Afghanistan

Afghans want to be left alone. So do Englishmen by and large. Do they get their wishes? Not a chance. The Americans are there ramming peace down their throats using rifles, bombs, aircraft, land mines, you name it. Why? Bush claimed that his friend Osama was there. So what? It made a good excuse to invade.

 

Losing In Afghanistan
QUOTE
Anger and shame assailed me when I was reading Losing Small Wars: anger with a corrupt Prime Minister (Blair) for the lies used to justify the deployment of British forces to Iraq and Afghanistan and the professional collusion of senior officers and the security services in the dissemination of the lies; and shame for the untold misery inflicted on Iraqi and Afghan civilians, the deaths and maiming of our soldiers and the lies used to comfort their families and to mislead the public. As if this was not bad enough, we are confronted at every turn in these badly judged deployments with far too many examples of incompetent political and military leadership in theatre. With all these failings and the scale of the invasion and occupation in Iraq, and the NATO mission in Afghanistan, Ledwidge’s title hardly does justice to what is revealed. In any case these are hardly ‘small wars’: the lying alone was and remains even now on a mass industrial scale.

If, having read Losing Small Wars, I had to identify the single most important failing about the disastrous British interventions in Iraq and, currently Afghanistan, it would be the failure on the part of the British government and its military advisers to spell out quite clearly why the British armed forces were ever deployed to these two parts of the Middle East. Factor out the obvious lies disseminated by Blair and his political-military clique that Iraq was armed with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and that these weapons posed a threat to Britain and there was no justified reason for Britain’s ever having had anything to do with the US-led invasion of Iraq.
UNQUOTE
Frank Ellis, lately of the Parachute Regiment and SAS comments on murderous evil.

 

Worse than a Defeat [18 December 2014]
James Meek tells us at some length that the British high command and political establishment  really did not know what they doing in Afghan. Going there to side with the 'government' and destroy their staple crop, Opium were bad enough. Being hated from before the Battle of Maiwand in 1880 made matters worse. Clan rivalry, tribal rivalry, low cunning, feuds were just part of the mix. Having no men who spoke the local languages left them wide open to manipulation. The locals are not stupid, far from it. Men were used and abused. The generals had an agenda, looking good to the Americans without having the men or materiel to back them up.

He mentions two major tribes, the Barakzai & Alizai. Brits annoyed both. Then there were the labels, mujahedin, 'government’, communist, Taliban, even the ‘pro-British’ label. They were useful for tribes wanting weapons, money, advantages over rivals. Did the Brits learn anything? Did they even learn that they knew nothing? I doubt it.

 

Afghanistan Post Mortem  [  22 March 2014 ]
Gwynne Dyer, lately a lecturer at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst says "Mission Not Accomplished" Mr. Dyer is right. What was the mission? He doesn't know either. Blair & Bush lied us into war. Brown & Cameron kept us there. They killed 448 Brits.
PS The real reason may have been building a pipeline for oil - see Afghanistan, Big Oil And Truth. It makes sense if the natives can be pacified. They can't, so it doesn't but thousands are dead, millions have been destroyed at a cost of maybe trillions.

 

Afghanistan In Pictures
It looks almost beautiful in a very bleak way when a good photographer does what it takes.

 

Casevac
Men go out, men die, men see casualties. Do they ask why? They really should.

Killing For Fun in Afghan
Another My Lai in the making methinks. But the public relations furore has not kicked off yet.

 

Michael Yon Tells It Like It Is
Michael Yon has enemies in the US Army as a result. The public relations bods don't like someone telling the truth. The men think he is all right.
PS His pictures are good too.

US Interests In Central Asia Are Oil, Oil, Oil [FEBRUARY 12, 1998 ]
QUOTE
U.S. INTERESTS IN THE CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS
FEBRUARY 12, 1998
Mr. BEREUTER. I would like to proceed to the subject of the hearing for today, U.S. interests in the Central Asian Republics. I do have a statement. One hundred years ago, Central Asia was the arena for a great game played by Czarist Russia, Colonial Britain, Napoleon's France, and the Persian and the Ottoman Empires. Allegiances meant little during this struggle for empire building, where no single empire could gain the upper hand. One hundred years later, the collapse of the Soviet Union has unleashed a new great game, where the interests of the East India Trading Company have been replaced by those of Unocal and Total, and many other organizations and firms.
    Today the Subcommittee examines the interests of a new contestant in this new great game, the United States. The five countries which make up Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, attained their independence in 1991, and have once again captured worldwide attention due to the phenomenal reserves of oil and natural gas located in the region
    Stated U.S. policy goals regarding energy resources in this region include fostering the independence of the States and their ties to the West; breaking Russia's monopoly over oil and gas transport routes; promoting Western energy security through diversified suppliers; encouraging the construction of east-west pipelines that do not transit Iran; and denying Iran dangerous leverage over the Central Asian economies.......

