Top US Commander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus reportedly responded with “astonishment and disappointment” today after learning that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had criticized the US war effort, calling for them to scale back the offensive and end the practice of night raids, which has killed large numbers of Afghan civilians.
“For Karzai to go this way, and at this particular stage, is really undermining Petraeus’ endeavors,” noted one diplomat. Petraeus reportedly told Afghan officials that Karzai’s criticism was harming the war effort and making the US occupation “untenable.”
The US has regularly clashed with the Afghan President, and while Karzai has regularly condemned the attacks which have killed civilians he has been largely mum on the overall strategy in recent days, apparently indicating no opposition to the US notion of building “permanent bases” in his country.
Though Petraeus was said to be furious during his “warnings” to the Afghan government, officials denied earlier reports that the general had threatened to resign. Petraeus took control of the war effort just months ago, replacing Gen. Stanley McChrystal. As McChrystal had been very obviously more concerned about civilian killings than Petraeus, it seems the new general’s policies are in no small measure a part of this public condemnation.
But they aren’t entirely out of the blue. President Karzai’s call to “scale back” in many ways reflects the comments made by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in their own report on Afghanistan just days ago, though their concerns were obviously not for Afghan civilian deaths but rather the massive cost and unwinnability of the conflict.
The Mayor is not following orders of his masters and is either not obedient or following the script to the letter and providing illusion of independent thought.
Oh, what horror! A THREAT TO WAR!
Oh, woe, Montaigne You must be some sort of peacemonger!
We have been fighting and killing indiscriminately the Afghan people that have never attacked us for 9 years. The 9/11 plotters were all Arabs, and they plotted the 9/11 attack in Germany and the U.S. – where they were living on student visas. But the U.S. needed a war to test new weapons and to test our military efficiency and preparedness since the Vietnam war. And Afghanistan was a defenseless country, as was Iraq, and the U.S. used them as real battlefields with the certainty that our casualties will be minimal, while the information obtained from these wars will be invaluable. The Iraqis and the Afghans, therefore, became the guinea pigs of our Military and Industrial Complex. And as the former Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal revealed, Barack Obama was intimidated by the generals in the war room to stop the war. And that proved the prophecy of Dwight Eisenhower who, in his address to the nation after his 1956 election as president, said that "the U.S. government will be unable to control the Military and Industrial Complex on some future day." That day came in the year 2001, and still continues without any purpose.
Worse yet, the British Army Chief of Staff, Gen Sir David Richard, said yesterday that "the western allies will never win the war in Afghanistan, or the war against Al Qaeda, because it is not a conventional war." (The Independent, Nov. 15, 2010) Why then the war continues? Because Obama is not a real leader like Charles De Gaulle, who issued an order Friday ordering the war against Algerian independence to stop on Monday! Obama is functioning just as a clerk of the U.S. Military and Industrial Complex, and that brings again up the debate that many historians have pondered: "Is the U.S. president a leader, or a clerk?" Obama may brag that he is the Commander-in Chief, but since he pursuing a war that is unwinnable -as the British Chief of Staff contends, he is either a clueless clerk, or too intimidated to confront the U.S. generals – as Gen. Mchrystal revealed to the press – before his dismissal.
The longest war, therefore, is neither right, not winnable, but it is a bonanza for the $ billions it feeds the U.S. military and industrial complex – the actual power brokers in Washington, D.C. But in the recent elections, the Americans showed Obama their disdain by abandoning his Democratic Party. And on his recent trip to the Asian Pacific Conference, Obama lost on all issues he pursued – a clear indication that he lost his initial luster and influence both at home an abroad. Now he looks more confused and lost, and the eventual loss of the war in Afghanistan will close the chapter of Obama's weak and clueless tenure as a president- but not before thousands more of Afghan civilians die for nothing. Nikos Retsos, retired professor
Like your comment.
"Worse yet, the British Army Chief of Staff, Gen Sir David Richard, said yesterday that "the western allies will never win the war in Afghanistan, or the war against Al Qaeda, because it is not a conventional war.""
Don't worry. We'll deal with the British, after we deal with Yemen, and Somalia, and Iran, and Sweden if they don't give up Julian Assange. But we'll get around to those war undermining bastards!
President Obama won’t save us from General Petraeus and his Afghanistan quagmire war, but President Karzai might.
the nerve of this guy karzai…..he thinks he runs the place….maybe he needs bigger "bags o cash'…..betrayus for prez in 2012
The complaint is, as I understand that Karzai's comment is making "US occupation untennable.."
Is there ANY occupation that is anything other then UNTENNABLE? He actually believes that an occupation can be a completely normal thing, for as long as the occupied population pretends that they are free, and are blind and insensible of innocent victims and their hopeless existence. I do not believe that even in Star Wars fiction the Empire cherrished the illusion of being liked. Proving that the reality is always stranger then fiction.
It is, in fact, America's occupation that is undermining peace.
It's time to declare victory and come home. Bring the goddamn troops home!
Oh, dear, the Puppet is speaking out, questioning his Masters. This will never do. The CIA needs to take him out for being UnAmerican.
If this goes on, people everywhere will speak out against the Warmongering Yanks, bring into question their Imperialism.
No more, I say!
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