A very sobering picture.
""We've [USA] hooked our wagon to Musharraf because he's our only hope." -- No comment.
"For American commanders in Afghanistan, the crumbled remains of the Bala Hissar fortress in Kabul, the scene of an 1879 massacre of British officials, offers a sobering reminder of the lessons of insurgency. One of the most important: He who has the people on his side and controls the territory will win." -- followed by:
"A three-day jirga of tribal elders in Peshawar concluded that it would oppose any further military operations in their territories. Part of the reason for the opposition is the historic independence of the tribal lands."
"Gul Aga Sherzi, who controls the southern province of Kandahar, for example, was named by [Afghani President] Karzai as Afghanistan's new minister of urban planning, despite the fact that he is unable to read."
""We talk about economy of force," one [Amerian] officer grumbled, "when we don't have enough guys to do what we need to do."
"That's the problem we had in Vietnam," says a senior commander. "It's the problem anytime you're trying to [deal with] an insurgency. You can't allow them to have a sanctuary. And Pakistan [has] provided that sanctuary."
While it certainly sounds from the article that the American military commanders tasked with finding Bin Laden are doing the job as best and as intelligently as they possibly could, history and these particular circumstances don't exactly favor them.
Facebook
Twitter