    To begin, you may ask why is the United States active in the region? The United States has energy security, strategic, and commercial interests in promoting Caspian region energy development. We have an interest in strengthening global energy security through diversification, and the development of these new sources of supply. Caspian export routes would diversify rather than concentrate world energy supplies, while avoiding over-reliance on the Persian Gulf..........

    Four factors frame our policy. First, promoting multiple export routes. The Administration's policy is centered on rapid development of the region's resources and the transportation and sale of those resources to hard-currency markets to secure the independence of these new countries. Accordingly, our government has promoted the development of multiple pipelines and diversified infrastructure networks to open and integrate these countries into the global market and to foster regional cooperation......

    In general, we support those transportation solutions that are commercially viable and address our environmental concerns and policy objectives. Based on discussions with the companies involved, a Baku-Ceyhan pipeline appears to be the most viable option.....

Switching geography slightly, what is the status of proposals by Unocal and others to build a gas pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan?
UNQUOTE
Translation: They have oil. We want oil. We are prepared to go to war to get it. Spending billions, killing thousands; we do what it takes. Obama wants Oil. Osama is an excuse.

 

Afghanistan Invasion Explained - It's Oil [ 12 July 2009 ]
QUOTE
The second option is to build a pipeline south from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean. One obvious route south would cross Iran, but this is foreclosed for American companies because of U.S. sanctions legislation. The only other possible route is across Afghanistan, which has of course its own unique challenges. The country has been involved in bitter warfare for almost two decades, and is still divided by civil war. From the outset, we have made it clear that construction of the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan could not begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments, lenders, and our company..........

Unocal foresees a pipeline which would become part of a regional system that will gather oil from existing pipeline infrastructure in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. The 1,040-mile long oil pipeline would extend south through Afghanistan to an export terminal that would be constructed on the Pakistan coast. This 42-inch diameter pipeline will have a shipping capacity of one million barrels of oil per day. The estimated cost of the project, which is similar in scope to the trans-Alaska pipeline, is about $2.5 billion........

Last October, the Central Asia Gas Pipeline Consortium, called CentGas, in which Unocal holds an interest, was formed to develop a gas pipeline which will link Turkmenistan's vast Dauletabad gas field with markets in Pakistan and possibly India. The proposed 790-mile pipeline will open up new markets for this gas, traveling from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Multan in Pakistan. The proposed extension would move gas on to New Delhi, where it would connect with an existing pipeline. As with the proposed Central Asia oil pipeline, CentGas can not begin construction until an internationally recognized Afghanistan Government is in place.
UNQUOTE
This evidence was given to the American Congress back in 1998. The 9/11 Job was just an excuse.
Starship Troopers was the name of a book by RA Heinlein. Pipeline Troopers are different.

Was the election corrupt? Of course. So what? Afghans have their own perfectly good system of government. They do not like being harassed by high tech hooligans.

 

Americans In Afghanistan Make It Worse, Not Better Says America Envoy [ 14 November 2009 ]
QUOTE
U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan tells Obama: Don't send any more American troops, it will make things WORSE..... Karl Eikenberry said that bolstering the American presence in Afghanistan could make the country more reliant on the U.S. The former army general expressed his concerns in a series of forcefully worded messages to Washington, sent before Mr. Obama's strategy meeting yesterday. The developments underline U.S. scepticism about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose government has been dogged by corruption..........

