Expanding and Ending the Engagement

September 7, 2006

There are about 20,000 NATO troops where none should be and now NATO Wants Reinforcements in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has changed the front. It made peace with its eastern tribes and lets them support the Pashtun fighters, i.e the Taliban, in Afghanistan. Undistrubed by Pakistani military interference (and maybe even supported by ISI, the Pakistani military intelligence service), those hardcore fighters will now really start their offensive.

But as we learn form the airpower summary for Sept. 6, NATO has a plan how to further expend to end the engagement.

Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, Navy FA-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force Harrier GR-7s provided close-air support for coalition troops in contact with Taliban extremists near Kandahar. The A-10s conducted passes, expending cannon rounds, general-purpose 500-pound bombs and a Guided Bomb Unit-12. F-18s expended a GBU-12 on enemy positions, ending the engagement.

A-10s and French Air Force M-2000s provided close-air support to coalition troops in contact with enemy forces near Asadabad. The A-10s conducted passes, expending cannon rounds and ending the engagement.

An Air Force B-1 Lancer provided close-air support for coalition troops in contact with Taliban extremists near Orgun-E. The B-1 expended GBU-31s on enemy rocket positions, ending the engagement.

It is only a few weeks ago that a modern force did fight a short war against local guerrillas by expending lots of bombs to end the engagement. That war did not achieve anything positive.

The Sowjets had up to 116,000 troops in Afghanistan and it took ten years, 50,000 Sowjet casualties and maybe a million dead Afghani, before the Kremlin understood that there was no point to be made.

How long will it take NATO? At what cost in human lifes?

Posted by b on September 7, 2006 at 20:44 UTC | Permalink

Comments

If Pakistan has made peace with the Waziris and the Taliban, doesn’t that mean the US has probably done the same?

Posted by: Guthman Bey | Sep 7 2006 21:18 utc | 1

Sounds like the arms manufacturers are playing both sides – sell F-16s to Pakistan and sell F-18s to US, and watch the sparks fly!

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Sep 7 2006 22:49 utc | 2

Colonel K has something to say on all this:
Link
It’s about smoke and mirrors, don’t you see?

Posted by: Dr. Fu | Sep 8 2006 2:50 utc | 3

I’m sure the arrangement is to fight the evil Taliban for a few months, and then make peace with them under Pakistan’s benevolent supervision.
The peace will be based on the Taliban moderating some of their harsher positions on women, educating girls, and such, and swearing on the graves of their fathers to reduce the opium crop.
At which point NATO goes home, the media forgets about it, and the real deal goes through —
one brand new natural gas pipeline from the Caspian Basin all the way through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea.
Where the American ships will get it, and take it to America.

Posted by: Antifa | Sep 8 2006 3:33 utc | 4

I thought Afghanistan was supposed to be a pushover and a warm-up excercise for Iraq and points beyond. I am a bit disturbed at recent reports of heightened violence and the way it seems to be spinning out of control.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Sep 8 2006 18:08 utc | 5

The invaders planned to control the country with some of the warlords, or Taliban (even Karzai is an kind of ex-Taliban, though that doesn’t mean much), such as the infamous General Dostum…
Northern Alliance + The US + now NATO = chaos and death for the Afghanis, but control of the drug trade, routes thru the country, plenty of money to be made.

Posted by: Noirette | Sep 8 2006 21:25 utc | 6

The Pakistanis can no more control Afghanistan than NATO can. If George wants his pipeline, he is going to have to bribe the people on the ground: Taliban, warlords, druglords, all of them. I don’t think he is ready to shell out for that.
I don’t know what the Pakistani angle is, but there are many possibilities. Such as a bargaining chip: You want us to support your Afghani operation? Make us a soft nuclear deal like you just made the Indians! India is ever Pakistan’s foremost policy concern, Afghanistan, less so. They can and will bargain over the latter.
The pipeline, ditto. The US does not seem to have made the Pakistanis a reasonable (never mind attractive) offer, yet.
In any case, it does look like Pakistan is uping the pressure, and is probably ready to move in either direction, depending on how things play out.

Posted by: Gaianne | Sep 12 2006 20:06 utc | 7

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