HOW
GEORGE W. BUSH & HIS NEOCONS BLEW IT IN AFGHANISTAN
AND WHY
IT MATTERS
These
irresponsible men have long since left the scene of their crimes
while our
troops still fight a battle that could have been won if not for Bush &
Company
(Oct.7, 2012, New York City)
The war that began in Lower Manhattan the clear Tuesday morning of September
11, 2001 continues today in the ancient, forbidding landscape of a land that
time forgot. As much as time, progress,
modernization and all the accoutrements of civilized 21st century
society have eluded establishing a toe hold in Afghanistan, as our troops
continue to fight and die they seem to have been forgotten particularly by an
uninterested public as well as the Administration that sent them there, failed
to honor their commitment to those they sent into battle as well as the current
Congress and Administration. This is a
shameful story of what was a righteous cause gone horribly, unnecessarily awry.
The numbers across the board
are staggering as our military campaign in Afghanistan marks its 11th
anniversary today. On September 30,
2012, the 2000th American serviceman was killed in action there
while the American taxpayers have ponied up almost $580 billion thus far for
the overall costs of our intervention in that perpetually troubled ungovernable
country with an estimated $400 billion going directly to the criminally
corrupt, duplicitous, sham “government” of part time statesman/part time drug
kingpin, Afghan “president”, Harmid Karzai.
We have paid dearly in blood and treasure for in this unnecessarily
elongated slog and the reasons why it was not a swift victory when that swift
victory was at hand are well documented and shameful. But, we are where we are
today, we’ve traveled the strategic, tactical and diplomatic paths we have and
nothing can change what has been. It is
just heartbreaking and sickening, looking back, realizing, if not for the
Cheney/Bush designs on Iraq, our involvement would have ended a decade
ago. We were there for one reason and one
reason only; to banish Al Qaeda and their unholy hosts, The Taliban, in the
wake of the attack on America of September 11, 2001. We were there to settle the score, teach a
lesson, and demonstrate to any group or nation intent on bringing harm to our shores
that there would indeed be dire, lethal consequences. We were not there to install a government in
a notoriously ungovernable tribal nation-state or to rebuild a country that has
changed very little since Jesus Christ walked the earth. But, we lost our way. And we have lost far so much more than that.
PAYBACK US STYLE
The cause was just, the battle
righteous, the war had to be taken to the enemy. They had struck first drawing first blood and
there was going to be retribution. A 19
man cadre of Al Qaeda terrorists carried out a devastating attack on American
soil on September 11, 2001. The renegade
Taliban, the strict Islamic regime who had taken control of Afghanistan in 1996
had granted Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, its leader, safe haven in their
country, and the America would bring the fight to Afghanistan in a furious
tempo. Within 14 days of September 11,
2001, CIA operatives were on the ground in Afghanistan enlisting the support of
the Northern Alliance, a ragtag bit tenacious fighting force who were bitter
enemies of the Taliban. The CIA formed a
partnership of mutual utility with the Northern Alliance as units from our
Special Forces began to join with the CIA in the preliminary efforts laying the
ground work for a full scale military assault.
October 7, 2001 that fight began
in earnest. In response to the attacks
of September 11, the early combat operations that took place beginning eleven
years ago today, included a mix of strikes from land-based B-1 Lancer, B-2
Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress bombers, carrier-based F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18
Hornet fighters, and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from both U.S. and
British ships and submarines signaled the start of Operation Enduring Freedom –
Afghanistan (OEF-A). [1]
The initial military
objectives of OEF-A, as articulated by Former President George W. Bush in his
20 September Address to a Joint Session of Congress and his October 7, 2001
address to the country, included the destruction of terrorist training camps
and infrastructure within Afghanistan, the capture of Al Qaeda leaders, and the
cessation of terrorist activities in Afghanistan.[2]
The pounding was relentless,
the troops on the ground unleashed the wrath of the nation on the Taliban and
Al Qaeda forces who were truly no match for our military technology and superiority. As the harsh Afghan winter was about to
descend on that desolate rugged land, the surviving remnants of the Taliban and
Al Qaeda forces were essentially cornered in the timeless mountainous region
near the Pakistani border known as Tora Bora.
What occurred in the later the short but pivotal days from December 12
to 17th eleven years ago is well documented. The incredible blunders, abysmal decisions
made, and the myriad of errors made by then President George W. Bush and his
closest group of neoconservative hawkish advisors, not only robbed our forces
on the ground of imminent victory but began the cascading series of falling
dominoes that have American troops still fighting and dying in that Godforsaken
land 11 years after the fact.
FROM JAWBREAKER TO OUTSOURCER
By the end of November 2001, Al Qaeda fighters were driven to their mountain refuge and holding out in the
mountains of the Tora Bora region, however, at this time the Cheney/Bush White
House had already shifted their attention to their war of choice to be waged in
Iraq. This was the time of fatal errors
in judgment. Military resources were
diverted from Afghanistan by the Pentagon as they prepared what would be their
horribly planned, ill conceived, reckless foray to “bring democracy to the
Middle East” by ousting Saddam Hussein from power. The facts are damning. The Pentagon outsourced a vital component of
the Tora Bora battle to the inept, corrupt, largely pro-Taliban Pakistani
military. Instead of the Administration answering
the pleas from Berntsen for additional specialized American troops such as the
82nd Airborne and the 10th Mountain Division to seal off the Pakistani side of
the Khyber Pass thereby assuring the remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban hold outs
including Osama Bin Laden and his surviving top command structure and most
trusted body guards, the Cheney/Bush directed Pentagon simply said “no”. And
that was that.
