Afghanistan- Fantasy v Reality

Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Afghanistan. The pendulum has once again returned east, back to Afghanistan, as the increase in troop levels has deepened the U.S. commitment to the fragile territory. Meanwhile, Iraq fades out of focus like a bad movie ending, Afghanistan slowly follows a similar path, and Iran has increasingly come to command the headlines around the United States. Can you hear the drum yet? It is faint, but ever-present.

Afghanistan can be looked at through many lenses. Let’s try the most obvious. Fantasy and/or reality. Unfortunately, for those grunts on the ground, the young blood of this nation, and for those yet to serve, fantasy has been promoted to cover the mistakes of administrations past and present. The fantasy of OUR government that Afghanistan can be tamed, that American culture and excess will pervade and be accepted, and that OUR rotten style of government will magically work like a Swiss watch in a foreign land, even when it doesn’t work at home. These are the fantasies of which I speak.

I’m not positing that Obama is a naive ideologue that is clouded by his idealistic language or political persuasion. Rather, he is savvy, he is a very smart man. He knows exactly how to use language, appeal to emotion, and mold the argument. Him and all those that have preceded. This fantasy, this underdog story( which Americans love), has been propagandized and turned into a quasi-reality(we are many miles away and we must rely on most info. from authoritative sources) from which the truth is often manipulated or selectively cherry picked. Like the CIA experiments of old, the repetitive nature of half-truths or little white lies, has begun to take the fighting, dissenting, curious nature of us Americans, us humans away. Mass indoctrination and attempts to unify through propaganda are nothing new. “Leaders” of the past have an intimate knowledge of the power this tool possesses when pulled from the political tool bag.

Next, the reality, and this is going to hurt. Poppy, opium, heroin, corrupt Afghan governmental representatives, and Pakistani/Iranian covert actions. This is the reality that is rarely spoken of by the pundits and corporate puppets. Now that the rosy glasses are off, let’s get to it.

Our mission to find Al-Qaeda and topple the Taliban for harboring Bin Laden and his entourage was hijacked by the Bush administration with his stupid, stupid, stupid decision to invade Iraq. That is bad enough, but now we have Obama continuing not the same military strategy as Bush, but the same political strategy. Once again, talking over the heads of Americans, talking about ideals, talking about fantasies, and not talking about the reality, not talking about the interests of Americans(not CEO’s and MNC’s), and not talking about the true scale of death and misery. Instead, democracy, capitalism, free markets, and the expected slew of buzzwords has inundated the airwaves, conditioning the masses to at best, accept the decisions of the executive, and at worst ,question, but ultimately accept the decision because in the words of FDR, “he’s our son of a bitch”(out of context here but it fit well). OUR president wouldn’t lie to us, OUR leaders never fib, OUR government is just perfect and immaculately efficient. Right? Hopefully, you are shaking your head.

The fact that our government understands exactly what the game is, they know the players, and they, to an extent, direct the game, but cannot figure this out is suspect. Gretchen Peters, in her recent book Seeds of Terror, has numerous quips from high-ranking U.S. officials that clearly describe how the United States knows the problems, but either fails to act or ignores those problems. Those problems would be what I referenced earlier. Corruption, narcotics, and covert assistance from Pakistani and Iranian agencies.

The tendency of Americans to “Hollywoodize”(not a word but oh well) life in general has corrupted our own ability to digest information in a real way. We assume all will end with Rambo (aka USA), no matter what the facts or odds, victorious, wrapped in the flag, and always getting the woman.

I have to wrap up before this turns into a research paper. So, Obama politically made a great move by shifting forces to Afghanistan and fulfilling a campaign promise. In reality, the underlying issues fester and get worse. OUR governments’ involvement with criminal elements in Afghanistan, with openly corrupt politicians (some are more sneaky than others), and with warlords whose human rights record is atrocious, will continue to be hush hush. Do as I say and not as I do. Let’s call it like it is. Hypocrisy.

Looking back, one can argue the U.S. government got greedy. They hit 21 and decided to double down (I don’t play Blackjack so I’m not sure if the reference makes sense, but you get the point). Overwhelming air power and devastating assaults by Special Forces operators pounded the radicals in retaliation for 9/11. The footprint was minimal, U.S. forces sustained relatively low fatalities/casualties, the rest of the world was supportive of the strikes, and the expense was bearable. The pivotal(ultimately disastrous) decision was to then made to conventionalize operations and divert resources for another misguided boondoggle instead of beefing up our irregular forces (i.e. Marine Recon, SEAL’s, Green Berets, Rangers, etc.) who were responsible for punching the Taliban and Al-Qaeda right in the mouth. Intelligence, satellite reconnaissance, special operations, cruise missiles, and other powerful tools could have then been used to check any attempts to reestablish footholds, training camps, etc. Ultimately, other choices were made. 

Aaron Ferreira

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