Here in Canada, only 45 percent support the mission, down from nearly 60 percent three years ago. In the United States, support for the mission has dropped from 61 percent in 2008 to just 50 percent today, with a majority opposing sending more troops. In Britain some 64 percent believe that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable and 52 percent supported the view that "the levels of corruption involved in the recent presidential election show the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting for." In the United States poll, it was found that 61 percent believe the war is going badly.
In other NATO countries, support has also fallen dramatically, which is no doubt why none of those countries are likely to follow the US and the UK in sending more troops. Canada, of course, is already preparing to get the hell out. In Poland, a relatively new member of NATO, which joined with great enthusiasm, 76 percent oppose Polish troops being there and 77 percent want the operation wrapped up immediately.
Within Afghanistan things are unlikely to turn around. An opinion piece in the Pakistan Observer by Air Marshall Ayaz A. Khan (Ret.) paints a very bleak picture, assessing the timeline to create a stable national army and police force at 20 years. Meanwhile the police are poorly trained, hated by the "common Afghans" for their corruption, and no match for the Taliban:
"Raw recruits are dispatched to outposts, where they become sitting ducks for the ferocious and experienced Taliban guerrilla fighters. One thousand Afghan policemen were killed in 2008 and another one thousand during 2009. Twice that number of policemen were injured and kidnapped. Thus policemen are demoralized, and many are synmpathetic to the Taliban. Afghan policemen have killed US and British soldiers, and then defected."
The retired Air Marshall concludes that:
"America and NATO are trapped in the Afghan quicksand... The United States and the West owes an apology to the people of Afghanistan for the sufferings, destruction and damage inflicted on them."
Meanwhile, in a story on Sunday, the Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief, Syed Saleem Shahzad, claims that a deal has been struck between the US and Pakistan. According to Shahzad, Pakistan's military demanded that Hamid Karzai's only potential challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pull out of the the second round and play no significant future role in the Afghan government. Something that has now occurred. In return, the Pakistani army would mediate with the Afghan Taliban.
"In exchange for the pullout of the non-Pashtun Abdullah, Pakistan's military has agreed to actively mediate between Washington and the Taliban over a reconciliation plan that will allow the US to exit from Afghanistan, as it is doing in Iraq, with a semblance of success."
Apparently the deal was struck during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit, with Pakistan demanding the removal of Abdullah because he was too "pro-India." Shahzad is a widely read and respected journalist throughout South Asia and the Middle East. If what he says is true, this would be a massive admission from the US that they cannot win - already their retreat to the cities is an admission of their failure in 70 percent of Afghanistan - and are seeking to find a solution that allows them to find "peace with honour." However, the last time that was attempted in a counter-insurgency operation by the US - in Vietnam - it ended rather badly. Meanwhile, the killing and dying continues without pause.
BACK WHEN THE USA WAS WAGING WAR AGAINST VIETNAM the motto of the day was that to save a village, sometimes you had to destroy it. In the great tradition of this imperial logic, today's announcement of the election (ahem) of Hamid Karzai as the president of Afghanistan will not come as a surprise.
“His excellency Hamid Karzai, who has won the majority of votes in the first round and is the only candidate for the second round, is declared by the Independent Election Commission as the elected president of Afghanistan,” Mr. Lodin said.
Well, he certainly did win the first round, after all, him and his brother - you know, the drug dealer on the CIA's payroll? - stuffed more ballot boxes than Americans stuff turkeys at Thanksgiving. It would have been a major scandal if he'd lost. A sign of government incompetence of the first order. And it's in the spirit of supporting "his excellency's" entrepreneurial skills that the Obama administration sends their warm regards.
“We congratulate President Karzai on his victory in this historic election and look forward to working with him” to support reform and improve security, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. Britain and the United Nations also issued statements of congratulations.
"Historic election"? Well, if ballot stuffing gets you that kind of compliment, I'm going to rob some banks, on the assumption that the government will put out a press release similarly commending me: "The Government of Canada would like to send its heartfelt congratulations to Redbedhead for his innovative and inspiring methods of fundraising to pay down his debt. We look forward to working with him to apply his strategy to paying down the national debt."
After all, it's not about how you get there. It's just about getting there, wherever the hell "there" is. In this bizarro world, elections are an inconvenient distraction from democracy. As John Dempsey of the United States Institute of Peace put it:
“Everyone just wants to move past this whole election fiasco and just get on with governing the country. What we've seen in the last few months is nothing but lost time."
WELL, THE USA GOT THEIR CONCESSION from Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's wheeling-dealing, ballot-stuffing president. He has accepted a run-off election to happen on November 7, which means, at least implicitly, he has accepted the accusations that he and his kith and kin ran a less than clean election. But what's good for the goose is good for the gander and since the USA was happy enough to have GW Bush steal his first election, what's wrong with some guy in Afghanistan - a place that most Americans couldn't find on a map? So, everybody's happy right? As Stephen Harper put it:
"While the first round of elections was not without controversy, it is important to remember how far Afghanistan has come since the fall of the Taliban regime. Our goal in Afghanistan is to help Afghans rebuild their country as a stable, democratic and self-sufficient society. Canada continues to lend our support."
Absolutely right, Stephen. Since the fall of the Taliban more civilians have died than during their reign. That surely is an accomplishment. And we've replaced sexist tyrants with... sexist tyrants and drug lords (it's called diversifying your base of support). And we've helped solve the Afghan refugee problem in neighbouring countries: Iran and Pakistan have been expelling them in large numbers.
But still, somehow, the US can't seem to get it right. Already, Karzai's opponent in any runoff, the suspected war criminal, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, has said that he may boycott the second round. So much for granting legitimacy to the election. And, anyway, if Karzai wins, there's a good chance that forcing him to accept the American diktat for a second round may have fatally weakened him politically.
"The Americans didn't seem to care it was unprecedented for a Popolzai chief to be made to admit defeat in front of his people."
So much for maintaining a strong leader to keep the weak Afghan state together. In fact, John Kerry - the formerly anti-war vet who is now stumping to send a new generation of working class kids to die in foreign lands - was in Afghanistan to both pressure Karzai to back down and to push for the Afghanization of the conflict. He didn't seem to realize that these two things are fundamentally in conflict. As noted in an editorial by M.K. Bhadrakumar in the Asia Times Online:
"Whether Karzai was efficient or corrupt is no more the issue. The issue is the perception that Westerners use their friends like condoms - to be discarded after use...This will have implications for the much-touted "Afghanization" strategy."
There are meanwhile reports of demonstrations in Kabul and beyond over allegations that American troops burned copies of the Koran during operations in Wardak province. This comes after 14 US troops died in one day, the largest single daily casualty count since the US occupied the country. Even more worrying, Asia Times Online reported that the Afghan province of Nuristan has fallen to insurgents after the withdrawal of American troops, as part of their strategy to only hold major urban centres.
It seems that things are going from bad to worse for the US and their NATO allies - including Canada. They could have asked the Soviets the price of trying to occupy a country that has defeated more empires than any other.
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