Kandahar Cluster**** Watch - The 'We Had to Destroy the Village to Save It' Version Posted by Michael Cohen

There was a rather extraordinary and disturbing interview with David Petraeus over the weekend about the coming battle for Kandahar - and it serves as compelling evidence of the farcical, even tragic, assumptions that lie at the heart of the US mission in Afghanistan:

"The enemy is going to take horrific actions to disrupt the progress that Afghan and coalition civilian and military elements are working so hard to achieve," Petraeus told Kandahar journalists at a news conference in the city.

"There have been tough moments here in Kandahar in recent weeks. That is well known. And we know that there will be more tough moments in the weeks and months ahead," said Petraeus, who commanded U.S. troops during the 2007 "surge" in Baghdad."

"As we learned in Iraq, as we have re-learned in Afghanistan, when you fight to take away the momentum and the sanctuaries and safe havens of the enemy, the enemy fights back."

"And that can mean difficult and tough fights. But that is something that is necessary, becuase the mission here in Afghanistan is of extraordinary importance to the Afghan people, to the region and to the world," he said.

This is simply an amazing statement. Let's ignore for a moment that the mission Petraeus' describes as being of "extraordinary importance" to the Afghan people is, according to the Army's own public opinion surveys, opposed by approximately 94% of all Kandaharis. Actually, it's pretty hard to ignore these facts because it provides fairly compelling evidence that our mission in Afghanistan, which is supposedly predicated on "protecting the people" and recognizes them as the "center of gravity" in the counter-insurgency fight seems only mildly interested in what they actually want.

But it also bears noting that the "horrific actions" that will be taken by the enemy are a direct result of our engagement in Southern Afghanistan. I have no doubt that there are many Afghans in the region who want us to rollback the insurgency (just as there are many who broadly sympathize with the Taliban); and I'm equally convinced that the Taliban insurgency is a nasty piece of work.

But all this notwithstanding, there is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the US mission in Afghanistan - for all our talk about protecting civilians, the reality is that our very presence in Southern Afghanistan is getting people killed. And if our goal is to turn the Afghan people against the Taliban and on to the side of NATO and the Kabul government - no matter how noble an endeavor that might be - ensuring that more of them die is a pretty strange way to go about achieving that goal.

But don't believe me; what do I know about Afghanistan. Check out the chart below (H/T to Josh Foust for tweeting it). Since the spring and summer of last year - a time period that indirectly coincided with the inclusion of more US troops and the supposed adoption of population-centric counter-insurgency tactics - the number of kinetic attacks in Afghanistan has jumped propitiously.

Now of course, much of this increase was centered around last year's election. But look at what has happened since just the beginning of the year - an almost 50% increase in violence - and one can imagine that after we liberate Kandahar those numbers will end up rivaling what we were seeing even before the election in August.

But look this mission is of "extraordinary importance" and is "something that is necessary". . . words that I'm sure will provide great comfort to the people of Kandahar in the weeks and months to come.

Comments

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