by Jack Lee
Clarity of the problem and envisioning the solution are so fundamental to good leadership. Unfortunately, many problems arrive at our doorstep without enough clarity to make a definitive judgment call and if we jump before we know what we’re getting into we take a big gamble; it’s really scary when that happens because the consequences of a bad call can be disastrous, so caution is advised.
Take Afghanistan for instance, since the 7th day of October in 2001 when the U.S. and our allies launched Operation Enduring Freedom there have been questions about the mission. 10 years later – there are even more questions and the contest is far from over.
One of the first signs of the trouble to come was that too few Afghani’s stepped forward to offer their thanks and support once the Taliban were driven out. They knew the Taliban were the indigenous people and this meant they had staying power. The locals reasoned at some point we’ll leave and then the Taliban will return. So they measured their support for us against their desire to live.
To complicate matters even worse, corruption in the new Afghan government spread like a wild fire. Everyone had their hand out. We should have expected that when we infused billions of dollars into a penniless, stone age society.
Afghanistan is looking more like a sink hole for our money and our good intentions.
On any given day you can witness police openly taking bribes, even at security check points. It seems bribery is the new game in town and everyone wants to play. On the top levels of government it’s still the same story. And here’s where it gets really complicated. The country is not united, never has been really, it’s broken up into tribal fiefdoms. These regions are often run by self -serving despots or families who understand little about our reasons for being there. Some still think we’re the Russians – the ignorance is that bad,
President Karzai is perhaps the worse example of leader ever to claim he’s on our side since Batista. Karzia is a corrupt skitzo! Corruption is one problem, but his mental instability confounds even his closest advisers and worries our military leaders.
In May of this year Karzai said he will no longer allow NATO airstrikes on houses, issuing his strongest statement yet against attacks that the military alliance says are vital to its war on Taliban insurgents. This was a big bonus for the Taliban, yet another setback for the alliance.
Karzai is given to working outside the coalition’s normal chain of command and that places coalition lives and missions at risk.
During one of his public rants Karzai accused the Western forces of using Afghanistan for their own ends and this prompted our U.S. Ambassador to push back. “At the point your leaders believe that we are doing more harm than good, when we reach a point that we feel our soldiers and civilians are being asked to sacrifice without a just cause, and our generous aid programs dismissed as totally ineffective and the source of all corruption … the American people will ask for our forces to come home,” Ambassador Karl Eikenberry
“Though Karzai’s behavior frustrates the US, a bigger concern may be, given the strategic imperative for maintaining relations between the US and Afghanistan what will happen if other Afghan politicians begin to mimic Karzai’s critical side. I’m afraid that speaking out against Westerners, if it becomes fashionable, and everybody imitates Karzai and talks out against foreigners because it feels good and it looks right, I think we would end up in a disastrous situation,” Barry Salaam, an expert on internal affairs within Afghanistan.
There are days when our military leaders must wonder which side Karzai is on – yet we keep intrusting him with hundreds of millions of your taxpayer dollars hoping we can buy his cooperation and somehow this will all work out. However, for those returning military and civilian folks no longer working for the company who are free to speak, they tell another story. As one contractor put it, “We’re sure building a lot of nice places for the Taliban to use for torturing the locals.”
The original mission was to get Osama and punish his supporters, the Taliban. It took 10 years, but we finally killed Osama and almost from day one we chased the Taliban out and turned the country over to the Army of the Northern Alliance. Victory and the future belonged to them and eventually we accomplished our original goal to get bin Laden, but not without a whole lot of mission creep, nation building and billions of wasted dollars.
Because of the time delay in getting Osama and the fact that Afghanistan is stuck somewhere between the 10th and 21 centuries, we’re in deep and we’re facing one of those damned if you do – damned if you don’t, moments in history. The reality is we don’t have the staying power and we don’t have infinite resources to throw at this thing We may have to withdraw and leave them to their own devices. Many of our former coalition partners have already bailed, even our most loyal friend Britain says enough is enough.
When we’re gone there is a 90% chance the Taliban will be swept back into power and blood bath of retribution will follow. The Afghani’s have no leadership they can trust and consequently no will to fight. The Taliban have the will and the leaders. Many think the Taliban will at least restore order and that’s some modicum of progress in country of rife with disorder.
We can put a pork-pie hat and sunglasses on this pig, but we’ve still got a pig.