Brig Carleton-Smith admits We're not going to win this war. ,How long till western taxpayers admit they were wrong about Afghanistan and Iraq , and bring its troops home -- Taliban will NEVER deal with terrorists or traitors
Brig Carleton-Smith is the Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade which
has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan.
He paid tribute to his forces and told the newspaper . But he stated:
"We're not going to win this war.
He said it was unrealistic to expect that multinational forces would
be able to wipe out armed bands of insurgents in the country.
The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says Brig Carleton-Smith's
comments echo a view commonly-held, if rarely aired, by British
military and diplomatic officials in Afghanistan.
Many believe certain legitimate elements of the Taleban represent the
positions of the Afghan people and so should be a part of the
country's future, says BBC correspondent.
Brig Carleton-Smith is the Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade which
has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan.
He paid tribute to his forces and told the newspaper they had "taken
the sting out of the Taleban for 2008". But he stated: "We're not
going to win this war.
He underline that "it's about reducing it to a manageable level of
insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the
Afghan army."
Brig Carleton-Smith said the goal was to change how debates were
resolved in the country so that violence was not the first option
considered.
He said: "If the Taleban were prepared to sit on the other side of
the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's
precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this.
That shouldn't make people uncomfortable."
Since the start of operations in Afghanistan in 2001, 120 UK military
personnel have been killed. (BBC).-
At last, a faint glimmer of light at the end of the Afghan tunnel.
Last week, the U.S.-installed Afghan president, Hamid Karzai,
revealed he had asked Saudi Arabia to broker peace talks with the
alliance of tribal and political groups resisting western occupation
collectively known as the Taliban.
Taliban leader Mullah Omar quickly rejected Karzai's offer and
claimed the U.S. was headed toward the same kind of catastrophic
defeat in Afghanistan that the Soviet Union met. The ongoing
financial panic in North America lent a certain credence to his
words.
Meanwhile, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan,
urgently called for at least 10,000 more troops but, significantly,
also proposed political talks with the Taliban. U.S. and NATO forces
in Afghanistan are increasingly on the defensive, hard pressed to
defend vulnerable supply lines in spite of massive fire power and
total control of the air.
Though Karzai's olive branch was rejected, the fact he made it public
is very important. By doing so, he broke the simple-minded western
taboo against negotiations with the Taliban and its allies.
DRUG FIGHTERS
The Taliban was founded as an Islamic religious movement dedicated to
fighting communism and the drug trade.
.
It received U.S. funding until May 2001. But western war propaganda
has so demonized the Taliban that few politicians have the courage to
propose the obvious and inevitable:
.
A negotiated settlement to this pointless seven-year war. Even
NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said the war could
only be ended by negotiations, not military means.
.
The Taliban and its allies are mostly Pashtuns (or Pathans), who
comprise half of Afghanistan's population.
.
They have been largely excluded from political power by the U.S.-
backed Kabul regime, which relies on Tajik and Uzbek ethnic
minorities, chiefs of the old Afghan Communist Party, and the
nation's leading drug lords.
.
Canada, which lacks funds for modern medical care, has spent a
staggering $22 billion to support its little war against the Pashtun
tribes. It's a war which Canada's defence minister actually claimed
is necessary so that Canadian delegates would be "taken seriously"
at international meetings. A better path to credibility might be to
not plagiarize from other right wing leader's speeches.
Ottawa and Washington should listen to Karzai who, despite being a
U.S.-installed "asset," is also a decent man who cares about his
nation. In fact, Ottawa should remember Canada's venerable position as
an international peacemaker, a role that has made it one of the
world's most respected nations.
Mr. Harper's role model, George W. Bush, is probably the most disliked
man on earth and certainly America's worst president in history, who
has led his nation from disaster to calamity. Only 22% of Americans
support Bush. Half of them believe Elvis is still alive.
.
The Taliban are not "terrorists." The movement had nothing to do with
9/11 though it did shelter Osama bin Laden, a national hero of the
war against the Soviets. Only a handful of al-Qaida are left in
Afghanistan.
.
The current war is not really about al-Qaida and "terrorism," but
about opening a secure corridor through Pashtun tribal territory to
export the oil and gas riches of the Caspian Basin to the West.
.
Canada and the rest of NATO have no business being pipeline
protection troops. Canada's military intervention in Afghanistan has
jeopardized its national security by putting it on the map as an anti-
Muslim nation joined at the hip with Bush and his ruinous policies.
As the great Benjamin Franklin said, "there is no good war, and no bad
peace."
I hope Ottawa will have the courage to admit it was wrong about
Afghanistan and bring its troops home -- now.
date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 00:29:11 -0700 (PDT)
author: kangarooistan
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