Eggs Laid by Tigers

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Karzi's request for troops in Barge Natal

Nuristan poses yet another puzzle for us.

These remarkable and determinedly isolated folks have maintained their identity as Nuristani since Alexander the Great marched through Central Asia more than two centuries ago. They maintained a vigorous, bloody guerilla movement for 10 year, against the Russians.

Barge Natal is a village of some 500 folks, in what the Washington Post calls a "forbidding region" of Afghanistan. Don't know why the Post called Nuristan "forbidding".

Nuristan is a province in the extreme northwest of Afghanistan, just opposite Chitral, in the Hindu Kush Mountains. Some Nuristani cross the mountain to live in Chitral Town, where they are successful merchants; others smuggle opium and arms across the border; but most remain at home, doing what their ancestors have done since time immemorial.

President Karzai specifically asked that the U.S. send 100 Marines to Barge Natal because the village had been overrun by Taliban. Our commandeers reluctantly agreed to send in troops.

The Talib come from Chitral as refugees fleeing from Pakistan's successful routing of the Taliban in Swat. Small bands of 6 or 7 Talib would find their way to Chitral, where they were hunted, I gather, for sport. Presumably it is some of those who "overran" Barge Natal.

If the Nuristani can cary out successful guerilla activity against the Russian Army for 10 years, they can surely defend a village of 500 folks.

Barge Natal is hard for us to supply

and hard for us to defend, and has no strategic importance.

So why was Karzai insistent on sending troops to protect a remote village of 500?

Well, Nuristan has some 300,000 people, they vote, and it is an easy assumption that they vote in a bloc. Is that an ample motive? I think so. We were used to bolster Karzai's margin.

Here are Nuristani lining up to vote in Barge Natal. Guess who they voted for. [They would love our 2nd Amendment.]

Barge Natal, and 93% of the other people who live in the province of Nuristan, are Nuristani, a people remarkable for their cohesion and ferocity. Many are fair, as this boy illustrates,

and the folks in Nuristan are thought to be descended from Alexander the Great's troops. Many folks in the Hindu Kush mountains are fair and make a similar claim. They like the idea. Alexander made quit a splash as he traveled through Central Asia.

The province is beautiful.

This, as nearly as I can make out, is the largest city in Nuristan. They don't seem to care much for automobiles and electric poles are not in evidence.

Our troops know how to make friends with children. This pic might have been taken in Germany right after WWII, except the devastation was greater. Malcolm, a housemate, says that giving children candy was common when he was recently in al Anbar, except that you had to watch out for kids wearing hand grenades, intent on suicide. Don't think we had that problem in Germany.

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Can Mcchrystal be trusteed? The papers carry stories ofd the misreporting of Pat Tillman's death. The military reported his death as heroic standing up to enemy fire to save his fellow soldiers. Bushco used the story as a propaganda event, to bolster hit's chances of winning an election. In fact, Tillman was killed by friendly fire, as his family discovered. McChrystal knew the true story and went along with the lie, to bolster Bushco's election chances. Can he be trusted to tell Obama the truth? I'm worried.

Labels: Afghanistan, Chitral, Karzai, McChrystal, Nuristan, Pakistan

posted by durell douthit # 10:44 AM 0 Comments

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Post-Taliban Swat; unrest on Kohat; McChrystal's challenge.

The Pakistan army cleared Swat of Taliban influence but the reason the Taliban was welcomed in the first place continue to exist: a weak government unable to handle mundane affairs of the people.

One white-bearded elder "mentioned proudly that England's Queen Elizabeth II had visited in the 1950s.

"'That all seems like a dream now, like rocking on a swing with your eyes closed,'" said the man, a retired police officer named Sherzada."

Swat once was the Switzerland of Pakistan, not then though to be "lawless". The people are pleased that the Taliban are gone. The article in today's Washington Post gives ample reason for the public hatred of the Taliban, and it also illustrates the government's inability to enforce even the local holiday schedule.

The Pakistan army is making the people safe from the Taliban, but at a great price to the people. One hopes for better from General McChrystal and our Marines.

Pictures of Swat:

"There but or the Grace o gGod, go I." Or perhaps one of these old guys is I, ans I, he. What do I know?

Where tourists used to stay.

Why tourists stopped going, when the Taliban ruled.

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Raising the same problem for McChrystal, ask the New York Times to search the village of Kohat, district capital for kohat District, in the "lawless' tribal areas. You will find here and here and here and here news articles of bombings by the Taliban and once by the U.S. resulting in significant deaths, considering Kohat's small population. How do you prevent suicide bombings.? How do you prevent accidental killing of civilians by our own bombs? McChrystal seems determined to attempt making folks safe, so that they will be encouraged to themselves take up arms against the Taliban. McChrystal's vision is daring. I wish him well with a full heart. His unclassified report to the president is here, in case you missed it. It is well worth reading. The talking heads do not do it justice.

Images of Kohat:

Many folks live in hot, duty tents because their homes have been destroyed by the Taliban or by the Pakistan army, routing out the Taliban.

This is not La Feria, in South Texas, but you couldn't prove it by me

A shop keeper and his shop.

Citizens of Kohat, eyeing Pakistan army troops, the caption to the pic says "warily", though that's not apparent to me.

The pride of Kohat. This tunnel though the mountain, making Kohat accessible during winter months, was a gift of the Japanese government. It earned the Japanese great merit in the eyes of the residents. The Japanese similarly built an important budgie in Lower Dir, and similarly won the admiration of the people of Dir. The cost of the tunnel and the bridge are pocket change compared to the cost of military operations. I wish we would do this sort of thing. Lots better than killing civilians with drones, I think.

posted by durell douthit # 12:43 PM 0 Comments

Monday, September 21, 2009

I heard the news today, O Boy, McChrystal and Kay Bailey Hutchinson

General McChrystal's "Initial Assessment" of the progress of fighting in Afghanistan, and his preliminary recommendations for the future are different from the talking heads' reporting of them, and both ore encouraging and are discouraging. Read the assessment yourself: it's easy reading, easier than any military writing has any right to be. The assessment reads as if someone really wanted it to be read and understood.

The assessment was written before the recent presidential and district elections in Afghanistan. I don't know if there has been an update following . There is no president of Afghanistan until the election is decided, because of a quirk in Afghanistan's constitution, and it may be a while before Karzai is confirmed, for I'm assuming he is, from our perspective, venal enough to have assured his reelection. [Of course, from his perspective,a nd perhaps fro New Jersey's, he's just being a dutiful Pashtun, following the dictates of pashtunwali.]

McChrystal' main point: The Taliban should be defeated, and it should and will be defeated by Afghans themselves. We should not fight in Afghanistan; Afghans don't like talibs or their draconian interpretation of Sharia; given enough security and weapons, Afghans will reject the Taliban; Afghans should do their own fighting; only then is success possible; we need more troop and U.S. civilians to make it so that Afghans will assume that role.

I like it; and as I have said before, making community organizers our of our Marines is no easy task.

U. S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, one in a long line of tough, independent Texas women who have made a success out of politics, is running against Rick Perry for Governor of Texas. Perry is playing to the radical right, so Kay Bailey must move more in that direction than she might like. I suppose that explains her recent comments that imply that McChrystal is advocating that we kill all Taliban. I know certain Texans would agree. Don't know what explains why McConnell's asserting the same thing. Maybe it's a Republican thing.

More later.

posted by durell douthit # 5:57 PM 0 Comments