Losing battle to put positive spin on Afghanistan

On Sunday, April 15, Afghan insurgents mounted a series of co-ordinated attacks in Kabul and three other urban centres in the eastern provinces. It took over 18 hours for the Afghan security forces, backed by British Special Forces, to quell the attack and eliminate the last of the insurgents.

Although initial reports varied greatly, the official death toll from the violence was 51 casualties — four civilians, 11 Afghan security personnel and all 36 insurgents involved in the attacks.

In Kabul, the 16 attackers launched their assault from two separate locations: one within range of the Afghan Parliament buildings, the other close enough to threaten the international embassy district.

Well in advance of the attack, the insurgents had been able to stockpile large quantities of ammunition, including grenades and rockets. Both sites used were buildings under construction, which presumably allowed them to deliver their deadly cargo without detection. Nevertheless, the fact that both locations are within the most heavily secured districts in the Afghan capital led President Hamid Karzai to blame NATO for the setback.

“The terrorist infiltration in Kabul and other provinces is an intelligence failure for us and especially for NATO and should be seriously investigated,” Karzai told reporters.

For their part, the NATO-paid cheerleaders had to set their spin cycles on tornado to portray this incident as a victory. Praise was heaped upon the Afghan security forces despite the fact that NATO soldiers were still required to finally eliminate the attackers. After more than a decade of training and equipping the Afghan security forces, they still do not have the will or capability to handle 16 fanatical gunmen on their own, but NATO spokespersons assure us that they are making progress.

To be fair, in 2008 it took only three Taliban and a machine-gun to send more than 400 Afghan soldiers fleeing in terror when they opened fire on the Presidential Parade Square in Kabul. But I digress.

According to NATO, the reason for the lengthy duration of the gun battle was due to is the fact that the Afghan security forces needed to use proper restraint and patience in order to avoid collateral damage among the civilian population. In this regard it seems that the insurgents had no intention of targeting random innocent civilians as they reportedly allowed a large number of unarmed labourers to pass their positions before opening fire.

This was the third major insurgent demonstration of force in Kabul in the past 10 months. The first was the lengthy standoff at the International Hotel in June 2011, and the second was the bloody rampage on the outskirts of the embassy district in September 2011. In each instance, all of the attackers were eventually killed.

The insurgents’ objectives have never been to capture Kabul or to spark a full-scale uprising to overthrow the NATO forces. Given the handful of participants in each attack, it seems that their suicidal fanaticism is intended instead to simply disrupt the capital for as long as possible and thereby create maximum embarrassment for the security forces.

In this regard, every additional minute that residents of Kabul bear witness to gunshots, explosions and billowing smoke emanating from the central district, the terrorists’ victory grows. In this instance, they achieved their goal as soon as they opened fire and demonstrated their ability to infiltrate, yet again, the city’s most heavily protected central areas.

Canada ended the combat mission in Afghanistan last June, and it has been suggested that we may scale back the number of personnel assigned to the ongoing training mission in Kabul prior to the projected pullout date of 2014. France and Australia recently served notice to NATO commanders that they will be ending their combat contributions sooner than expected.

As for those Americans still hoping to win over Afghan hearts and minds within the next two years, the news just keeps getting worse.

First it was the story of American soldiers desecrating the Qur’an at the Bagram Air Field. Then the photo of US Marines urinating on Afghan corpses that caused a backlash, followed by the horrific mass murder of 17 Afghan civilians by Staff Sergeant Robert Bales which shocked the world. Last week, yet again, another batch of photos surfaced showing American Airborne soldiers mutilating more corpses.

President Richard Nixon described the Vietnam debacle as having achieved “peace with honour.” God only knows how the next American will describe the US’s imminent defeat in Afghanistan.

Original Article
Source: the chronicle herald
Author: SCOTT TAYLOR