Interesting spin from Dawn today: The Russians have finally conquered Afghanistan, writes Eric Margolis:
dawn.com
Who is gaining more?
By Eric Margolis
What has the US achieved after waging war for the past two months in
Afghanistan?
Afghanistan's de facto government, Taliban, with about 30,000 armed
supporters, has been overthrown and scattered. After holding out for five
weeks under massive US bombardments, its leader, Mulla Omar, ordered his
men to retreat to the mountains. Omar, who may be shortly captured or
killed, claimed he ordered the retreat to spare civilians in Taliban-ruled areas
from US bombing. Kandahar, the last Taliban stronghold, was shattered by
intensive US bombing.
To date, the US has dropped over 10,000 bombs on Afghanistan, killing
sizable numbers of civilians - perhaps in the range of 2,000, according to
Afghan sources. US bombing of cities, towns and villages has driven over
160,000 people into refugee camps.
On December 3, 2000 - one year ago - this writer warned that overthrowing
Taliban would 'pave the way for a second Russian occupation of Afghanistan.'
This has now happened. The Northern Alliance, armed and funded by Russia,
directed by the Afghan Communist Party, and under the overall command of
the Chief of the Russian General Staff, Marshall Viktor Kvashnin, deputy KGB
director Viktor Komogorov, and a cadre of Russian advisers, seized Kabul and
all of northern Afghanistan, likely with the aid of troops from Uzbekistan
and/or Iran.
Last week's much ballyhooed Afghan 'unity' conference in Germany produced
a sham 'coalition' government run by the Northern Alliance. One of CIA's
Pakhtun 'assets,' Hamid Karzai, who represents no one but himself, was
named prime minister. There was no other real Pakhtun representation,
though they comprise half the population. Of thirty cabinet seats, two thirds
went to Northern Alliance Tajiks, notably the power ministries: defence,
interior, and foreign affairs. Two women were added to please the West.
The 87-year old deposed Afghan king, Zahir Shah, widely blamed for allowing
the communists to infiltrate Afghanistan in the 1970s, was invited back as a
figurehead monarch. In short, a communist-dominated regime, ruled by a
king, whose strings are pulled by Moscow. Quite a bizarre creation.
The very next day, feuding broke among Alliance members. Old communist
stalwart Rashid Dostam, who had just finished massacring hundreds of
Taliban prisoners with American and British help, threatened war if his
Uzbeks did not get more spoils. The Alliance's figurehead president, Prof.
Rabbani, a respected Islamic scholar, was shoved aside by young
communists.
The Bush Administration was apparently too preoccupied chasing Osama bin
Laden to notice its new best friend, Russia, had broken its agreement to wait
for formation of a pro-US, pro-Pakistani regime, and seized half of
Afghanistan. Marshall Kvashnin rushed his men into Kabul, just as he
outfoxed the Americans in 1999 in a similar coup de main in Kosovo.
The hunt for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda continues. A few senior
figures have been killed, likely including Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of
Egypt's Islamic Jihad. The net is closing around Osama's possible hiding
places. Unless he has escaped Afghanistan, his capture or death appear
imminent.
This will be welcome news for the Bush administration. If he somehow
escapes, or his body never found, Bush will be accused of blowing apart
Afghanistan, killing large numbers of civilians, and allowing the Russians to
grab back the country, all for nothing.
The late Pakhtun leader Abdul Haq, whom I knew from my Peshawar days,
warned the US before his death that bombing of Afghanistan was
unnecessary and a grave mistake. Taliban control could be broken, where
needed, by financing tribal uprisings - the standard form of Afghan warfare -
without foreign intervention. Otherwise, he warned, the Northern Alliance
would take over and bring in the Russians. He pleaded with Washington for
restraint, but to no avail. Haq was captured by Taliban during a bungled CIA
operation and hanged. But Haq was right. US forces could have hunted
Osama in southern Afghanistan with relative impunity, as they are now
doing, without having to launch a total war against Taliban. US air power
totally dominates barren Afghanistan. Taliban forces could not move or
communicate. There were only a small number of Taliban fighters in southern
Afghanistan where Osama was hiding.
Bombing Afghan civilian centres was absolutely unnecessary. The only real
military targets offered by Taliban were its entrenched troops facing the
Alliance. It was remarkable that Taliban managed to withstand five weeks of
carpet bombing by US B-52s.
The US could have hunted Osama without allowing the Russians to recapture
half of Afghanistan, a severe geopolitical defeat for American ambitions to
use that nation as a gateway to Central Asian oil and gas. And without
blasting to rubble what little remained of demolished Afghanistan, and
without driving 160,000 civilians into terrified flight.
So, after eight weeks of war, Taliban is out; the Communists are in power in
Kabul. The south is in chaos. Pakistan is isolated and unloved by all. The war
has cost Washington US$60 billion to date. Afghanistan is a bloody mess. And
Vladimir Putin is smiling.-Copyright Eric Margolis 2001. |
