[A-List] Fw: [pakhtu] Jane's: Sinking into the Afghan swamp

["Tariq Mahmood" <zaogir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Americans are fast recreating the same phenomenon of lost order and
peace in Afghanistan that ushered in Taliban. They may be welcomed again.

----- Original Message -----
From: "M. Othman" <mm1582@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <Afghanistan-sl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 5:10 PM
Subject: [pakhtu] Jane's: Sinking into the Afghan swamp


 Sinking into the Afghan swamp

 By A Gizabi
 Jane's Intelligence

 24 February 2003


http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jtsm/jtsm030224_1_
n.shtml

 The war in Afghanistan, once a success story for US-led coalition forces,
appears to be becoming increasingly untenable. Hardly a day goes by without
some skirmishes with the Taliban, their Al-Qaeda supporters and their
Hezb-e-Islami allies. There has been a steady increase in the level of
violence involving Afghan, as well as Pakistani, extremists. On 27 January,
US and Afghan forces encountered one of the biggest concentrations of enemy
forces since Operation Anaconda in eastern Afghanistan. Eighteen of around
80 militants were killed by air power.

 Originally, the active opposition to US forces consisted of the Taliban and
members of Al-Qaeda. Now, a third party has joined in: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,
who was the favourite protégé of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
Directorate (ISI) for many years until he failed to gain power in Kabul. For
much of his active life, he was in opposition to other Afghan parties, even
during the war with the Soviet Union. He was behind the bombing of Kabul,
much of which he destroyed almost singlehandedly by firing rockets from his
base in the southern outskirts of Kabul.

 The Taliban drove him from out of the country in 1996. Being out of favour
with Pakistan, he moved to Iran. Last year, he returned with zest to fight
the Americans. He has some support in Pakistan among religio-political
parties and Islamic militants. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he ran one
of the best-organised, heavily equipped and most brutal organisations in the
Afghan resistance. A lot of the brutalities, kidnappings and assassinations
are attributed to him. Hekmatyar brings a lot of finesse and sophistication
to crude Taliban tactics and he is a very effective propagandist. Since his
appearance on the scene, 'night letters' - taped messages and posters - have
increased tremendously, calling for the war against the USA. There is now a
clandestine radio as well, broadcasting to the faithful.

 Given the experience, the tactics and the brutality of Hekmatyar; the blind
faith, deadly conviction and zealotry of the Taliban; and finance and reach
of Al-Qaeda, they certainly make a dangerous and deadly trio.

 US forces have used tactics that are offensive to Afghans. They treated
every Afghan with suspicion as if he was a member of Al-Qaeda; they entered
houses without permission; they body-searched women - a taboo in the Muslim
world, especially in Afghanistan; and they bombed innocent civilians and
arrested and mistreated people, all because of mistaken identity or
misinformation. They did not show sensitivity to Afghan culture.

 Perhaps the most serious tactical error was the restoration of warlords in
Afghanistan. The common people were disaffected by the protégés and stooges
of foreign occupiers who had carved Afghanistan into fiefdoms. Most or all
of them were driven out by the Taliban and Pakistan and the remainder were
on the verge of collapse or on the run. One of the last was commander
Masoud, who had lost most of his territory and was forced to retreat to the
banks of Oxus river. One of the main reasons for the Taliban's ascendence to
power was their rejection of the warlords. However, US forces brought the
warlords back, arming, financing and guiding them back to their lost
thrones. Worse yet, they even created some new ones, the so-called 'American
warlords'.