Saudi Arabians.

Third, we should not have abandoned the Northern Alliance.

[Call Me Wesley]

9. Let's be honest,

in the end it was Bush who enabled the resurrection of the Taliban itself by simply abandoning Afghanistan and invading Iraq. Since then, the allies he didn't get for Iraq are doing the dirty part in Afghanistan, and very reluctantly.

I don't think Pakistan would be outright happy with having to deal with the problem. They did a few attacks on Taliban strongholds in their own country, but these were merely PR stunts since they don't have any power over further control of the border strongholds.

[FarCenter]

13. It was actually Bush 1 who enabled the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

The Soviet occupation began December 24, 1979 and ended February 15, 1989. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan

At that point, the country was effectively turned over to the Pakistani ISI and the Saudi Arabians. A period of chaos ensued during the remainder of the Bush 1 adminstration and into the first Clinton adminstration.

The Taliban began their military campaign in late 1994 and by September 1996 had captured Kabul. They continued their campaign and by 1998 had captured Mazar-i-Sharif in the North. This was accompanied by atrocities against the Shiite population and non-Pashtun groups in general. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban

So it was actually the Clinton adminstration that failed to counter the conquest of Afghanistan by the Taliban. However, the Clinton adminstration was soft of Islamic terrorists in general, just like the Carter, Regan, and Bush 1 adminstrations. Indeed, the Clinton adminstration was supporting Islamists in the Balkans, and no doubt the Clinton adminstration's CIA helped foment the war by Islamists against the Russians in Chechnya.

The Bush 2 adminstration continued the same policies as its predecessors, choosing to attack a largely secular Iraq, while reinstating the Pashtuns in Afghanistan with predictable results.

It is apalling that Obama appears to be continuing this policy of not supporting secular forces in the Middle East, South Asia, and Central Asia, but continuing to play the Islamist game.

[SidneyCarton]

7. A good article, I appriciated reading this from the pov of our allies.

I pity the Germans to some degree. They have spent a half century attempting to repudiate a warlike tradition that proved ultimately self-destructive, now they are thrust back into combat with a foe that understands the old doctrines of Schrecklicheit (terribleness, terror) all too well.

[Call Me Wesley]

10. It is still heavily disputed

why they are there or why they haven't left Afghanistan already. And until recently, no one spoke of 'combat' mission. If my memory serves me correctly, only the German secretary of state (Steinmeier, he's running for Chancellor now, Social Democratic Party) ever used the word 'war' in reference to Afghanistan.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

11. FAKE ELECTIONS WON’T BRING PEACE TO AFGHANISTAN

FAKE ELECTIONS WON’T BRING PEACE TO AFGHANISTAN
August 17, 2009

This week’s presidential election in Afghanistan will be an elaborate piece of political theater designed to show increasingly uneasy Western voters that progress is being made in the war-torn nation after seven years of US-led occupation.

Most Afghans already believe they know who will win the vote: the candidate chosen by the United States and its NATO allies.

Voting will mostly be held in urban areas, under the guns of US and NATO troops. The countryside, ruled by Taliban, who are often local farmers moonlighting as fighters, is too dangerous for this electoral charade. Over half of Afghanistan is under Taliban influence by day, 75% at night.

The entire election and vote-counting election commission are financed and run by the US. So are leading candidates. Ten thousand Afghan mercenaries hired by the US will police the polls and intimidate voters. US-financed Afghan media are busy promoting Washington’s candidates.

...

http://ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/fake-elections-wont-bring-peace-to-afghanistan_1.aspx

[Call Me Wesley]

12. And there's already censorship issued for

what can be reported and what not. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4021687