Jeff Goldsmith on Afghanistan- What was the White House Thinking?

This morning, the New York Times revealed that Lashkar e Taibah (LeT), a vicious Pakistan based terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, has been operating in Afghanistan, possibly under the direction of the Pakistani military intelligence unit, ISI.  They are targetting their Indian enemies, who’ve set up operations in Afghanistan for reasons I don’t completely understand.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/world/asia/16lashkar.html?hp This unwelcome news comes a week after intelligence analysts revealed that ISI operators have a formal seat at the table in the Taliban’s Afghan war council, and have continued directing and funding their operations killing Afghan civilians and US troops.  What is Pakistan, our putative ally, doing here exactly?

It is clear that Pakistan is filling an anticipated power vacuum created by our announced intention to begin withdrawing our troops next year, “mission accomplished” or not. President Obama campaigned on a commitment to get the job done in Afghanistan while withdrawing from Iraq.  Yet, last year, after being confronted by the left wing of his own party, he compromised with a 30 thousand person troop surge followed by a more or less immediate withdrawal.  In retrospect, this was an idiotic decision, and Afghanistan’s powerful neighbor is using its surrogates to position to take the country over when we leave.   Either we take the time and hundreds of billions of dollars to completely renovate this country, or we have no business being there trying to impose our version of “civilization” on a bunch of medieval tribespeople in the first place.

Large parts of Afghanistan haven’t changed materially in ten centuries.  90% of the Taliban “enemy” are indigenous to the villages we’re trying to pacify.  They live within five miles of where they operate (fighting the invading army and terrorizing those who help them).  When large concentrations of our troops, and helicopters and trucks (you can hear them from ten miles away) appear, they simply melt back into their huts and wait us out (would YOU stand and fight?).   As one of their fighters said a few years ago, “They’ve got the watches but we’ve got the time”.  Indeed.  .  .