The must read of the day:
In his [Dalrymple's] description of a meeting with local elders in Jalalabad, where a council, or jirga, had just been held:
As Predator drones took off and landed incessantly at the nearby airfield, the elders related how the previous year government troops had turned up to destroy the opium harvest. The troops promised the villagers full compensation, and were allowed to burn the crops; but the money never turned up. Before the planting season, the villagers again went to Jalalabad and asked the government if they could be provided with assistance to grow other crops. Promises were made; again nothing was delivered. They planted poppy, informing the local authorities that if they again tried to burn the crop, the village would have no option but to resist. When the troops turned up, about the same time as we were arriving at nearby Jegdalek, the villagers were waiting for them, and had called in the local Taliban to assist. In the fighting that followed, nine policemen were killed, six vehicles destroyed and ten police hostages taken.
After the jirga was over, one of the tribal elders came over and we chatted for a while over a glass of green tea. “Last month,” he said, “some American officers called us to a hotel in Jalalabad for a meeting. One of them asked me, ‘Why do you hate us?’ I replied, ‘Because you blow down our doors, enter our houses, pull our women by the hair and kick our children. We cannot accept this. We will fight back, and we will break your teeth, and when your teeth are broken you will leave, just as the British left before you. It is just a matter of time.’”
What did he say to that? “He turned to his friend and said, ‘If the old men are like this, what will the younger ones be like?’ In truth, all the Americans here know that their game is over. It is just their politicians who deny this.”
Find the quick ready synopsis at Harper's Magazine:
Dalrymple’s Glum Forecast on Afghanistan
For Bonus Points - The original article:
Why the Taliban is winning in Afghanistan
All the promises of hope and change have been lies and more of the same. The bait and switch was predictable and expected, but dare we anticipate a modicum of logical, sane action eventually?
It had better happen soon or Christmas is going to really suck for millions of Americans this year.
Posted this morning by Congressional Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX):
Why We Must Reduce Military Spending
"Even subtracting the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military spending still amounts to over 42% of total spending."
"It is irrefutably clear to us that if we do not make substantial cuts in the projected levels of Pentagon spending, we will do substantial damage to our economy and dramatically reduce our quality of life."
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Chauncey DeVega
Winterene
def
the traveler
James and Lois Cowan
Redpossum
Salon.com
Comments
R~
When he says things such as "had called in the local Taliban to assist" everything else he says become suspect.
First of all, the Taliban were already there. They never left in the first place.
Secondly, the vast majority of Afghani farmers are TOLD that they will grow poppies because the smuggling and sale of raw opium base is the means through which the Taliban receives most of it's funding. If they don't their crops are destroyed, their families are murdered and the Taliban makes an example of them.
In other words, he lost me by leaving the impression that the Taliban are just a bunch of nice guys that stepped in to help out and that the farmers just happen to like growing poppies instead of having to grow them.
I personally am disgusted with any one like Dalrymple that tries to whitewash murdering slime that suppress their own people and do "kind" things like throwing acid in the faces of girls that dare try to go to school and can convict and stone a woman to death for the crime of being raped.
P.S. Good to see you back, dude. Been wondering where you got off to.
Yes, the Taliban suck, but at least they are related to the villagers. We're just more brutal foreign occupiers in a long line of brutal foreign occupiers.
The NY Times has been reporting frequently this past month that WE are actually funding the opposition... poppy fields are small time compared to what our government is funneling to the Taliban.
Not long thereafter, another American general warned the public about the threat of the "military-industrial complex." Of course, Americans were once again willfully ignorant.
I agree that a certain type of welfare is killing our economy, but it's the funds flowing into corporate coffers doing us in, not the aid given to our citizens.
Smedley was a cool dude for a Marine. Plus there was that whole two time winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor thing he had going for him.
Truly, we are a possessed people to continue waging these wars. And I don't want to hear about the government is out of step with the will of the people. We want these wars because we're too afraid not to have them. If it were otherwise, the politicos would be running for cover as always.
I suck at discussing this stuff, but I was in NYC on July 4th, in my friends apartment, listening to the thudding booms, NOT watching fireworks and thinking about Afghanistan.
How dare we.
There is a greater history, a much weightier past, than Americans wish to acknowledge. It makes perfect sense that we should not look back in time as we weild our big stick with impunity. Seeing how well previous world-powers fared (not very well, I think), is not on our agenda since we do everything smarter, faster and better! I think you are really a wonderful optimist with a huge heart; that you care so much to point out these ridiculous patterns to us with any hope that things might change.
Thank you for looking out for our butts! These are things I would never find for myself.
This ought to be emblazoned on every report on or discussion about any sector of our economy, be it health care or job gains/losses or even bank loans.
A war on terrorism is, as currently conceived, both un-winnable and unsustainable. To apply the Afghani's comments to the wider concept, we know this, though our politicians continue to deny it.
I didn't know that before.
So it is not easy to beat military industries.
What could be done?
An alternative title could be: "How could any nation in the world (other than israel) NOT hate us?"
-R-
PS - Good thing You weren't around to hear the mindless braying on american exceptionalism, just days ago.
War is a great way to make money and also a great way to spend it.
Looks to me like spending our taxpayer money on things more important to us all as you list here BBE is a better bang for the buck.
Missed ya guy. Glad to see ya around these parts here.
Does anyone anywhere really believe that burning Afghan opium crops will make anyone drug-free? Are our brave drug-warriors even trying to convince us of this anymore?
doodle 'initiative for democracy', and light your personal candle.
In 1968 Mark Kulansky said it all about "what the generals leared," but they did not learn the most important thing: Make sure you enemy views or see death the same as you do. So far the US and Europe have faught Christian indoctrinated peoples, now they have Muslims who see death as a reward.
We Christian or Western oriented peoples know that we are going to die, but we disbelieve it. It works. That is how we live without health insurance. Faith and a brain the size of mustard seed has always worked for Americans.