Petraeus warns Afghans about Karzai's criticism of U.S. war strategy

[bemildred]

Source: WaPo

KABUL - Gen. David H. Petraeus, the coalition military commander in Afghanistan, warned Afghan officials Sunday that President Hamid Karzai's latest public criticism of U.S. strategy threatens to seriously undermine progress in the war and risks making Petraeus's own position "untenable," according to Afghan and U.S. officials.

Officials said Petraeus expressed "astonishment and disappointment" with Karzai's call, in a Saturday interview with The Washington Post, to "reduce military operations" and end U.S. Special Operations raids in southern Afghanistan that coalition officials said have killed or captured hundreds of Taliban commanders in recent months.

In a meeting Sunday morning with Ashraf Ghani, who leads the Afghan government's planning on transition, Petraeus made what several officials described as "hypothetical" references to an inability to continue U.S. operations in the face of Karzai's remarks.

The night raids are at the heart of Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy and are key to his hopes of being able to show significant progress when the White House reviews the situation in Afghanistan next month.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/14/AR2010111404549.html

[DJ13]

1. I have an idea...... lets leave

Or is the mineral find too large for us to just stop waging war and wasting billions of dollars?

[babylonsister]

2. Hi, bemildred. I loved this 'casual observation'...

I'm glad Petraeus is speaking up, too.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/11/14/121729/25

Casual Observation

by BooMan
Sun Nov 14th, 2010 at 12:17:29 PM EST

I'm kind of tired of listening to Hamid Karzai complain about U.S. troops in his country. Any other Afghan I would understand, but Karzai is the main beneficiary of our presence there and he'd be the first person to die without our cloak of protection. I hope we take his advice though.

[bemildred]

6. Well, yeah. No gratitude from Karzai.

I just don't know who to pick, neither one appears "reality based" to me.

Karzai has a long history now of tweaking our noses, and Petraeus is another incompetent military hack who thinks political posturing is military grand strategy.

[Historic NY]

7. The day we pack up old Hamid will be playing soccer with his head.

[earcandle]

9. eeeewwwww. yuk. the image makes me want to puke. can you take it down a notch on the porn?

[Historic NY]

17. Sorry but I recall those images of the Taliban in the stadium.

[Angry Dragon]

3. Just a few months ago we were told that there was just a

handful of terrorist left. Now we are told that
hundreds of commanders have been killed or captured.
That would mean that there are a lot of terrorists
below the commander status. I wonder which statement
is really true. Hard to tell with government
in today's world.

[DeltaLitProf]

10. Remember the distinction between taliban and al qaeda

n/t

[Skittles]

11. it's not like for every terrorist killed, five more are created

it's not like that at ALL, is it? :o

[social_critic]

16. The Taliban are not terrorists

The Taliban is an ethnic fighting force, pashtun tribesmen who were radicalized by Saudi-financed religious education and the rise of warlords financed by the CIA during the anti-Soviet insurgency. The Taliban were organized/created by the Pakistani Interservices Intelligence, led at the time by a very religious man with close ties to Saudi Prince Turki, who provided the cash to get the Taliban started. The Taliban aquired heavy weapons from a stash delivered to the Pakistanis by the CIA. This stash of heavy Russian weapons had been captured in Kuwait by the US military, refurbished secretly, painted with false serial numbers (to make believe they were Russian weapons left behind in Afghanistan).

Thus the Taliban, although they are religious and extremist fundamentalists, are in a sense similar to the Israeli settlers, people who believe very strongly in their religion and feel this religion gives them the right to conquer territory, destroy the villages of the conquered, and so on and so forth. But we have to recall, these Taliban or Pashtun tribesmen have been living in this area for thousands of years. It is possible they may have been waiting for Alexander's forces as they crossed on their way to India. These guys have adapted and use asymetric warfare, which means they use bombers to attack the occupation. But they are hardly terrorists. And the supply of fighters is endless. There are tens of millions of Pashtun and there are tens of millions of associated tribes from which recruits can be found to fight off the invasion.

The solution is fairly easy, call a meeting of the tribal elders, have them set up a traditional government. If the Pashtun tribes want to stay out, then give weapons to the other guys (the Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras will fight against the Pashtun, they always have). And leave. There's nothing there for the US. The key to the conflict with terrorism has always been Israeli settlement construction policy. As long as that continues, terrorism will continue. Everything else going on is just meant to feed the military industrial complex and gain territorial advantage to pin the Russians down. It's small potatoes, we don't need to feed the weapons builders, and the Russians can be a natural ally if stop trying to mess with them. All this pro-war stance, our imperialism and human rights abuses, are just meant to distract us from understanding the way things are. First things first, and first we have to stop Israel from building settlements, and begin dismantling the ones they already have. It's a tall order, but as long as we allow Israeli policy to dictate policy to the US, we'll be in this bind.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Solly Mack]

5. k/r

...

[earcandle]

8. China wants to do commerce, not war. They have a better deal with China.

We have overstayed our welcome, and our portfolio of offerings are now outdated.

We are in a new world. Where commerce is respected and the wheels of GAAP go
round in a trusted context of exchange for goods and services. No more rape,
plunder, nor murder, nor the religion that serves it up.

It is all passe now. Detach. Be Zen.

Dub Rat:X-tal cir.1996

[eridani]

12. The US military was responsible for installing him over the will of the loya jirga in 2002

The loya jirga wanted the former king back, on the grounds that he had the fewest number of people pissed off at him. But the imperial bully insisted on installing warlords and Karzai.

Too late for the king--he went back to Italy and died a couple of years later.

[saigon68]

13. Betrayus expressed "astonishment and disappointment"

gold Star Mothers expressed disgust that their children's lives were being thrown away for Narco-traders, oil companies and the Military Industrial Complex.

[Paper Roses]

14. Quick cure, leave all the Middle East countries immediately.

Bring all the troops home and work on the problems we face here.

Our citizens suffer so that big biz can increase the war machine profits while we at home pay the price. Let Karzai squawk all he wants. The others too. We need to spend the untold billions of dollars here.

Our problems are too many to list but imagine what a few billion here and there would do for our poor, the schools, medical care, infrastructure, energy research, ad infinitum.

Bring them home now.

[soryang]

15. Grasping at straws

It's Karsai's fault. You know you have a military genius running things when the official propaganda organ says "night raids" are the heart of his strategy.

[Bragi]

18. Petraeus is an ass-covering piece of shit

He is also the key link between the unwise and failed Afghan policy of the Bush administration, and the unwise and failed Afghan stategy adopted by the current administration.