Ann, another POV on these "accomplishments" -
According to disclosures such as this, getting rid of the Taliban is simply going back to the way it was before ISI and CIA got busy.
time.com
"U.S. support of the Afghan Mujaheddin (through Pakistan's Interservice Intelligence or ISI) helped lay the foundation for the Taliban"
""[CIA chief William Casey] committed CIA support to a longstanding ISI initiative to recruit Muslims from around the world to come to Pakistan and fight with the Afghan Mujaheddin...Between 1982 and 1992 some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 43 Islamic countries in the Middle East, North and East Africa, Central Asia and the Far East would pass their baptism under fire with the Afghan Mujaheddin." The U.S., apparently, gave the ISI the funding and let the ISI (which seemed to have the better on-the-ground intelligence) handle the distribution of the cash. Following their own interests, the ISI supported the most radical Muslim groups in the region. Some of those same radicals, no doubt, are opposing the U.S. forces in Afghanistan even as you read this."
New government in Kabul is about time. That's a good thing, or we hope it will be.
Terrorist camps and tunnels - see "Casey" above.
More intelligence-sharing - about time, also. Obscenely high levels of funding and corrupting secrecy has created entrepreneurial black-bag operations flooding billions $$, not co-operation. That won't really change without firing top levels of intel services.
Finding terrorists - not a problem. Anywhere you look, the intel services have existing relationships with terrorists. Anytime they need PR they can bring some in.
We've seen the same play out in the DEA drug wars. Anytime funding is needed, the rope is pulled in for another bust of a mid-level player. Same ol' same ol'. Bureacracies are the same for centuries. Anytime you have secrecy you'll have nonsense.
The best protection against terrorism are a reformed intel services, an involved domestic population with neighborhood watches, and exit from foreign entanglements.
All of which requires getting rid of corrupted leadership, which in turn requires gaining full disclosure in government. |
