[Peace-discuss] Why are we in Afghanistan? Etc.?

[LAURIE SOLOMON]

But Carl isn't this the Amerikan way of introducing population control with
respect to both the US and the rest of the world.  We send soldiers out to
other countries to either be killed or to kill others which reduces the
population - especially the parts of the population that we deem to be less
than the elite movers and shakers, intellectuals, wealthy, and powerful of
the world.  It eliminates those who have been deemed undesirables or mere
commodities among the human species without opening one's self up to
criticism of being racist, sexist, ethnocentric, or class biased or with
engaging in eugenics. 

-----Original Message-----
From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of C. G.
Estabrook
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 9:31 PM
To: peace-discuss
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Why are we in Afghanistan? Etc.?

["...it's important that the people of Afghanistan don't think it's an 
occupation"! Now, where would they get such an idea? Surely that nice Mr.
Obama 
has an explanation beyond the merely puerile, doesn't he? Doesn't he? --CGE]

	Mullen Says Close to 30,000 New Soldiers Likely for Afghanistan
	By Ken Fireman

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Admiral Michael Mullen, the most senior American
military 
officer, said the U.S. will probably deploy close to 30,000 additional
troops to 
Afghanistan to shore up deteriorating security there.

In an interview, Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, also said he is 
hopeful that other NATO nations will contribute additional military and
civilian 
resources this year to the fight against a resurgent Taliban. The Islamist 
militia, which once ruled Afghanistan and sheltered al-Qaeda, is threatening

large areas of the country with mounting attacks.

Mullen said the new resources are needed to buy time for a broad, long-term 
buildup of Afghan security forces that will allow the U.S. to "put an Afghan

face" on the effort and dispel perceptions of a foreign occupation.

"It's fine for me to say this isn't an occupation," Mullen told Bloomberg 
editors and reporters yesterday. "But it's important that the people of 
Afghanistan don't think it's an occupation."

Mullen, 62, has said in recent weeks that the U.S. will probably send
between 
20,000 and 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in response to a request from
Army 
General David McKiernan, the American commander there. Yesterday, he said he

anticipates the final level will "tend toward the higher number of those
two" 
figures.

"I believe it's not going well," Mullen said of the Afghan conflict, "which
is 
one of the reasons it's important that we get these forces moving."

Election Delayed

Afghanistan's presidential election was postponed this week to Aug. 20 from
May 
22 because of security concerns and logistical difficulties. U.S.-backed 
President Hamid Karzai has been unable to extend his authority much beyond
the 
capital, Kabul, which itself is now menaced by the Taliban.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Jan. 27 Senate hearing that
Afghanistan is 
"our greatest military challenge."

"There is no purely military solution," Gates said. "But it is also clear
that 
we have not had enough troops to provide a baseline level of security in
some of 
the most dangerous areas."

Mullen said the military's capacity to fulfill McKiernan's request remains 
dependent on its ability to keep withdrawing forces from Iraq.

And that, he said, will in turn be shaped by whether Iraq continues to draw
back 
from the sectarian violence that convulsed the country in 2006 and
progresses 
toward political reconciliation along milestones like tomorrow's provincial 
elections, which he called "absolutely vital."

Improving Conditions

"It would be very difficult to slip back to the chaos that was there in
2006," 
Mullen said. "The longer we are able to see conditions continue to improve, 
those words 'fragile and reversible' start to disappear."

He cautioned that hard-core insurgents such as the group Al-Qaeda in Iraq
still 
pose a danger. "They're very much diminished, but there are still pockets of

al-Qaeda, and the potential for major events is still there."

In addition, he said, Iraqi leaders must still resolve some difficult
political 
issues, such as passage of a law that gives all regions and ethnic groups a 
share of energy revenue and a dispute between Arabs and Kurds over control
of 
the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

As a consequence, Mullen said, "we are in great part dependent on how the 
politics play out in 2009" as U.S. leaders consider prospects for new troop 
withdrawals from Iraq.

Deployed Troops

There are currently about 142,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and about 36,000 in 
Afghanistan, according to the Defense Department. Other North Atlantic
Treaty 
Organization countries have about 30,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, although
some 
of those nations bar their forces from deployment in areas of intense
combat.

The goal of the buildup in Afghanistan, Mullen said, is to enable the
U.S.-led 
coalition to execute what he called the "classic counter-insurgency"
strategy of 
expelling enemy fighters from an area, holding the territory against new 
incursions and then building up the area's economic and physical
infrastructure.

At present, the coalition has only enough resources to accomplish the first
of 
those three stages, he said.

"When we've been in situations where we've been in combat, we've actually
been 
able to significantly impact the Taliban," he said. "The problem is, we
haven't 
had enough forces there once that occurs to hold the territory, so that we
would 
then build in the classic counter-insurgency mode."

Tribal Areas

Mullen said the situation in Afghanistan is closely linked to events in 
Pakistan, where Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are roosting in the rugged 
mountains of that country's northwest tribal areas.

Mullen has made eight trips to Pakistan in the past year to prod military 
leaders to take action against the fighters. He said he is encouraged that 
Pakistani leaders now are serious about battling the insurgents.

Even the country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which is often
accused of 
collaborating with Islamic extremists, is "evolving in the right direction,"
at 
least at the leadership level, he said.

Mullen also said the Pakistanis have taken new and significant steps in
recent 
weeks to crack down on Lashkar-e- Taiba, an Islamic extremist group blamed
by 
India for the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

'More Steps' Needed

"There are still more steps to be taken" against the group, Mullen said,
adding 
that Pakistani authorities were "working to get those who have been arrested

into their judicial system."

U.S. and Indian officials have previously asserted that Pakistani
intelligence 
authorities have assisted and turned a blind eye to the group's violent 
activities and training camps. Lashkar-e-Taiba, or "Army of the Good," is 
dedicated to overthrowing Indian control of the disputed, Muslim-majority 
territory of Kashmir.

The group is classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. It was
outlawed 
by Pakistan in 2002, although its training camps in the Pakistani part of 
Kashmir continued to operate, according to U.S. and Indian intelligence
officials.

In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Pakistani authorities arrested
several 
alleged Lashkar militants.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ken Fireman in Washington at 
kfireman1 at bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 29, 2009 20:58 EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afll.9YZiyUY&refer=world
wide
_______________________________________________
Peace-discuss mailing list
Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss