[THS] Toronto Sun: Eric Margolis: Saving Face in Unwinnable War

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Saving Face in Unwinnable War

Sinking in debt and no closer to victory, heads may roll as the U.S. and NATO wrap
up their pointless Afghan adventure

By Eric Margolis

July 13, 2010 "Toronto Sun" -- Fire-breathing U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his
Special Forces "mafia" were supposed to crush Afghan resistance to western
occupation. But McChrystal was fired after rude remarks from his staff about the
White House.

A more cerebral and political general, David Petraeus, replaced McChrystal. Petraeus
managed to temporarily suppress resistance in Iraq.

Last week, the usually cautious Petraeus vowed from Kabul to "win" the Afghan War,
which has cost the U.S. nearly $300 billion to date and 1,000 dead. The problem: No
one can define what winning really means. Each time the U.S. reinforces, Afghan
resistance grows stronger.

Afghanistan is America's longest-running conflict.

The escalating war now costs U.S. taxpayers $17 billion monthly. President Barack
Obama's Afghan "surge" of 30,000 more troops will cost another $30 billion.

The Afghan and Iraq wars - at a cost of $1 trillion - are being waged on borrowed
money when the U.S. is drowning in $13.1 trillion in debt.

America has become addicted to debt and war.

By 2011, Canadians will have spent an estimated $18.1 billion on Afghanistan, $1,500
per household.

The U.S. Congress, which alone can declare and fund war, shamefully allowed U.S.
presidents George W. Bush and Obama to usurp this power. A majority of Americans
now oppose this imperial misadventure. Though politicians fear opposing the war lest
they be accused of "betraying our soldiers," dissent is breaking into the open.

Last week, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele let the cat out of
the bag, admitting the Afghan war was not winnable. War-loving Republicans
erupted in rage, all but accusing Steele of high treason. Many of Steele's most
hawkish Republican critics had, like Bush and Dick Cheney, dodged real military
service during the Vietnam War.

Republicans (I used to be one) blasted McChrystal's sensible policy of trying to lessen
Afghan civilian casualties from U.S. bombing and shelling. There is growing anti-
western fury in Afghanistan and Pakistan over mounting civilian deaths.

By clamouring for more aggressive attacks that endanger Afghan civilians and
strengthen Taliban, Republicans again sadly demonstrate they have become the
party and voice of America's dim and ignorant.

Obama claimed he was expanding the Afghan War to fight al-Qaida. Yet the
Pentagon estimates there are no more than a handful of al-Qaida small-fry left in
Afghanistan.

Obama owes Americans the truth about Afghanistan.

After nine years of war, the immense military might of the U.S., its dragooned NATO
allies, and armies of mercenaries have been unable to defeat resistance to western
occupation or create a popular, legitimate government in Kabul. Drug production has
reached new heights.

As the United States feted freedom from a foreign oppressor on July 4, its
professional soldiers were using every sort of weapon in Afghanistan, from heavy
bombers to tanks, armoured vehicles, helicopter gunships, fleets of drones, heavy
artillery, cluster bombs and an arsenal of hi-tech gear.

In spite of this might, bands of outnumbered Pashtun tribesmen and farmers, armed
only with small arms, determination and limitless courage, have fought the West's
war machine to a standstill and now have it on the strategic defensive.

This brutal David versus Goliath conflict brings no honour upon the western powers
waging it, including Canada. They are widely seen abroad as waging yet another
pitiless colonial war against a small, backward people for resource domination and
strategic geography.

Most Afghans yearn for peace after 30 years of war. But efforts by the government of
Hamid Karzai, Taliban and Pakistan to forge a peace are being thwarted by
Washington, Ottawa and Afghanistan's Communist-dominated Tajik Northern
Alliance. India stirs the pot in Afghanistan while rebellion seethes in Indian-held
Kashmir.

The heretical Republican Steele was speaking truth when he said this ugly, pointless
war is unwinnable. But Washington's imperial impulses continue. Too many political
careers in the U.S., Canada and Europe hang on this misbegotten war. So, too, does
the fate of the obsolete NATO alliance that may well meet its Waterloo in the hills of
Afghanistan.

© 2010 Toronto Sun