On December 3, 2001, a group
of 20 U.S. CIA team members of the code name Jawbreaker were inserted by
helicopter in Jalalabad, Afghanistan to begin the operation. On December 5,
2001, Afghan Northern Alliance fighters wrested control of the low ground below
the mountain caves from Al Qaeda fighters. The Jawbreaker team and Special
Forces teams called in Air Force bombers to take out targets. The Al Qaeda
fighters withdrew to higher fortified positions and dug in for the battle.
Approximately a week later, 70 Special Forces operators from the Army's Delta
Force, Navy, and Air Force arrived overland by vehicle to support the already
ongoing bombing campaign operation with ground forces. [3]
The Northern Alliance fighters
continued a steady advance through the difficult terrain, backed by air strikes
and U.S. and British Special Forces. Facing defeat, Al Qaeda forces negotiated
a truce with a local militia commander to give them time to surrender their
weapons. In retrospect, however, many believe that the truce was a ruse to
allow important Al Qaeda figures, including Osama Bin Laden, to escape. [4]
On December 12, 2001, the
fighting flared again, possibly initiated by a rear guard buying time for the
main force's escape through the White Mountains into the tribal areas of
Pakistan. Once again, tribal forces backed by U.S. special operations troops
and air support pressed ahead against fortified Al Qaeda positions in caves and
bunkers scattered throughout the mountainous region. Twelve British SBS
commandos, and one British Royal Signals Specialist from 63 Signals squadron
now known as 18SFUK, accompanied the U.S. special operations forces in the
attack on the cave complex at Tora Bora. [5]
As the Taliban teetered on the
brink of losing their last bastion, the U.S. focus increased on the Tora Bora.
Local tribal militias paid and organized by Special Forces and CIA paramilitary
operations officers, numbering over 2,000 strong, continued to mass for an
attack as heavy bombing continued.
By December 17, 2001, the last
cave complex had been taken and their defenders overrun. No massive bunkers
were found, only small outposts and a few minor training camps. Those who had
been trapped had been allowed to flee through the porous, if not welcoming
border into Pakistan.
A search of the area by U.S.
forces continued into January, but no sign of bin Laden or the al-Qaeda
leadership emerged. Former CIA officer Gary Berntsen, who led the CIA team
(consisting primarily of CIA Paramilitary Officers from Special Activities
Division) in Afghanistan that was tasked with locating Osama Bin Laden, claims
in his 2005 book Jawbreaker that he and his team had pinpointed the location of
Osama bin Laden. Also according to Berntsen, a number of Al Qaeda detainees
later confirmed that bin Laden had escaped Tora Bora into Pakistan via an
easterly route through snow covered mountains to the area of Parachinar,
Pakistan. He also claims that bin Laden could have been captured if United
States Central Command had committed the troops that Berntsen had requested.
Former CIA officer Gary Schroen concurs with this view and Pentagon documents
are strongly suggestive of this reality. [6]
The last time Osama Bin Laden
was overheard on the VHF radio was on December 14, 2001. In 2008 Andy McNab,
the pseudonym of a former SAS trooper, echoed the claims of Berntsen, claiming
that the Coalition were, "within a whisker" of capturing Bin Laden at
Tora Bora.
NOW
Today we find ourselves mired
in the longest war in our history which seems to have become largely forgotten
by the American public, our elected leaders and one man seeking to be our next
President, Mitt Romney. The sacrifice of
military service is no longer shared and is limited to that extremely small
percentage of a specific segment of the population who voluntarily enlist in
the Armed Services but that is another discussion for another time.
Afghanistan and Iraq have
created a generation of warriors to whom we owe not simply the political lip
service of respect and gratitude, but the very real, practical assistance they
and their families need. Everything from
proper medical and mental health care for the returned and returning veterans,
affordable housing and jobs as well.
Eleven years, in the broader
context of our lives is not a very long time.
This we learn as we get older and time’s passage seems to acquire a
rapidity we’d never imagined in our youth.
Eleven years for many in our military have literally been their entire
adult lifetime thus far. Those who
enlisted in droves in the wake of 9-11-01 at age 18 or 19 are now approaching
30 years of age. Some are more intact
physically and mentally than others. Far
too many have been lost as a direct result of the idiocy and irresponsibility
of Cheney/Bush and their delusional crew of neo-cons. They have more blood on their hands than any
Administration in our history, they forever altered our historic military
doctrine by committing to and waging a war of choice under the guise and
supported by lies regarding Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” which,
incidentally, did not exist and that was known by the CIA and British
Intelligence before the first shot was fired in that quagmire.
[1],
[2], [3], [4], [5], [6]: credit given to Wikipedia. Some excerpted, some paraphrased.
TAGS: WAR IN AFGHANISTAN 2001, AL QAEDA ATTACKS AMERICA 2001,
GEORGE W. BUSH, DICK CHENEY, NEO-CONS, AMERICAN TROOPS, CIA, OPERATION ENDURING
FREEDOM, OPERATION JAWBREAKER, OUTSOURCING TORA BORA, BETRAYAL OF OUR TROOPS BY
CHENEY/BUSH, 2000 SERVICEMEN KIA, VETERANS ISSUES
LINKS:
Sources (and further
in depth reading):
First In:
An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in
Afghanistan
By Gary
Schroen
Ghost
Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the
Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 By Steve Coll
Jawbreaker:
The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda - A Personal Account by the Cia's Key
Field Commander
By Gary Berntsen, Ralph
Pezzullo
Intel Wars: The Secret
History of the Fight Against Terror
By Matthew M. Aid
Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2012 © All Rights Reserved
