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  • I, as a senior member of USCENTOM and a Middle Eastern Expert, warned the US Government (George W. Bush) and the Generals of what would happen if we did not prosecute a full campaign to destroy the Taliban Pashtuns.  There are many issues and the situation is complex, but I will try to boil it down to the essentials.  1st, Afghanistan is a figment of western imagination which was created in the 19th Century by the UK and Russia as a no man's land between the two nations.  The UK viewed the area we refer to as Afghanistan as "The Wild Wild West."  To protect the British Hajj in India, the Brits drew the Durand Line on the eastern boundary of Afghanistan with absolutely NO consideration for tribal affiliations.  This line split the Pashtuns right along the AF-PAK border.  They then formed Pakistan as a militarized buffer between Afghanistan and India with British Military Officer providing the leadership and training of the Pakistani Military.  Once the new international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan was in place, it became apparent to the Pakistani Government that they could NOT control the Pashtuns along the border and they developed what is known as "the ungoverned tribal region."  When the US went into Afghanistan in 2001, the Northern Alliance (the other 18 people groups) had been fighting against the Taliban Pashtuns for over 8 years.  The Northern Alliance became the US ground force in 2001 with the US providing SF troops to advise and coordinate air support so that they could defeat the Taliban and drive them out of Afghanistan.  For the most part, the Northern Alliance accomplished the mission, however, the US began a ground force buildup and eventually we achieved enough combat power on the ground that we dismissed the Tribal Warlords of the Northern Alliance.  THIS WAS OUR FIRST FATAL MISTAKE!  Afghanistan has always been a collection of several different people groups that allied themselves under this or that sectarian warlord.  However, under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud, these warlords had put aside their differences and agreed to a Loya Jirga (e.g. Representative Republican form of government).  This was the beginning of creating a homoginized Afghanistan; HOWEVER, the US State Department and the CIA refused to work with these Warlords (e.g. Governors) and pushed for a centralized government in Kabul with a Pashtun as National President.  (I might add here that NOT all Pashtuns were part of the Taliban; however, the majority were.)  Between 2001 and 2004, the CIA eliminated the Warlords of our Northern Alliance Allies and forced a centralized government that, because it was led by corrupt Pashtuns, could NOT win the confidence of the Northern Alliance tribes.  This became a serious problem for recruiting for the Afghan National Army and Police forces that plagued the formation of a competent Afghan Security Apparatus.  In many cases, large numbers of the recruits were actually either Taliban or sympathetic to the Taliban Islamist belief system.  Added together, the mistakes by the US CIA, State Department and Senior US Military Leaders produced a hollow and suspect Afghan Security Structure.  In addition to these mistakes and hearkening back to the primary operational mistake of the Vietnam War.  The US insisted on honoring the AF-PAK border allowing the Taliban a safehave in the "Ungoverned Tribal Region" in Pakistan.  It is from this Region that the vast majority of Taliban attacks have been planned and executed for the past 20 years.  This is the exact same issue we created by allowing the North Vietnamese usage of a safe haven in Laos.  Had we NOT honored this border and had of attacked the Taliban where ever they were found and if we had set up a Representative Republic whereby the Governors (i.e. Warlords) of the various tribes governed their segments of Afghanistan, developed and trained their own militaries, and then the warlords had jointly ruled through the traditional Loya Jirga process, the US could have easily destroyed the Taliban and established a secure and stable Afghanistan NLT 2007.  I have been warning that without these measures, the result would be exactly what we are witnessing today; however, our elected government officials and General/Flag Officers do not want to solve problems, but manifest them on and on so that they can justify larger budgets and more power.  These are the facts.

  • Herbert,

    It is not about the people of Afghanistan themselves fighting against the Taliban. The message it gives the rest of the World is this,"If American Fighting Forces battle against Enemies within Your Nation, and You Choose to Assist Our Forces in any way or manner, when Our Forces Leave, for whatever reason, and that Enemy still exists, We Will Abandon You To Their Retribution!" This means that wherever Our Forces are deployed, for whatever purposes, they shall expect No Support nor Aid from the Native Population." That being so, "How does One differentiate between Friend and Foe?" Not only is the rescue of those who aided us the Humanitarian and American Thing to do, it is the Logical Thing to do!

    Lynn Bryant DeSpain

  • Why are they here protesting OUR country instead of being in Afghanistan FIGHTING the taliban?  Screw these people.  Let them get off their lazy butts and go shoot the taliban.

    We fought our own war of independence with a little help from allies but the vast majority of deaths and injuries were people that wanted our country to be free and put their lives on the line.  WE provided many lives of our military, training, arms, and money to the Afghanis and they GAVE them to the taliban.  Screw the people of Afghanistan.  It is NOT our job to make them free.

  • Now we know Biden is the president for illegals because here in America he was selected not elected 

  • This is even worse then Hillary's BenGazi. Do you think she has anything to do with this?????

    Sounds and looks like, now see who is really controlling the WH. You Dumb A..s Liberals!!!

  • He has betrayed the whole country all of his life

  • He has betrayed all of purcallies who know now we stand for nothing and no one.

  • Hell Biden has been betraying Americans for 40+ years

     

  • If they cn do this,  the American people need to be there raising peaceful hell.  

     

  • I'm quite sure that most everyone has the memory of being in Grade School, and there was always the One Kid, with the Dopey Look, staring off into the corner while the Teacher talked. And this Kid had "Green Snot" that would slowly creep down out of his nose towards his lips. Just about the time it would come to his mouth, he would "Sniff" it all back up, and the whole process would start over. That would be Joe Biden. That would be people who voted for Joe Biden. That would be people who like Joe Biden. Always disliked that kid. No manners.

    Lynn Bryant DeSpain

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