The Mess That Is Afghanistan

A few recent news articles from various sources illustrate what a mess our political class has allowed Afghanistan to become:

- In an Associated Press article on October 6, 2010, Chris Brummitt reported on how black markets for U.S. taxpayer funded goods have appeared throughout the Afghan and Pakistan countrysides. He found the following for sale in these markets:

• U.S. Army gear stamped with soldiers' names.
• U.S. military booklets stamped "for official use only."
• A manual that shows how "jammers" can stop remote controlled bombs.
• U/S. boots, flashlights, tools, medical equipment, office supplies, food, and military uniforms.

A warehouse raid in Pakistan in early October turned up the following American goods:

• Helicopter spare parts
• Medical instruments
• Flak jackets

So, nine years into this war and lord know how many U.S. taxpayer dollars have been spent to provide these supplies but which ended up on the black market. As always with our government and political class, no one has had to face the consequences of such waste. The article provided no hint that a crackdown was underway or changed procedures were imminent to cut down on the waste and leakage of American goods into potentially lethal hands, hands intent on killing American service personnel. How sad would it be if road side bombs became more prevalent in the war effort because the manual on how to jam them fell into terrorist or Taliban hands? How sad would it be if Americans were killed by American guns bought in these black markets? Pitiful

- Laura King of the L.A Times  reported on October 25, 2010, as have other news sources, that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had confirmed that his office regularly received large cash sums of money from Iranian officials but insisted that it was no big deal. No big deal??? We have poured billions of dollars and how much American bloodshed into supporting his government and his life style and then he accepts regular payments from a serious, serious enemy of our country, it is not big deal? The payments, about $2 million a year were in "bulging sacks of currency," and according to Karzai, were intended to defray government operating costs. I would hazard a bet that those bulging sacks of money are much lighter once they get to the intended use of defraying operating costs.

However, you do have to hand it to Karzai. He is a master of leverage, playing one side off against another to his and his cronies personal and financial benefit. According to the article, he is worried that the United States and other Western powers will eventually abandon Afghanistan and he wants to cover his bets with such powers as Iran and China who might then step into the void. He is playing Obama and the U.S. political class for fools and getting rich in the process. The very sad news is that our politicians either do not see the reality of being played or do not know how to handle the situation. In either case, the American taxpayer is the loser.

- We are rapidly coming up on the one year anniversary of Obama's West Point speech regarding Afghanistan. At that time, he committed another U.S. 30,000 troops to the battle but immediately then declared that we would start withdrawing those and the rest of the troops within eighteen months. We now know, according to a recent Washington Post article by Charles Krauthammer, that those latter words gave encouragement to the Taliban and other terrorists. This conclusion came from intercepted Taliban communications where they told each other that they just had to wait out America's resolve.

Why did Obama put a time limit of eighteen months? According to the latest Bob Woodward book, "Obama's War," the reason for the timeline withdrawal was because "I can't lose the whole Democratic Party."  Just another example where we see that President Obama is not a leader, he is just another Chicago style politician, comfortable with putting his political fortunes ahead of the lives of our service men and women and the tax dollars of America's citizens. What leader would further endanger our soldiers lives because of the potential political ramifications?

What has Obama done relative to Afghanistan since that speech on December 1, 2009? His focus has certainly not been on the war since he has held not a single press conference or given a major speech (or a minor one) on the war effort in Afghanistan. We do know that during the Gulf oil spill crisis that he played seven rounds of golf, took two vacations, and made at least two cross country trips to campaign for California Democrats so we know for at least that time period Obama had no focus at all on the war. We know that for the past few months or so he has been flying all over the country endorsing and helping fellow Democratic politicians. In the mean time, our forces have been fighting, and dying, in a war that has received next to zero attention by the commander in chief put them in further danger with his eighteen month deadline.

According to Woodward, "He [the President] is out of Afghanistan psychologically." He may be out but our soldiers are not out, our taxpayer dollars are not out, and our reputation and original mission are not out. What a mess and all because the man sitting in the White House refuses to lead and thinks only of his own political fortunes. Even more of a mess.


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