Text Fwd: Ann Wright on the US Occupation of Afghanistan

* Text fwd from J. D. on Jan. 23, 2011


Common Dreams
Retired US Army Colonel Discusses Why the War in Afghanistan is Unwinnable
Published on Sunday, January 23, 2011 by Maui Times (Hawaii)
by Jacob Shafer

We've spoken with Ret. Col. Ann Wright of Oahu before-about her decision to resign from the State Department on the eve of the 2003 Iraq invasion, about the follies of the Bush Administration, about Israel, and about the importance of dissent.

Ret. Col. Ann Wright. "Afghans do not want the international community to abandon or forget them," she says. "But they want the killing of Afghan civilians to end."
Now, recently returned from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan, Wright has plenty to say about America's oft forgotten, decade-old war.

You went to Afghanistan in September 2009, and then again last month. What, if anything, has changed?

The change that I noticed and that was talked about the most by Afghans was the huge increase in U.S. military bases-now over 400. We saw the construction of a huge base just north of Kabul. The high wall on the front side of it stretches over two miles and encloses a large training area. In the shadow of the wall, just across the road in an internal displacement camp, are tens of thousands of Afghans who have fled the fighting in the South and East of the country. They are living in abject misery in small dirt hovels, with no water or sewage and only a few sticks of wood each day to cook a tiny meal. Yet across the road are hundreds of millions-if not billions-of dollars spent on infrastructure for military training and operations. Villas built with the huge profits from the multi-million dollar U.S. logistics contracts to support our military presence are rented back to the international community contractors and non-governmental agencies for $10,000 to $15,000 per month. Yet most Afghans live in poverty.

In travelling outside of Kabul north of the Panjshir Valley, we went past the turn-off to Bagram Air Base, now an American city with over 20,000 U.S. military living and working there, as well as an infamous prison with over 10,000 detainees who are being held without any judicial process, many for years. We observed two new, 'smaller' U.S. military bases on the way to the valley-with the standard and expensive bomb-blast protective walls with at least 50 pre-fab buildings in each and an American flag flying above each base.

With its latest $500 million expansion project, the United States Embassy in Afghanistan will be the largest in the world, even bigger than the mammoth U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Over 1,400 U.S. government employees will reside inside the walls of the compound, which is expanding to take over the Afghan Ministry of Health grounds and part of an Afghan Ministry of Defense area. The U.S. is building two consulates, one in Heart and one in Mazir Sharif. Each will cost $50 million.

The United States' presence in Afghanistan is so large that it has its own air terminal at the Kabul International Airport, plus the two mega air bases at Bagram and Kandahar, and the air base in Kyrgyzstan.

This huge infrastructure build-up is to support the Obama administration's strategy for Afghanistan. That strategy-which increased the U.S. military presence by 50,000-was opposed by the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, retired three-star General Karl Eikenberry. Eikenberry was the former commander of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan. Two of his secret State Department cables to Obama during the strategy review-with his recommendation that a military increase was not what was needed-were leaked to the public, not through Wikileaks, but apparently directly to a major newspaper in the United States. Obama chose to ignore his own Ambassador and former military commander and approve Generals Patreaus and McChrystal's recommendation of a dramatic increase in military troop strength.

Do the Afghan people want us there under any circumstances, or is the overwhelming sentiment that we should leave?

Afghans do not want the international community to abandon or forget them, as happened after the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan in the late 1980s. But they want the killing of Afghan civilians to end.

Afghans are concerned about their security, but with the United States, NATO forces, Afghan National Army and Taliban all shooting at them, they have nowhere to turn. In fact, Nowhere to Turn: The Failure to Protect Civilians in Afghanistan is the title of a study endorsed by 29 international organizations that have done community development work in Afghanistan for decades. It documents the dramatically increasing number of civilian deaths, displacement of families across the country escaping the fighting, cutting off access to basic services and reduction of the ability or aid agencies to reach those who need assistance.

Many Afghans with whom we talked say that the aggressive U.S. military operations for the 'security' of Afghanistan are counterproductive. They believe that as long as the U.S. military is in Afghanistan there will be many who will fight against the U.S.-just as they did against the Soviet soldiers-and will destroy the schools, clinics and roads that the United States has built.

Some believe a different type of international security force is needed, one that does not include the U.S. military. Others-including the brave, outspoken former Afghan Parliamentarian Malalia Joya, are calling for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces. They believe that the Afghans must ultimately sort out their own problems without foreign interference.


What would you say is the biggest misconception the average American has about Afghanistan?

I think many Americans believe that there always has been fighting in Afghanistan because the Afghans love to fight. They don't realize that Afghans have had to repeatedly defend their tribal areas-and then their country-from foreign invaders. The geographic location of Afghanistan on the route from Asia to the Middle East has made it a target for many occupiers.

No matter what our political leaders tell us about the rationale for the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, the United States is the latest invader and occupier. Most Afghans in the countryside haven't even heard of the events of September 11 or al-Qaeda training bases. What they see is another foreign military force in their country killing Afghans.

Is there any way for the U.S. to "win" this war?



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