Eugene Robinson: It’s No Secret: Afghanistan Is a Quagmire

[marmar]

from truthdig:




It’s No Secret: Afghanistan Is a Quagmire
Posted on Jul 26, 2010

By Eugene Robinson


The tens of thousands of classified military documents posted on the Internet Sunday confirm what critics of the war in Afghanistan already knew or suspected: We are wading deeper into a long-running, morally ambiguous conflict that has virtually no chance of ending well.

The Obama administration, our NATO allies and the Afghan government responded to the documents—made public by a gadfly organization known as Wikileaks—by saying they tell us nothing new. Which is the problem.

We already had plenty of evidence that elements within Pakistan’s intelligence services were giving support and guidance to the Taliban insurgency inside Afghanistan, even though Pakistan is supposed to be our ally in the fight against the terrorists. The newly released documents don’t provide conclusive proof, but they do give a sense of how voluminous the evidence is. “American soldiers on the ground are inundated with accounts of a network of Pakistani assets and collaborators,” according to The New York Times, one of three news organizations—along with The Guardian and Der Spiegel—with which Wikileaks shared the documents in advance.

We already knew that U.S. and other coalition forces were inflicting civilian casualties that had the effect of enraging local villagers and often driving them into the enemy camp. The documents merely reveal episodes that were previously unpublicized—an October 2008 incident in which French troops opened fire on a bus near Kabul and wounded eight children, for example, and a tragedy two months later when a U.S. squad riddled another bus with gunfire, killing four passengers and wounding 11 others.

We knew that U.S. and allied special forces units were authorized to assassinate senior Taliban or al-Qaida figures. The leaked documents sketch the activities of the secret “kill or capture” unit named Task Force 373—and in the process, according to The Guardian, “raise fundamental questions about the legality of the killings ... and also pragmatically about the impact of a tactic which is inherently likely to kill, injure and alienate the innocent bystanders whose support the coalition craves.” ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/its_no_secret_afghanistan_is_a_quagmire_20100726/

[stray cat]

1. It has certainly been no secret - anyone paying any attention at all knew the situation

[BootinUp]

2. I guess Kerry hasn't been paying attention.

Or he was just playing politics against the Administration.

[doc03]

3. How does a parent or spouse accept their

loved one died or was disabled for life for nothing? It is such a shame.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Wutta left bagger this guy is

:sarcasm:

K&R