America’s Longest War:

There Will Be Endless Tough Years in Afghanistan

Rasa - Defense Secretary James Mattis did strike the right chord when he offered the same assessment that Pentagon officials have been offering on the Afghan War for the past 16 years: “It’s going to be a tough year.”

News ID: 429280

Date: 27 April 2017 - 22:54

RNA - “It’s going to be endless tough years” is however a much more accurate prediction. Indeed, “a tough year” goes without saying in the US war on Afghanistan, and is really an understatement, with the Taliban’s mounting gains across the country giving it control of more territory than at any time since the 2001 US invasion, and the US sending more troops to try to slow the losses from ISIL and Taliban attacks.

That George Bush’s “mission accomplished” is going extremely poorly, 16 years in, is also out there for everyone to see. As in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, the US military needs someone to blame for its failures in Afghanistan. In the former countries it is “Iran”, in Afghanistan the first choice among a lot of top military figures now seems to be Russia, and while they offer no evidence to back up their claims – just like in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen - several have alleged that Russia might conceivably be arming the Taliban.

The White House tenants and Pentagon regime officials have forgotten this truth. But they mustn’t forget it. They are responsible forever for what they have done to Afghanistan. They are responsible for its destruction and chaos. They have to stop complaining about the “malign influence” of Russia in the country, and refute allegations of Russia shipping weapons to the Taliban. Else, they should offer some solid evidence that this is the case, and not any plausible reason why Russia would conceivably do this, as Russia fought materially the same insurgency during the 1980s.

The global forces of destruction have forgotten that Russia has long supported the US-led War on Terror in Afghanistan, hoping it would prevent the spread of extremist forces into former Soviet republics in Central Asia which Russia has defensive treaties with, and which could quickly suck Russia into a very unpopular regional war. Russia has the same policy in Syria, where the United States and its allies have been arming Qaeda-allied rebels for at least six years.

Just like in Syria, the latest attempt by the global forces of destruction to shift the blame for the failing war in Afghanistan to an external party is desperate and at the same time foolish. They are responsible, forever, for what they have done. To blame Russia is meant to relieve themselves of this responsibility. If they are worried about stopping terrorism, stopping Taliban insurgency, well, there is really an easy way: Stop participating in it. Eventually they have to accept full and total responsibility for their actions, everything they have done (destroying Afghanistan), and have not done (calling it quits). It is only at this level that they can exercise choice.

As is, the global forces of destruction have caused evil to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, not only by their actions but by their inaction, and in either case they are justly accountable to these unfortunate nations for the injury. Moreover, Iran and Russia have had nothing to do with this never-ending mess. If they are trying to clear it in Syria and Iraq, it is because they have to.

The United States and its NATO allies never allow the international community, chiefly the United Nations, to step in and fix these problems. For the warmongers the show must go on – not for Iran and Russia, which are defending the sacred: the peace. They want peace and security both for themselves and their neighbors. International Law says nothing is wrong with that. International Law also makes it absolutely clear that the peace alliance must prevail.

The fight for peace and security is not over. The allied forces are still there, still standing their ground. All this is not just a passing phase, like a brief episode in the colonial powers’ never-ending war against humanity and life. What would happen if all those different members of the United Nations, human rights groups, and aid agencies would come together from every continent, and would have a shared goal for global collaboration: to concretely create a post-American, post-colonial world? The only way to overcome the existing world order is to establish a deep commitment to what they want to come after the global war.

They need to have a strategy to permanently overcome the violence and the terrorism in today's world - to overcome the power of global forces of destruction, their arms industries, and their servants in the Middle East. Such a strategy, if they can find it, would offer protection to all the peace and security alliances of the world, now and in the future. It has been clear for some time that the questions raised by Iran and Russia at the UN as regards America’s wars of choice in the heartlands of the Muslim world are global issues. Is there a power that can make it possible for peace to overcome the power of warmongers? This is the global and ethical question of our time. And here is the answer: Yes, there is such a power.

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