generalspeaking

Defeat Malign Theistic Ideology?

In the hopes of eventually extricating themselves from a situation they are deeply mired in, there are times when, as distasteful as it seems, one must meet with those whom one has set out to defeat. In the course of which interaction it becomes apparent that the group one has set out to defeat proves to be resistible to defeat. Their ability to resist a greater strength than their own by the force of their ideology, not their physical prowess proves too great an impediment to plans to overthrow their influence.

A classified National Intelligence Estimate delivered to the White House has come to the conclusion that despite all the optimistic prognostications and self-congratulatory messages coming out of the top echelons of the U.S. military, the Taliban have been resistant to defeat. Their leaders have been picked off, one by one, by determined American forays, by superior numbers, by the use of unmanned, armed drones operated at a vast remove through technological means, but they are speedily replaced.

There does not appear to be any dearth of dedicated Islamists groomed and prepared to do battle to the death through suicide missions as and when required, to deliver the message that the Taliban have no intention of giving up their determination to retake Afghanistan. The government of Hamid Karzai, put in place and materially supported by the United Nations and NATO will be incapable of defending itself with the complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops in 2014.

The current government of Afghanistan, despite all the international funding poured into infrastructure, into government institutional training, has been ineffectual and uncompromisingly corrupt. It is on life support thanks to the humanitarian dedication of non-government agencies. U.S. intelligence has identified two major drawbacks in the U.S. administration's plans for Afghanistan to be able to look after its own affairs and effectively counteract the Taliban.

One just happens to be the ineffectiveness of a government whose influence is located in its major cities and does not expand to include its far-flung provinces. One which is so thoroughly corrupt it is hamstrung by the ambitions of its officials to feather their nests to the exclusion of the country's furtherance. The other is the invincible certainty that Pakistan will never surrender its plans for hegemony in Afghanistan and its ongoing support and sheltering of the Taliban.

"It's all about safe haven. That has to be solved", said one American official. Well, how to solve it? This is Pakistan's agenda. All the money that the U.S. has poured from its dwindling treasury into the rapacious hands of the Pakistan military, a military which continues to be infiltrated by Islamists and which is dedicated to aiding and abetting the Taliban has only encouraged Pakistan. U.S. demands of Pakistan, that it stop sheltering the Taliban, that it take seriously its pledge to fight terror is a failure.

It's a tragic-comedy, in fact. For Pakistan is terror central. It breeds those who are willing and more than willing to dedicate their lives to fomenting terror. Pakistan, a nuclear-armed Islamist state whose devout hatred of India informs its agenda, is the living embodiment of terrorism, with its jihadi training camps and its vicious relations between civil authority and its ISI and military.

As for the Taliban. Well, the U.S. is on track, negotiating with the Taliban in a futile attempt to secure some kind of agreement that would allow it to depart with face saved. We've seen this scenario before. Vietnam comes to mind, and so does Iraq. The Taliban is happy enough to sit down to negotiations with the U.S. and with the Afghan government. It is the former who will have to concede, for the Taliban will concede nothing.

They will come to power, they will once again control Afghanistan. A fierce, indomitable ideology of religious intolerance and fanaticism cannot be fought or controlled with all the smart technology in the world, or with the foreign armies of foreign occupiers. Afghanistan is a malign morass, and it will remain such.

The people of Afghanistan deserve much, much better. The design for much better is simply not there.

Labels: Afghanistan, Islamism, Terrorism, Traditions, Tragedy, United States

posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 13, 2012