Why is Afghanistan deteriorating and what can we do about it?

Okay I will attempt to describe the reasons why Afghanistan is becoming more violent and how I think we should deal with them. I welcome critique of my strategy as well as suggestions and alternative strategies.

1. Insurgents/Taliban/Terrorists are funded by the Opium trade. Opium is grown by farmers and the enemies buy it off them and then smuggle it out of the country and sell it. Plan: 1. Promote alternative forms of income for Opium farmers and provide them a market for other crops. 2. Don't come in and attack the farmers- this will alienate them and could cause them to support the Taliban. Instead focus on attacking the drug traffickers.

2. Insurgents/Taliban/Terrorists have a virtual safehaven inside Pakistan. Plan: We can't go in and invade Pakistan- that would be disastrous and the terrain would be too difficult, this would result in high casualties and would destabilize Pakistan and trigger anti-American sentiment. We should use airstrikes and sometimes special ops troops to attack Terrorist leaders inside Pakistan and to strike terror training camps.

3. Iran allegedly arms the Taliban (they don't like each other, the U.S. is a common enemy). Plan: This is not sufficient reason to attack Iran, that would just make things worse. (the only reason to attack them would be if they were about to get a nuke or if they attacked the U.S. or an ally). I would use strict unilateral and multilateral sanctions against Iran in order to hurt their economy and weaken their purchasing power so that they can't afford to give weapons to the Taliban. In the meanwhile we may have to just deal with this.

A Taliban commander surrendered and they have killed a few others over the past few weeks.

I dunno. Sure, Pakistan is our ally but I doubt they are doing much from their end. And they could prolly help a great deal if they wanted.

Or we can just increase the number of troops to the numbers we had after 9/11, before we redirected most of them to Iraq. The Surge worked in Iraq, there's no reason it shouldn't there.

Or we can just increase the number of troops to the numbers we had after 9/11, before we redirected most of them to Iraq. The Surge worked in Iraq, there's no reason it shouldn't there.

elblanquito_81

Ah but, there's no oil for Americans in Afganistan.

Or we can just increase the number of troops to the numbers we had after 9/11, before we redirected most of them to Iraq. The Surge worked in Iraq, there's no reason it shouldn't there.

elblanquito_81

[QUOTE="elblanquito_81"]

Or we can just increase the number of troops to the numbers we had after 9/11, before we redirected most of them to Iraq. The Surge worked in Iraq, there's no reason it shouldn't there.

death1505921

Ah but, there's no oil for Americans in Afganistan.

I wonder though, has there even been any exploration done to see if there is oil over there?

[QUOTE="elblanquito_81"]

Or we can just increase the number of troops to the numbers we had after 9/11, before we redirected most of them to Iraq. The Surge worked in Iraq, there's no reason it shouldn't there.

whipassmt

Added on to that, the Afghani terrorists are a bit tougher, more well-trained than the ones in Iraq.

i am from afghanistan..i;ve been there a couple of times and met with alot of people....because of this decades of war and backstabbing and corruption alot of people have given up..they are just too tired....it's too much....im not trying to show off but my father tried like many others to change it but suddenly "died" with a group of othere soon-to-be pioneers....sad but true

[QUOTE="elblanquito_81"]

Or we can just increase the number of troops to the numbers we had after 9/11, before we redirected most of them to Iraq. The Surge worked in Iraq, there's no reason it shouldn't there.

death1505921

Ah but, there's no oil for Americans in Afganistan.

Hehe...You're so witty.

There's terrorists who want to slit our throats.

The answer depends on who you ask. I reckon that the Afghan people would say that " the 'deterioration' will cease when all of the Infidel armies have left the land(s) of the Prophet (Peace be Upon Him)... "

Others would say Afghanistan will stabilize "when we control the lucrative heroin supply and have the 'natives' sufficiently pacified to the extent that we can safely run a pipeline through this sucker without having to worry about it being blown up every time we turn our backs for a second."

The answer depends on who you ask. I reckon that the Afghan people would say that " the 'deterioration' will cease when all of the Infidel armies have left the land(s) of the Prophet (Peace be Upon Him)... "

67gt500

...read my post...

[QUOTE="67gt500"]

The answer depends on who you ask. I reckon that the Afghan people would say that " the 'deterioration' will cease when all of the Infidel armies have left the land(s) of the Prophet (Peace be Upon Him)... "

Angakua

...read my post...

I have read your post. And I am truly sorry for your loss. The loss of hope, dignity and life in Afghanistan should be unacceptable to every person on Earth.