The war is now in its ninth year and is claiming U.S. lives at a record pace as military leaders say the Taliban has the upper hand in many parts of the country.
UNQUOTE
Just why are the Americans there? The British National Party will get our men out soonest. Ditto for Iraq

 

Afghanistan Big Oil And Truth [ 11 April 2010 ]
QUOTE
It has been revealed in the Indian media that efforts will be made to speed up the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project next weekend [ Efforts on to revive TAPI gas pipeline project ], the outcome of which could seal the fate of thousands of British and other Western troops over the coming years. The conference, to be held in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashkhabad, will be the first high-level meeting on the project for almost three years. It follows in the wake of Operation Moshtarak, the military offensive to wrest Afghanistan’s strategically important Helmand Province, through which the proposed pipeline will be built, from Taliban control.
UNQUOTE
You might wonder just why it is that British troops are going to protect a pipeline through enemy territory to supply India. Remember that Falklands oil is not on stream yet. The Foreign Office tried to get rid of it. Maggie beat them but their treachery cost men's lives. Now it is all happening again.

General Says Don't Abandon Afghanistan [ 11 May 2011 ]
QUOTE
The west must state clearly that it will not abandon Afghanistan after the handover of security to local forces in 2014 or risk further fighting in the region from an emboldened Taliban, the commander of British forces in the country has warned. In his first interview since becoming second in command of the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf), General James Bucknall told the Guardian "now is not the time to blink", and pleaded for more patience in the decade-long campaign because progress was being made.
UNQUOTE
The man is stupid or misquoted. Afghan peasants want to run their own lives. If that means killing each other and playing with little boys that is their affair. Otto von Bismarck said that "The Balkans aren't worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier." He was not a sentimental old fool or a trigger happy hooligan. The men should be pulled out now, not later. Of course Bucknall might find himself on the dole queue. It is a price I would be delighted to pay.
PS Now that Osama is allegedly dead the original excuse for invading is gone. The Army should be gone with it.

 

American Casevac In Afghanistan [ 30 July 2010 ]
QUOTE
As the war in Afghanistan enters its final chapter, Sean Smith's brutal, uncompromising film from the Helmand frontline shows the horrific chaos of a stalemate that is taking its toll in blood
UNQUOTE
Casevac [ casualty evacuation ] looks rough but it is probably as good as it ever can get. When men start seeing and when their mothers starting seeing they might ask just why they are being used as cannon fodder. When that happens the generals can forget their promotion. That is why they try to suppress the truth. If you think they are telling it like it is look at 73,846 Men Dead In Iraq More on this one at Casevac. The pictures are in glorious Technicolor®

 

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/apache-apocalypse-real-faces-of-war.htm

From Michael Yon. Source unknown. Three(?) fresh dead, two American.  http://www.michaelyon-online.com/apache-apocalypse-real-faces-of-war.htm

It was a suicide bomber, yes. It was a new developing tactic in our AO. They would outfit a couple of suicide vests on a couple of guys, put them on motorcycles, then let them drive around until they found a target of opportunity.

The Afghan with the camera was only one of many. It occurred close to an Afghan news station, TV and Radio. The journalists poured out of the building with their cameras, still photo and video, and documented everything. A couple of journalists were on scene when it happened.

It was one of those missions to build partnerships and help improve the lives of the local villagers. 12 civilians were also killed, including an 8 year old child. Several Afghan policemen were also killed along with the Command Sergeant Major (equivalent) from the Afghan army unit partnered with us.

 

Britain Got Almost Everything Wrong In Afghan
http://www.arrse.co.uk is written by men who were there. They know what happened.
In 2008-9, I was in a mentor role based out of Kandahar covering the whole of the 205 Corps AOR (included Helmand and Nimruz before 215 Corps ANA was formed). A few things stick in my mind from that time:

1. The more competent senior officers tended to be those that had been originally trained by the Russians (though with a few idiosyncracies, such as getting grids wrong as they did them the Russian way or having a penchant for vodka).

2. The Pashtun Officers liked to have a map of greater Afghanistan on display. This tended to include all Pashto areas in Pakistan as well with a frontier on the Indus river.

3. The local population genuinely believed that the British were back to avenge their loss at the Battle of Maiwand - 27 July 1880. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maiwand

4. The little war fought between two neighbouring ANP checkpoints over a catamite chai-boy.

5. Flying about the Corps AOR in rickety MI-8 / MI-17 Hips.

6. The feeling that despite our best efforts, we were pissing in the wind.

7. Oh and a story from an RAMC Officer about having to educate a tribesman who was beating up his wife for not getting pregnant. He had thought shagging her up the jacksie was normal and was aghast that he had to put his dick somewhere where she regularly bled from.

 

Errors & omissions, broken links, cock ups, over-emphasis, malice [ real or imaginary ] or whatever; if you find any I am open to comment.
 
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Updated on 22/09/2018 15:01