Backed by Pakistan, the Taliban are set to “retake control over all of Afghanistan” after NATO-led forces retreat from the country, Britain's Times of London newspaper reported last Wednesday, citing a secret, “highly confidential” report compiled by U.S. forces.
The report appears to be based on another secret NATO report, recently leaked which suggest that the Taliban are “revitalized”.
This is the opposite of what President Obama said in his state of the union address where he told the American people “the momentum of the Taliban has been broken”… This is either a bald face lie or the President is ignorant of what is actually going on?
This raises certain questions about whether or not President Obama is getting reliable and realistic information from the military, or worse – he is being mislead by his closest military advisors and generals.
“It must be remembered that the President is not a military man, he has no prior experience in the military. He has never fought in a war. He has never had to kill a man in combat or duck bullets in a foxhole. He relies completely on his national and military advisors, namely the Joint chiefs of staff and Pentagon officials”, says Dan Anderson of Charlotte, N.C., a prominent strategic military affairs experts, who served 15 years in the US Army.
“The truth is the Taliban won this war, I’m afraid to say. This is one reason why we are in peace negations with these people, who are still killing and murdering American troops as we speak in Afghanistan”, he said.
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The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document on its website. "Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban," the Times said, quoting the report. "Once ISAF (NATO-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable," it quoted the report.
Citing the same report, the BBC reported on its website that Pakistan and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency knew the locations of senior Taliban leaders and supported the expulsion of "foreign invaders from Afghanistan."
"Senior Taliban leaders meet regularly with ISI personnel, who advise on strategy and relay any pertinent concerns of the government of Pakistan," it said.
Aembarrassed looking State Department spokesman and Britain's Foreign Office both declined comment on the report.
NATO and Pakistani officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Despite the presence of about 100,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, according to the United Nations.
Pentagon officials said they had not seen the reports and refused to comment on their specifics.
Pentagon spokesman George Little said: “We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks.”
Little said U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “has also been clear that he believes that the safe havens in Pakistan remain a serious problem and need to be addressed by Pakistani authorities.”
Little refused to speculate on the question of whether President Obama was misinformed or lied in the state of the union by suggesting the US was somehow winning the war in Afghanistan.
It is unclear if Congress will green light over $2 billion in military aid to Pakistan.
“It is bad enough the Pakistani’s are undermining the war effort and supporting terrorist by providing them safe havens, but to expect me as a taxpayer to help fund it is something that really angers me”, said Nathan Mueller of Charlotte, N.C. “I don’t know if President Obama is just ignorant or stupid”, he said.
The White House confirmed that United States is withholding about $800 million in aid to Pakistan's armed forces, but insists upon the delusion that Pakistian is a partner in the solution in Afghanistan. “This is totally stupid” says Jack Keller of Charlotte. “We are a $ trillion dollars in the whole in Afghanistan and still wasting treasure”, he said.
Many people I talk to question President Obama’s decision to support Pakistan and the State Department decision to go ahead with negotiations with Pakistan. “If your not part of the solution you are part of the problem”, says Don Johnson, a former US Army infantryman at Ft. Bragg, N.C. Johnson says the US military is seriously dysfunctional in its approach to war. He blames officers for following stupid orders for getting men killed in Afghanistan. “When my enlistment was up – I got the heck out”, he said.
Reports from the front line in Afghanistan suggest the Taliban is not beaten or demoralized. Taliban representatives will tell you “they beat the Americans”. If you read Pakistani and American newspaper reports suggest the Taliban have already declared victory in Afghanistan (see article: “Taliban Declares Victory, as Fighting Goes On” http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/taliban-declares-victory-as-fighting-goes-on/“The sad fact is we lost the war in Afghanistan, like we did in Vietnam”, says Lawence Pike of Charlotte, N.C.Many people suggest we should have declared victory after the successful hit on Osama bin Ladin. Instead Afghanistan is bleeding us to the tune of $300 million dollars per day and $ close to $6 billion per month. If you factor in Pakistan and the payments made to the Taliban not to attack us the cost is much more…It’s absolutely insane when you consider that all this money is borrowed, because we are essentially broke as a nation.Robert TilfordCharlotte, N.C.
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