It's noteworthy that the deterioration in Afghanistan was the result of the unintended consequences of the surge in Iraq - the Al Qaeda group are shifting their focus toward that country so that's why the situation is getting worse there.CynicalPundit

Exactly. Now we're going to surge Afghanistan and Iraq will deteriorate. It's a sick, self-perpetuating process that's never going to end.

Afghanistan does not represent any US interest other than retaliation propaganda.ConfessiBear

We're not much better than the terrorists. We just wanted blood, nothing more.

Okay I will attempt to describe the reasons why Afghanistan is becoming more violent and how I think we should deal with them. I welcome critique of my strategy as well as suggestions and alternative strategies.

1. Insurgents/Taliban/Terrorists are funded by the Opium trade. Opium is grown by farmers and the enemies buy it off them and then smuggle it out of the country and sell it. Plan: 1. Promote alternative forms of income for Opium farmers and provide them a market for other crops. 2. Don't come in and attack the farmers- this will alienate them and could cause them to support the Taliban. Instead focus on attacking the drug traffickers. This strategy hasn't worked over here in our own back yard... why should we reasonably assume that it would work in someone else's? Remember the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results...

2. Insurgents/Taliban/Terrorists have a virtual safehaven inside Pakistan. Plan: We can't go in and invade Pakistan- that would be disastrous and the terrain would be too difficult, this would result in high casualties and would destabilize Pakistan and trigger anti-American sentiment. We should use airstrikes and sometimes special ops troops to attack Terrorist leaders inside Pakistan and to strike terror training camps. Sounds like someone's been playing waaaaaay too much SOCOM... :P EDIT: Seriously, though, Pakistan is a sovereign country... and they have 'the Bomb'. Striking at them, even surgically, is not a good idea...

3. Iran allegedly arms the Taliban (they don't like each other, the U.S. is a common enemy). Plan: This is not sufficient reason to attack Iran, that would just make things worse. (the only reason to attack them would be if they were about to get a nuke or if they attacked the U.S. or an ally). I would use strict unilateral and multilateral sanctions against Iran in order to hurt their economy and weaken their purchasing power so that they can't afford to give weapons to the Taliban. In the meanwhile we may have to just deal with this.There we go... Through our society's insatiable lust for money, power, fuel and drugs we helped create this God-forsaken mess, now we need to be responsible little boys and girls and world leaders and help with the clean up...

whipassmt

Or we can just increase the number of troops to the numbers we had after 9/11, before we redirected most of them to Iraq. The Surge worked in Iraq, there's no reason it shouldn't there.

elblanquito_81

I take it that you're going to advocate cutting deals with the taliban groups. In case you don't know, the success of the surge in Iraq was largely due to U.S.'s deals with the sunni militia groups (Awakening Councils) and Sadr's ceasefire, which led to a large reduction in violence in Iraq so don't get the impression that the extra addition of troops played a role in the reduction of violence because it is not.

2. Insurgents/Taliban/Terrorists have a virtual safehaven inside Pakistan. Plan: We can't go in and invade Pakistan- that would be disastrous and the terrain would be too difficult, this would result in high casualties and would destabilize Pakistan and trigger anti-American sentiment. We should use airstrikes and sometimes special ops troops to attack Terrorist leaders inside Pakistan and to strike terror training camps.whipassmt

The U.S. ceased carrying out airstrikes inside Pakistan after its missile killed 11 Pakistani soldiers. Since Pakistan is already reeling from the deaths of its 11 soldiers, any new U.S. airstrikes inside Pakistani territory would have severe political repercussions for the U.S.-Pakistan relations. Therefore, it's not worth the risk.

3. Iran allegedly arms the Taliban (they don't like each other, the U.S. is a common enemy). Plan: This is not sufficient reason to attack Iran, that would just make things worse. (the only reason to attack them would be if they were about to get a nuke or if they attacked the U.S. or an ally). I would use strict unilateral and multilateral sanctions against Iran in order to hurt their economy and weaken their purchasing power so that they can't afford to give weapons to the Taliban. In the meanwhile we may have to just deal with this.whipassmt

I find it hard to believe that Iran is arming its arch-foe to kill the coalition troops and I disagree with the notion that "the enemy of my enemy..." applys to Iran (they almost went to war with the taliban after killing their Iranian diplomats). In fact, according to the reports from NATO and Afghan forces, the talibans were buying the weapons on the black market out of the opium money. NATO even dismiss the allegations that Iran is supplying arms to the taliban. And considering the fact that the Karzai government is friendly with Iran, the last thing Iran would want to ally with the taliban is to jeopardize its friendly relationship with the Karzai government and Iran needs them to counteract the taliban's influence as it posed a threat to the Iranian regime.