COIN of the realm.

AuthorLubin, Andrew
PositionCounterinsurgency in Afghanistan - Worldview

THE ARMED CONFLICTS in Afghanistan and Iraq have stressed the U.S. military in many ways: multiple deployments; a need to recruit a larger military quickly; and learning how to fight a new type of war, an asymmetrical encounter where our enemies and friends virtually are indistinguishable from each other in clothing, religion, temperament, and goals.

America's enemies no longer wear uniforms and do not carry identification cards or necessarily even represent a particular country. They often live and work openly in local villages, keep their weapons elsewhere, and may be paid to fight by religious zealots, warlords, or terrorists. Similar to the foreign tighten who migrated to Iraq and joined with the locals to fight the Marines in Anbar Province, the Taliban today is an amorphous group of Afghans and Pakistanis, joined by small cadres of Chechens, Yemenis, and other individuals who want to practice jihad against the U.S., with Afghanistan merely a convenient battleground. With goals ranging from building a caliphate across Central Asia to controlling timber smuggling in the Korengal, to shaking down villagers for extra cash, these small groups may fight each other even as they battle the Marines.

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Indeed, going against a variety of opponents makes declaring victory near-impossible, but with neighboring Pakistan possessing more than 100 nuclear weapons, it is essential that the U.S. finds a strategy that enables the West to fight successfully and leave Afghanistan a viable country. Initially, the U.S. sent troops to Afghanistan in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

With the world--including such normally anti-American countries as Russia, Iran, and Cuba--cheering on the U.S., the goal was to kill or capture Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar and overthrow the Taliban. Our military was successful, although Bin Laden escaped from the Tom Bora Mountains. Remember, no nation is better than the U.S. at fighting a conventional war. Rebounding from the surprise attack of 9/11, Gen. James Mattis led the Marines of Task Force Rhino through Afghanistan in a rolling fight that culminated in Kandahar with a rout that removed the Taliban from power and, in December 2001, a new administration was inaugurated in Kabul. By mid 2002, the Bush Administration began pulling out troops in preparation for the invasion of Iraq. So, the British, Canadians, and Dutch did most of the fighting in Afghanistan. The Taliban took this opportunity to regain control of the countryside.

Hamid Karzai won the first post-Taliban election in 2004, and was reelected in 2009 amid reports of massive fraud. The Karzai administration is known for chronic corruption: Local citizenry complain how the Karzai regime is choking the life out of the country and how Taliban justice, while extreme, at least is not so corrupt.

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Unstable Afghanistan neighbors yet another unstable nation in Pakistan--while both adjoin the energy-rich countries of Central Asia. While their gas and oil is shipping primarily to energy-importing India and China, should the supplies be disrupted, the effect on the...

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