GORDON DUFF:
Some real details about Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Karzai is a failure and was always intended to be, a shill for Bush, Israel and India and the CIA’s drug program. Destabilizing Pakistan is simply a side benefit. A royal family has to be established in Pakistan and a parallel system of governance quickly put in place that will give Pashtuns in both Afghanistan and Pakistan a reasonable chance for a decent life with traditional values but within a constitutional framework.

Afghanistan: Non-Unity of Effort

US Forces in Afghanistan currently face three types of governmental structures: State-like areas with governors, older tribal-like structures with different area designations; and an even older tribal structure headed by tribal leaders or chieftains who are designated for a particular purpose. In times past with greater prosperity, these tribal entities warred among themselves for local advantages, and were governed by a national king who rallied the tribes to confront external and other major difficulties. Most times these temporary efforts were agreed upon by the use of councils and meetings. More recently, these entire systems were supplanted by the use of modern but derivative forms of government, as modeled by Western cultures. Democracy issues, such as interest in the freedom of the individual, and equal opportunities for all, did not exist in Afghanistan.

The tribal structure of Afghanistan, the only underlying force for social cohesion, suffered irreparable damage during the Soviet occupation. With the failure by the west to implement a "Marshall plan" of supplying food and comfort items and rebuilding for Afghanistan after the Russian withdrawal in 1979, the ensuing vacuum was filled by what we have come to call ‘the Taliban,’ a Pashtu-based confederacy of former mujahedeen fighters and religious extremists, along with large numbers of tribal people susceptible to hard-line faith-based ideologies when confronted with a collapse of traditional structures.

Problems in the Karzai Regime

The current "Afghan" government has never governed anything but a small area of the city of Kabul. Hamid Karzai, the current president, has never been accepted by the vast majority of the people of the country. The institutions he has fostered, the army and police in particular, are hated and feared. These brutal, corrupt, and incompetent establishments are composed of an occupying force made up of ethnic minorities hostile to the majority Pashtun population of Afghanistan.

President Karzai’s regime is seen as weak, corrupt, illegitimate, foreign, and imposed by force. It has been described as a foreign puppet government that has managed to stay in power through allowing a massive narcotics industry to flourish, while billions in American aid is spent underwriting the creation of a tyrannical hierarchy of brutal drug lords seen as an alternative to traditional tribal government.

The Drug Trade

Although opium eradication efforts are supposedly one of the primary objectives of America’s military presence, there appears to be a policy of ignoring narcotics production. In the 1990’s, drug production had been totally eliminated by the Taliban in all but the most remote areas of the nation through a system of Islamic law backed by brutal and sure justice for any offender.

Now, taking into account that Afghanistan is landlocked with extremely long lines of supply through enemy held territory, the act of maintaining a military occupation force in itself has financed the insurgency. Each supply truck pays up to $3,000 dollars bounty to enemy insurgents just to get through. Additionally, army and police units regularly sell ammunition and weapons to insurgents.

Beyond even this, there is broad evidence that the US backed Karzai regime routinely awards multi-million dollar contracts to companies controlled by enemy insurgents, not only allowing them to remain economically viable but, in fact, bloated with cash, increasing in rate as troop levels increase.

With billions of dollars in drug cash undermining efforts to restore traditional lifestyles, a culture of guns and "warlordism " has grown beyond the control of almost any authority, national government, NATO or, perhaps, even a real government of national unity.

However, no such authority exists or is likely to come into play. In reality, Afghanistan is taking on the dynamic of Mexico, with its drug cartels having more power than the government itself. Many analysts believe that the drug cartels of Afghanistan have always been the "government" from the first day of Karzai’s rule.

The obvious point is that the war is self-sustaining. Fighting the war creates the enemy and finances the enemy. Supporting the current regime deepens and builds the insurrection. Prosecution of a hopeless war has pushed US commanders to openly ignore the massive drug trade which has built a powerful criminal empire stretching from India to Switzerland and north into Russia with heroin from Afghanistan becoming available to millions around the world. Money from this drug operation threatens to buy influence, not only in the government of Afghanistan and the republics of the former Soviet Union to the north, but has drawn criminal elements from around the world to Kabul, where, in the guise of security, support, humanitarian or other such activities, individuals serving the requirements of the narcotics cartels operate openly and with impunity.

The Small Role of Osama bin Laden

In 2001, the United States joined with the Northern Alliance, a group of warlords incompatible with the majority of Afghans, in an attempt to find the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The goal was to find Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national who had come to Afghanistan during the 1980s to aid the US backed Mujahedeen.

In the late 1990’s, bin Laden was allowed, as a foreigner, to return to Afghanistan under strict circumstances and full supervision. There is, to this day, no proof of any kind that Osama bin Laden was involved in 9/11. There is also no proof that any training facility used by Arab terrorists existed in Afghanistan. As there has been no reliable intelligence indicating that Osama bin Laden lived beyond December 2001, according to CIA Director Leon Panetta, the hunt for 9/11 hijackers in Afghanistan was never a credible rationale for military action.

Osama bin Laden was never considered a leader of any kind in Afghanistan or Pakistan and has, for many years, been accepted as dead, his death having been publicly announced in December of 2001.

Prepared by Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran, grunt and 100% disabled vet. He has been a featured commentator on TV and radio including Al Jazeera and his articles have been carried by news services around the world. He has been a UN Diplomat, defense contractor and is a widely published expert on military and defense issues. His banking experience includes trade and monetary policy roles in over 80 countries. Gordon Duff acts as political and economic advisor to a number of governments in Africa and the Middle East. Gordon Duff is currently working on economic development projects in Pakistan and Afghanistan to counter the effects of poverty and global extremism.

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