Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Key is in overhaul of thinking and policy

July 16, 2008

Key is in overhaul of thinking and policy


THE guerrilla assault that killed nine American soldiers on Sunday at a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan reaffirms that the main front in the US-led "war against terror" is not Iraq. Indeed, Iraq should never have figured in the "war against terror" because the Saddam Hussein regime was never involved in any anti-US attack anywhere in the world, least of all the Sept.11 assaults in New York and Washington.
Iraq was turned into a playground for anti-US militants as the direct result of the US invasion and occupation of that country in implementation of an agenda that had little do with the "war against terror." The repeated US emphasis that an American withdrawal from Iraq would be a victory for "international terrorists" is simple deception aimed at justifying the military presence there.
The ongoing guerrilla war there is Iraq-specific and the Iraqis waging it do not have an agenda beyond the borders of their country. They are fighting a battle to end the American military presence in their country. Their is no reason to argue that Iraq would pose a direct or indirect threat to US national security.
Even as Washington hawks continue to insist that Iraq is the number one priority in the "war against terror," the insurgency in Afghanistan is growing beyond containment.
Many in the US have woken up to the reality that in his frenzy to gain control of Iraq, US President George W Bush did not maintain his focus on Afghanistan and the problem of militancy there before moving vital military resources to the Iraq front.
The biggest blunder the US made in Afghanistan was to convince itself that the problem could be solved through military means. It did not give attention to assisting the people of Afghanistan to improve their daily life while it continued its war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
As a result, most Afghans are worse off than they were before the US military action against their country in 2001 and are pushed into the arms of militant recruiters.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appears to have realised the nature of the problem. He is calling for a double-pronged approach to tackle the issue — an intensified military campaign supported by better intelligence gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to Afghanistan. That approach might or might not work, but the real key lies in a fundamental shift in Washington's thinking and policy and a better understanding of the people of this part of the world.