We have been fairly critical in the past about articles in the Washington Post, especially those about Afghanistan. Our perception has been that WashPost is heavily influenced by its sources who tend to be from the insular community within the Washington universe. But recently, we have been pleasantly surprised at the articles in this classic paper, insightful, informative articles that tell the real story beneath the headlines.
Today, we discuss three different WashPost articles that are must read in our opinion.
Young Afghans fighters eager to rejoin Taleban – by Kevin Sieff – September 15
We have been told that winning hearts and minds of Afghans, especially Pashtuns, is crucial for America’s success in Afghanistan. If that is true, then we are in trouble according to this article. It tells the human story of Asha, a teenage Pashtun boy who gets more pro-Taleban the more they try to convert him.
- The Taliban visited Asha’s school when he was about 13…preaching the evil of of American interlopers and the value of violent jihad. Asha
approached the speaker after the sermon ended. “How can I join you?” he
asked. - Within a few weeks, Asha was enrolled in a six-month training
course, learning how to fire a Kalashnikov and to connect a nest of
wires and explosives that could take out a U.S. tank. He studied the
material obsessively. - “I would be on my motorbike, but I’d be going over the
information in my head: how to make the bomb work, how to connect all
the parts,” he said. - At the end of the Taliban course, Asha, like most of the other young
fighters at the rehabilitation center, was tested on his knowledge. He
placed first in his class of 37. “My parents were very proud,” he said.
bookshelves, listening to religious leaders denounce the radical
interpretation of Islam they learned as children.
- “They bring us here to change us,” said Nane Asha, in his late teens. “But this is our way. We cannot be changed“..
Meanwhile, officials at the juvenile center are looking for reasons
to be hopeful — or, short of that, to explain their lack of success.
- We
are concerned about whether they will go back to the Taliban,” said
Aziza Adalatkhwah, the center’s director. “But, ultimately, it depends
on the child and on how much they love their country..
Therein lies the rub, we think. We believe boys like Asha love their country deeply. That is precisely why they want to join the Taleban. They probably consider the juvenile rehabilitation center and its Afghan employees as servants of the foreigners occupying their country.
American thinking, in our opinion, has never understood that the real struggle in Af-Pak is a drive for self-rule or independence by the Pashtuns. American framework is based on weaning Pashtuns away from Violent Islam while Pashtun framework is driven by an independence struggle in which Violent Islam is a weapon. This is why every Afghan Government program and employee gets cast as a collaborator. This is why teenage boys like Asha tell you they cannot be changed.
The more we learn about today’s Afghanistan, the more we realize the relevance of the 1669-1707 war to today’s Afghan conflict.
Taleban Attack on US Embassy and NATO in Kabul – Edward Londono & Javed Hamdard with Sayed Salahuddin – September 14
This is the story of the brazen attack on the safest buildings in the heart of Kabul, the US Embassy & NATO Headquarters. Six assailants smuggled weapon into a building overlooking the US Embassy. They launched rockets and sprayed rifle fire for 20 hours. Ambassador Crocker downplayed the significance of Tuesday’s attack, describing it as mere harassment:
- “These
were five guys that rumbled into town with RPGs under their car seats,”
Crocker said. “This is not a very big deal, a hard day for the embassy
and my staff, who behaved with enormous courage and dedication. But
look, you know a dozen RPG rounds from 800 meters away — that isn’t
[the] Tet [offensive], that’s harassment… If this is the best they can do, I find their lack of ability and
capacity and the ability of Afghan forces to respond to it, actually
encouraging,” he said.
Well, the Tet offensive in Vietnam was a big failure as well. But it proved to be pivotal in sapping America’s will because it showed that America could fight the war for years but could not win it. That is also the message of this attack, we think. Read what the Taleban said:
- A Taliban spokesman said the attack was intended to remind Afghanistan’s
government and the United States about the power the insurgents still
wield. “We have not run out of patience, and we want to fight to end
their occupation,” said the spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid. “We have the
ability to strike when we want.”
Ambassador Crocker actually agrees with the Taleban spokesman, as the next article points out.
Ryan Crocker’s Strategic Patience in Afghanistan – by Jackson Diehl – September 11
This article describes an interview with Ambassador Ryan Crocker. It is a must read in our opinion. The excerpts below need little elaboration.
- “It’s hard. It’s going to go on being hard. But it’s not hopeless,” he said in our conversation last week. “The key is strategic patience, which is hard for us Americans. We need
it here, we needed it in Iraq and we certainly need it with Pakistan.”
Crocker gets the mounting opposition to this war – “I know Americans are tired of war. I’m kind of tired, too,” he said. But Crocker has two simple points to make.
- Wanting the war
against al-Qaeda to be over doesn’t mean that it can be ended soon.
“There are still a lot of nasty and brutally determined al-Qaeda figures
out there,” he said. “I do not think that al-Qaeda is out of business
because they lost Osama bin Laden. Not by a long shot.” - The second
hard truth is that al-Qaeda’s future is inextricably linked with that
of Afghanistan and the Taliban. “Al-Qaeda is not [in Afghanistan]
because we are,” Crocker said. “If we decide to go home before it is
ready, you could see a Talibanization of this country and a return to
the conditions that existed pre-9/11. You will see regenerated al-Qaeda
getting back into the global jihad business.”
But as an Ambassador, you can’t just tell the hard truth. You have to deliver optimism. As Jackson Diehl writes “Crocker tries hard to be an optimist”.
- “It’s better than I thought,” he said. “The biggest problem in Kabul
is traffic… Kabul is a more liveable city by far than the Baghdad I left in
2009…” - The
Taliban, says Crocker, is weary of war, too. “The Afghans and our own
soldiers are picking up a lot of signals that the Taliban foot soldiers
are tired of it all, and ready to put their guns down if they can be
assured that they can be fully reintegrated” into society.
Unfortunately, within 3 days of the Ambassador’s comment about the livability of Kabul, the Taleban attacked the US Embassy. And the first article featured above mocks the statement made by Ambassador Crocker about Taleban’s desire for reintegration.
Having said that, we completely concur with Ambassasdor Crocker about the absolute necessity of Strategic Patience in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the decision for such strategic patience will have wait with tactical patience until the November 2012 election.
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