By Brigitte L. Nacos
After reading of more suicide bombings, attacks on NATO
soldiers, and the killing of two German journalists in Afghanistan and
after listening to a NATO general’s assessment of the Afghan situation, I should
have been surprised to read Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s up-beat op-ed
article in the Washington Post. Strangely, I was not. More than five years
after 9/11, there is nothing surprising about the administration’s steadfast
efforts to put an optimistic spin on all its policies, particular if they
involve the war on terrorism. In his op-ed piece, Mr. Rumsfeld admits that “not
all news about Afghanistan is encouraging,” but concludes, “In Afghanistan, the trajectory is a hopeful
and promising one.” What is excluded here is probably more telling than what is
included concerning the true situation in Afghanistan.For example, in listing the successes of the last five years
of the liberated Afghanistan,
Rumsfeld mentions the growing economy but not the fact that the poppy plantings
are again drastically rising after promising decreases in previous years. As
for security, the Secretary of Defense’s account omits that except for Kabul
there are increasing security problems—not only in the mentioned South.
Much has been said and written about this administration’s state of denial with respect to the situation in Iraq. But this denial—at least for public consumption—extends to Afghanistan as well. Supported by most of the world, the American-led coalition (now under NATO command) never accomplished its number one mission: the capture or neutralization of Al Qaeda’s and the Taliban’s top leaders. Instead, the Taliban has rebuilt and reemerged as an insurgent force in the Southern part of Afghanistan, while bin Laden and al-Zawahiri remain in their hiding places, probably in the mountains of Pakistan or Afghanistan.
By turning their attention to Saddam Hussein and putting most military resources into the successful invasion and unsuccessful occupation of Iraq, administration officials—with Mr. Rumsfeld in a major role—weakened, if not abandoned what they themselves proclaimed as their primary objective in Afghanistan. In five long years, they did not manage to get Osama dead or alive.
Unfortunately, in spite of Mr. Rumsfeld optimistic words,
today the trajectory is not hopeful and promising in Afghanistan—nor
in Iraq.
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