Nuestro largo historial de políticas lamentables nos ha puesto a nosotros y a las mujeres afganas en un callejón sin salida. Si nos vamos, los talibanes pueden hacerse con el poder o permitir que les compren a cambio de una porción importante del gobierno, en detrimento de las mujeres. Pero si nos quedamos, los talibanes pueden seguir haciéndose con el poder sigilosamente, o pueden permitirse que les compren (o “les reconcilien”) a cambio de sobornos y una porción importante del gobierno, todo ello en detrimento de las mujeres, mientras continuamos luchando para preservar ese mismo gobierno.

La OTAN investiga la posible colusión entre empresas militares privadas vinculadas al presidente afgano, Hamid Karzai, y los talibanes. Estas empresas habrían financiado a jefes talibanes para que intensificaran algunos de sus ataques contra las fuerzas multinacionales, informa The New York Times. Ese escenario de violencia incrementaría las posibilidades de renovación de contratos para proteger a los mandos militares de la OTAN. La investigación desmiente el informe que publicó la Misión de Naciones Unidas para Afganistán con datos de la ISAF (la fuerza multinacional bajo el mando de la OTAN). El informe señalaba a los talibanes como culpables del 70% de las muertes civiles por coches bomba y ataques suicidas. Pero no tomaba en cuenta los bombardeos desde aviones no tripulados ni la responsabilidad de la OTAN por contratar a empresas afganas que siembran el caos porque lo necesitan para garantizar su nicho de trabajo y el enriquecimiento de la familia del presidente Karzai, considerado por muchos una marioneta de Estados Unidos.

Obama's propensity to retreat at the first sign of resistance shows that he lacks both guts and the strong convictions that are essential elements distinguishing statesmen from politicians. By pursuing a rudderless course in his foreign policy, by flip-flopping in his approach to other leaders, he is also inadvertently furnishing hard evidence to those who argue that American power is on the decline -- and that the downward slide of the globe's former "sole superpower" is irreversible. Those who have refused to buckle under Obama's initial threats and hardball tactics (and so the impact of American power) include not just the presidents of China, a first-tier mega-nation, and Brazil, a rising major power, but also the leaders of Israel, a regional power heavily dependent on Washington for its sustenance, and Afghanistan, a client state -- not to mention the military junta of Honduras, a minor entity, which stood up to the Obama administration as if it were the Politburo of former Soviet Union.

Typical media analyses have for months misrepresented the apparent chasm between Afghanistan and the US under Obama’s administration. Even if this administration was genuinely discontented with Karzai’s policies, at least until very recently, the resentment had little to do with the reasons offered by media ‘experts’. It was not because Karzai was failing to deliver on governance, end corruption and so on. Let’s face it, the US war in Afghanistan was never morally grounded, and it never could be either. Not unless the militant mindset that governs US foreign policy somehow acquires a complete overhaul. The US and Karzai (as a supposed representative of the ‘Afghani people’) must come across as united in the face of the extremist minority. Karzai’s visit to the US was the political padding prior to the likely military storm. It was meant to assure the public that the chaos which will follow is in fact part of a counterinsurgency effort; well-planned, calculated, executed and, as always, passionately articulated.

To all appearances, when it comes to the administration's two South Asian wars, one open, one more hidden, Obama and his top officials are flailing around. They are evidently trying whatever comes to mind in much the manner of the oil company BP as it repeatedly fails to cap a demolished oil well 5,000 feet under the waves in the Gulf of Mexico. In a sense, when it comes to Washington’s ability to control the situation, Pakistan and Afghanistan might as well be 5,000 feet underwater. Like BP, Obama’s officials, military and civilian, seem to be operating in the dark, using unmanned robotic vehicles. And as in the Gulf, after each new failure, the destruction only spreads. For all the policy reviews and shuttling officials, the surging troops, extra private contractors, and new bases, Obama’s wars are worsening.

Article published in Amauta with permission from the author Amid increasing civilian deaths and resurgent warlordism, Afghan women’s leader Malalai Joya writes that Hamid Karzai and the U.S. are losing credibility in Afghanistan day by day. by Malalai Joya Almost every day, the NATO occupation of our country continues to kill innocent people. Each time, it [...]

Traducción en español abajo Article published in Amauta with permission from TomDispatch Source: TomDispatch by Alfred W. McCoy The crisis has come suddenly, almost without warning. At the far edge of American power in Asia, things are going from bad to much worse than anyone could have imagined. The insurgents are spreading fast across the countryside. Corruption is rampant. [...]

Article published in Amauta with special permission from the author A shorter version of this article originally appeared at Consortium News by Ray McGovern Nothing highlights President Obama’s abject surrender to Gen. David Petraeus on the “way forward” in Afghanistan than two cables U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry sent to Washington on Nov. 6 and 9, 2009, the texts [...]

Source: The Progressive by Matthew Rothschild December 2, 2009 If you closed your eyes during much of the President’s speech on Afghanistan Tuesday night and just listened to the words, you easily could have concluded that George W. Bush was still in the Oval Office. Or, at the very least, that Obama had stolen his speechwriters. Because, like Bush, Obama [...]

Source: CounterPunch Retaliation was a Trap by Zoltan Grossman December 2, 2009 In just a few months, Afghanistan will surpass Vietnam as the longest single war fought by the United States in its history. In his West Point speech on November 30, President Obama denied that “Afghanistan is another Vietnam”–and in some senses he is correct. Vietnam in 1975 [...]