Sen. Lieberman believes we can make Afghanistan a ‘quagmire’ for Al Qaeda.
by Jerry Gordon, The Iconoclast, Feb. 6, 2009
Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-CT)
Just yesterday, we lauded both Lieberman and Senate Republican colleague Jonny Isakson of Georgia in getting the Senate to pass a $15,000 homebuyer tax credit program.
But in all friendships there are also times when we must respectfully disagree.
Today’s Wall Street Journal had an op ed by Senator Lieberman entitled: “Afghanistan Will Be a Quagmire for al Qaeda.” The tag line was ”the war on terror will end once we’ve empowered the Muslim majority to stand up against extremists.”
Lieberman appears to be basing these platitudes on the results of the Surge strategy developed by General Petreaus that was successful in Iraq. He had vigorously supported the Surge strategy in Iraq despite criticism from the media and Senate colleagues and was vindicated. Now, the Obama Administration and Pentagon Defense Secretary Gates, the Joint staff and General Petreaus of CENTCOM want to develop a surge strategy for the big push in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan against al Qaeda.
Lieberman in his Wall Street Journal op ed cites several types of “surges” hopefully directed at achieving success in Afghanistan:
- First and most importantly, we need a surge in the strategic coherence of the war effort. As we learned in Iraq, success in counterinsurgency requires integrating military and civilian operations into a seamless and unified strategy. In Afghanistan, we do not have in place a nationwide, civil-military campaign plan to defeat the insurgency.
- Second, we need a surge in civilian capacity. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul needs to be transformed and expanded, with the necessary resources and the explicit direction to work side by side with the military at every level. In particular, the civilian presence must be ramped up outside our embassy — at the provincial, district and village levels, embedding nonmilitary experts with new military units as they move in.
- Third, we need to help surge the Afghan war effort. This means expanding the Afghan army to 200,000 or more, and ensuring they are properly equipped, paid and mentored.
The U.S. needs to take tough action to combat the pervasive corruption that is destroying the Afghan government and fueling the insurgency. This requires a systemic response, not just threatening specific leaders on an ad hoc basis. Specifically, we must invest comprehensively in Afghan institutions, both from top-down and bottom-up.
- Fourth, we need a surge in our regional strategy. As many have observed, almost all of Afghanistan’s neighbors are active in some way inside that country. Some of this activity is positive — for instance, aid and investment — but much of it is malign, providing support to insurgent groups. We must help “harden” Afghanistan by strengthening its institutions at both the national and local levels, empowering Afghans to stop their neighbors from using their country as a geopolitical chessboard.
The U.S. can help by beginning to explore the possibility of a bilateral defense pact with Kabul, which would include explicit security guarantees.
- Fifth, success in Afghanistan requires a sustained surge of American political commitment to the mission. Fortunately, and unlike Iraq, the Afghan war still commands bipartisan support in Congress and among the American people. But as more troops are deployed to Afghanistan and casualties rise, this consensus will be tested.
Indeed, there are already whispers on both the left and the right that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires that we should abandon any hope of nation-building there, additional forces sent there will only get bogged down in a quagmire.
Unfortunately, Sen. Lieberman presents a panglossian view of how we can defeat an elusive enemy in a theater in which corruption backed by vast hoards of drug money make it virtually impossible. (Continue Reading this Article)
This brings the Jewish people right back to the role that Lieberman and McCain played in the destruction of Yugoslavia when Lieberman as part of his anti communist politics was a strong supporter of Islamofascism.
One of these he supported fully was Elija Izetbegovic who was also a bosom buddy of Hajj Amin el Husseini who organized the Holocaust in the Balkans, a wanted war criminal
I will write on this development on my site http://www.4international.wordpress.com by Monday
PS both Izetbegovic who Lieberman supported and Husseini were members of the Muslim Brotherhood and died as such
Comment by Felix Quigley — February 7, 2009 @ 5:09 am
Joe Lieberman is a shitty court Jew whose primary loyalty is to that and those who would in the end destroy Israel and or at the very least not be at all saddened by our disappearance.
Comment by yamit82 — February 7, 2009 @ 8:30 am
So what would you have us do? Pull out of Afghanistan?
Comment by Laura — February 7, 2009 @ 2:06 pm
Then you support the left wing view that there is in fact no military solution to terrorism.
Comment by Laura — February 7, 2009 @ 2:07 pm
Laura, there is a military solution to terrorism, there is no diplomatic solution. These crazies have only one thing in mind, the destruction of Israel and U.S., not necessarily in that order. They are not about to listen to anyone and I mean anyone, are you listening Pres. Obama. I didn’t hear you.
Comment by rongrand — February 7, 2009 @ 2:24 pm
What about supporting the democratic forces in Iran? Wouldn’t that throw international terrorists into disarray?
Comment by neilc — February 7, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
Neil, I am with you. I have said over the years that to avoid major calateral damage we should work with the good guys in over throwing the bad guys. Then I recall Jimmy Carter tell us this is bad. He is in left field of course. He still believes Hamas is a political action group. I think he smokes peanut butter, the bad kind.
Comment by rongrand — February 7, 2009 @ 2:56 pm
There is no reason why America should be in Afghanistan, It has no strategic value to America and the west. The Taliban is not a global threat to anyone and cannot be defeated by America. Unless America wants to do there what Russia did to Chechnya. The Taliban are not strangers or invaders from without they are part and parcel of Afghanistan and in spite of what our propagandists tell us they are popular like Hizbolla and Hamas are popular in the relevant geographies. if I were to pick a country that I least wanted to fight in , I would pick Afghanistan. It isn’t even a real country outside of Kabul but tribes of fierce born to fight warriors whose loyalties are totally tribal and regard American and western troops rightly as foreign invaders. In short like the Russians, America is going to get her ass kicked like the Russians and the British before them. They will kill hundreds of thousands of Afghanis and still lose and for what purpose? Best to declare victory and go home to cheering stupid Americans who hate their soldiers and hate losers even more.
The Fundamentalist Christian regime in America has used 9/11 as an excuse to nearly wipe Afghanistan off the map. The 15 million Pathans of Afghanistan - although Moslems today - are clearly of Jewish origin from the Assyrian exile of the Northern tribes. By accusing the Afghanis of harboring Bin Laden, Fundamentalist Christian USA declared the Pathans free game. In my humble opinion, this is another tragic event in a long series of Christian murder crusades. Afghanistan - and particularly the Pathans - make The Christian fundamentalists quiver from freight.
The Pathans are proud of several things - one, they’ve never assimilated; two, they acknowledge their roots from the tribes of Israel (some claim to be Benjaminites while others claim to be Menashe; three, although they are offically Moslems, they wear a fringed garment that resembles tzitzit, keep their heads covered, observe the Sabbath, and circumcise their sons at exactly 8 days old. The Pathans are fiercely brave and totally committed, having succeeded to drive the Russian Army out of Afghanistan. The Pathans have totally frustrated the Christian missionaries. One major group of USA missionaries who have completely struck out in Afghanistan writes, “Since their entire way of life is opposed to change, the Pathan present one of the strongest challenges to the Christian Church today. Much intercession is needed if they are to be successfully reached with the Gospel.”
I support Jews even if today they are Muslim as tomorrow or sometime in the future not too distant they will return the faith of Abraham. Another 15 million Jews would put us another playing field, especially after we lost most of the American Jews.
Comment by yamit82 — February 7, 2009 @ 3:32 pm
[...] Lieberman presents a panglossian view of how we can defeat an elusive enemy in a theater in which corruption backed by vast hoards of drug money make it virtually impossible. Here is our assessment of how daunting a task …Continue Reading… [...]
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