The latest in the Pentagon’s twice-yearly reports to Congress continue to praise the putative successes of the Afghan War, successes that one would’ve figured should’ve added up to some tangible accomplishment on the ground by now.
But while cheering the war in and of itself, the Pentagon report faulted Pakistan, insisting the nation is constantly “undermining” the occupation by allowing “sanctuaries for Afghan-focused insurgents.”
Pakistan and the US regularly trade condemnations on the “sanctuaries” front, as while Pakistan has mostly been unable to unseat militants from the tribal areas, the NATO occupation forces have been no more successful with Pakistani Taliban factions in the southeast.
Pakistani President Zardari has continued to play up his cooperation with NATO and Afghanistan, but with both the US and the Karzai government constantly finding fault with them, the cooperation doesn’t seem to be paying dividends in improved relations.
I think the only appropriate response is 'duh'. I'm not sure if I'm more shocked that they had to pay for a 'report' to figure this out, or that its taken them 10 years to figure this out.
Various neighbors have backed factions in Afghanistan dating back to the 'great game' days in the 19th century. Pakistan has considered it their national interest to make sure that at least the regions that border on their country are control by factions that are friendly to them for decades, probably since the founding of Pakistan. Thus, the Pakistanis have always backed leaders from the Pashtun clans to at least control that region and in their eyes, hopefully control all of Pakistan. These Pashtun leaders are now what has largely been re-branded as 'the taliban' in the American corporate propaganda outlets.
Thus, Pakistan has been doing this for decades. Did they really have to pay for a 'report', and who knows how much wasted work to discover this? And did they really have to be fighting a war in Afghanistan for a decade before they figured it out?
As it ever was, "military intelligence" turns out to be an oxymoron. People who are old enough to remember MASH can probably quess that Col. Flag was in charge of this study.
Your excellent work here is much appreciated.