Invasion Afghanistan

Planning a trip to Afghanistan in the near future?

Artillery in Badghis province Afghanistan 1999

Has this been well thought through?

Of course we have to take action, considered action, not heat of the moment action.

Apply lessons learned. Afghanistan was the Soviets Vietnam.

Don't GO and fight in Afghanistan, it is not like Iraq, not the land, especially not the people.

The terrain is not friendly to modern equipment of war, it is not a flat desert. It is made for ambushes and guerrilla activity, as are the Afghans.

Afghanistan's history is one of invasion after invasion. When there are no invaders to fight, the Afghans fight amongst themselves, this continues today. We will be seen as invaders.

Can we really search every camel and tent, every mud house and animal shelter?

What will we do with Afghanistan when we get it?

It would be possible to control the cities and towns but not the country side. Does this sound familiar?

Pakistan cannot keep its promise of supporting action against Afghanistan. More than one faction will vehemently oppose this. The Pakistan government would have to engage in massive repression to stop a revolution. Pakistan is an ethnically divided nation state that could easily plunge into civil war. It can no more close the 1500Km border with Afghanistan than the border with Vietnam and Cambodia could be closed 30 years ago.

Do we really want allies like Pakistan and Uzbekistan? I don't think so. We will pay a price for this later, or more to the point, the populations of our new allies will pay the price of dictatorship and repression.

In the end the result will be, we will probably not catch Osama bin Laden, what ever organisation he has will melt away and resurface somewhere else, the civilian population will suffer a war, the culture will be eroded, human rights violations will occur, far worse than the country is now experiencing.

This sounds like a loose / loose situation!

So what do we do?

Yes, that is the question, isn't it!

Richard Rowat

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Last modified: 01/06/08