War

Afghan police woman shoots American civilian advisor dead.

Washington power couple demand we stay in Afghanistan longer. This article is clueless, not the Kagans.

"But the op-ed also demonstrates that the Kagans continue to be clueless over the question they raise in their title: “why” we Americans are in Afghanistan at all and they fail to demonstrate any understanding of how outside forces can impact on a limited military presence’s viability in a foreign land."

They're not mistaken at all. They know we are in Afghanistan to enrich them, their cronies, thousands of military suppliers and corporations who will ultimately control Afghanistan's oil and mineral wealth at below market price because US props up a puppet government in Afghanistan. It's the people who think we are in Afghanistan for other reasons, like terrorism or patriotism, who are clueless.

"They make the same mistakes in their predictions of the likely course of developments as they did regarding Iraq. Like the Iraqis, the Afghans will have a say in their future and might not like the idea of continuing to grant legal immunity to a foreign occupying force. Nor does it appear that the perpetually rebuilding Afghan army will ever be battle ready, meaning that the American soldiers will become trapped in their bases, hostages to Afghan internal politics. Like it or not local sentiment does matter, even to a superpower, and it can serve to derail the best laid plans of the Kagans and Joint Chiefs of Staff."

This is accurate, except they aren't mistakes. They're lies. The Kagans know it. The Bush-Obama administration knows it. The brass knows it. They just don't care. Their goals have nothing to do with nation-building, terrorism, al Qaeda or national security. They're goal is to control Afghanistan's oil and mineral wealth at below market prices. War is a racket.

"And what of the terrorist threat itself? By the government’s own reckoning in its annual report on global terrorism, the al-Qaeda remnant in Afghanistan-Pakistan is a spent force that has been largely decapitated, suffers from poor morale and is only locally and intermittently funded. Al-Qaeda affiliated groups in places like Yemen and the Maghreb are far more formidable, but even including the threat they pose the Obama Administration is reported to be considering an end to the military-based approach against them that has been in place since 2001, replacing it with conventional intelligence and law enforcement. So why maintain the equivalent of two U.S. Army divisions in an unstable country where the local populace is far from friendly just to “fight against” a threat that approaches insignificance. Obviously there is no reason to do so."

Of course there is a reason: to further enrich the plutocrats.This is the second article attacking the Kagans I've read in a week. It sounds like somebody with more power is trying to oust them.