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Fred Thompson: Who Lost Afghanistan?

By John Batchelor on November 21, 2009 at 10:30 AM in Current Affairs

We’re sorry that so many comments were lost yesterday, but that always happens during server upgrades. We hope you’ll re-post many of your sage observations.

Karzai Rots.
Fred Thompson addressed his radio audience (above) with a concise and entirely accurate measure of the Obama administration’s incompetence with regard Afghanistan.

POTUS has stalled and manipulated the McChrystal request for additional resources, and this peculiar commander-in-chief conduct has exasperated the public and puzzled the politicians.

Why did POTUS call Afghanistant a “necessary war” as recently as August and as early as March of this year? Why has he allowed the soon to be eight strategic reviews to linger in the headlines? Why the clumsiness and tardiness?

There is an explanation. What Fred Thompson says is correct. We have lost Afghanistan. Lost it to whom? Not the Taliban. Not to Karzai, whose sour second inauguration this news cycle was attended in a surprise by HRC as if the Secretary of State was calling on the rotting regime of an enemy. Not to Pakistan.

We have lost it to the Wahhabists. It is the House of al-Saud who bought Afghanistan twenty years ago, and it is the House of al-Saud that has now renewed its lease on the Pashtuns. The north and west of Afghanistan is in the hands of the Tajiks, and they are indifferent to the Wahhabists and the Saudis. Only the Pashtuns of AfPakia and the Northwest Provinces are impressed by the Wahhabist cash and temperament.

Saudi Arabia has repurchased its lease on the Pashtuns. The status quo ante is to keep the Taliban attacking the Kabul government, aiming to reconvert the provinces to Sharia law. Meanwhile the Taliban from the Northwest Provinces will keep on agitating for their independence from the Pakistan army.

None of this has anything to do with stability in Kabul or good government in Islamabad. It is not about democracy and transparency. We have lost Afghanistan to the savages who never really lost it to us.

Did POTUS lose Afghanistan? Sure, that is, it is his watch, and he talked of a new and smart way during the campaign, and he spoke of Afghanistan as critical to his foreign policy. POTUS believed the false-tongued and deeply insane King Abdullah when he visited with him last June; he believed that the Saudis could write a check and the Taliban would obey a three-dimensional chess game that only Mr. Spock could solve; he believed that once the Taliban warlords took money, they would behave as stake-holders in Cook County real estate.

All rookie mistakes, all avoidable, all ruination now. The worst damage is political here in the West. The Pashtuns knew it would end with the Pashtuns back in control of their mountains. The question now is can POTUS retain control of his administration and the Congress as the price of losing the war comes home.

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  • TeakWoodKite

    From New Hampsters site Partizane;

    Dan Toole was speaking about UNICEF’s annual report The State of the World’s Children,

    Toole said Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world: 257 deaths for every 1,000 live births. He also said a lack of security prevents polio and measles vaccine campaigns and decreases the number of children attending schools, especially girls. 317 schools have been destroyed by the Taliban in the past year, he said, killing 124 people.

    .

  • NomNomNom

    looks like there weren’t enough yea-sayers
    SCR$W THE WAR FOR PROFIT IN AFGHANISTAN

    • NomNomNom

      even if we fielded 300,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, we would not win the war: taking Afghanistan is not the same thing as holding it. We would have to permanently station and supply probably 200,000 troops there. We do not presently have the resources to do this, mostly because our citizens have been robbed blind and our economy annihilated by the same freaking people who are running and profiting from these illegitimate wars.
      more to the point, who the f#ck cares if we lose: we have no business being there in the first place. we have killed far more civilians than combatants, and of the combatants, we have killed more people attempting to protect their country from our invading armies rather than any real threats.
      the wars, all 4 of them in which we are presently engaged including Afghanistan, are evil and unnecessary. we certainly had the resources to protect our nation at home.
      I have had more than enough of No Country Without One of Our Military Bases Left Behind, and paying for these bases, and most of all for my money being used by those profiting from these wars to put blood on my hands.
      And if we’re going to talk about the freaking House of Saud, one can find it’s influence a h#ll of a lot closer to home.

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  • carlaforhillary

    I would say that on Bush’s watch, the war in Afghansitan almost seemed like a non-issue,but Bush wasn’t winning the war either. Obama brought it back to life, and then proceeded to totally muck it up.

    As we have been hearing, Obama is waiting until the public tires of the war, and wants our troops home. Then Obama can act like he is doing what the American people want.

    The only problem is that most people can see through Obama. Even though his administration is not transparent, he is.

  • I’m a Linda too

    Wow, this post lost many comments too.

    Let’s see if I can remember what I wrote.

    Snap! The reality of Obama’s actions.

    And, let’s not forget his new bold plan announced in March, not giving what was needed prior to, or after his new plan.

    Just increased Drone attacks, killing and angering Afghanistani’s.

    This is Obama’s own man made disaster.

  • **== SUPER GALT **==

    It’s beyond shameful and veritably criminal that the PiC (Poser in Chief) Obysmal via indecision is playing politics with the lives of our troops, our national security and foreign policy interests. He’s had military recommendations collecting dust and developing mold on his desk since August. How many more lives have to be lost before he makes a decision?

  • http://! stodgie

    the fact that bush screwed up and afghanistan is a hard nut to crack is no excuse for not bringing this blovating, chicken of a potus to task for his wayward, backstabbing, fearful conduct as president.

    the results of losing afghanistan should by now be very clear to all. it is call 9/11 and now we are on that trail again. there are no easy answeres but heck obama isn’t even trying. give me a braek

  • http://! stodgie

    the fact that bush screwed up and afghanistan is a hard nut to crack is no excuse for not bringing this blovating, chicken of a potus to task for his wayward, backstabbing, fearful conduct as president.

    the results of losing afghanistan should by now be very clear to all. it is call 9/11 and now we are on that trail again. there are no easy answers but heck obama isn’t even trying. give me a break.

  • Smart-Jazz-Just Me

    Fred Thompson? Please where was he as Senator Thompson when we (AND THE REPUBLICANS) shafted Afghanistan and invaded Iraq?

    John Batchelor… shame on you for not portraying both sides of the COIN on this one.

    Maybe you should ask Pat Lang to join your show and get his take. That would be a interesting show.. Two buds Larry Johnson and Pat Lang talking about both sides of the COIN on Afghanistan….

    • **== SUPER GALT **==

      I’m interested in the truth, no matter who says it, even if they were wrong in the past about something else.