When Afghans Attack

U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, right, and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, commander of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, talk in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 20, 2012.

Back in the good-ol' cold war days the U.S. military and clandestine services were focused on eradicating the red threat. Analysts studied the moves and motives of communist leaders to better understand and predict their actions in given situations. The military conducted war games designed to provoke Communist leaders, to test their warning systems and military reactions. CIA spooks would plant disinformation through legitimate journalistic outlets and gather human intelligence by infiltration of the targeted governments. U.S. presidents like Kennedy and Reagan would talk trash about their Communist counterparts and take a stand against the expansion of the red threat into the western way of life. 

Yes those were the good-ol' days when their was a clear cut enemy and both sides had well defined agendas and philosophies that directly opposed each other. Is that still the case today? Well some say no! Many say that geopolitics has become far to complicated to whittle it down to a “us vs them strategy”, not so fast Buck-O; it is---that simple. There is a clear cut, well defined and well organized enemy that threatens western society and global security. This enemy is far more despicable than the Nazis, infinitely more expansionist than the Roman empire and exponentially more blood thirsty than the Mongols, They are the radical Muslims and Islamist extremists. What makes this adversary so dangerous is that they have infiltrated every country and are currently in the process of undermining western governments and societies. They do this through deception and taking advantage of a free society that upholds the right to practice religion freely and openly.

Combating this foe on a global scale has proven to be extremely difficult because no country other than Israel is willing to take a stand against the islamicidal cult of depravity. The U.S. and other nonsectarian nations of the world must first recognize that the enemy exists and then recognize it for what it is, evil, just that simple. The current path of thinking is that not all Muslims are terrorists and that Islam is a peaceful religion, their just happens to be a few bad apples in the barrel. What has proven to be true is that one bad apple does in fact spoil the bunch, we are witnessing that every day in the AFPAC and MENA theaters of operation. Bloodthirsty Islamic barbarians kill, torture and maim on a daily basis to justify their existence in the eyes of Allah. 

U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, travels aboard a CH-47 helicopter from Bagram to Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 20, 2012, to meet with leaders from the Internation Security Assistance Force, U.S. Central Command, U.S. State Department and the Afghan military.

The Arab Spring did bring about hope and change for the people in the MENA region but the hopeful was the Islamist barbarians that seek sectarian cleansing through jihad. The change came in the form of overthrowing the national leadership of many countries and facilitating the takeover by Muslim extremists (Muslim Brotherhood). These countries will soon be state sponsors of terror, some new like Egypt, some old, like Libya and the Islamicide will continue and will flourish. 

The U.S. and Western allies spent the last 10+ years fighting the war on terror and have not come to grips with the fact that the Taliban, al-Qaida and their Islamic off-shoots are not politically motivated like the Communists of the past but are ideologically driven by a twisted religious zealotry. When the U.S. invaded Iraq Saddam Hussein was identified as evil personified, and he was, however what the West did not identify was the evil that Saddam had stifled at  gunpoint. It was said that once the Iraqi people were rid of Saddam the people of Iraq will rejoice in their new found freedom and embrace Jeffersonian Democracy. Well fast forward to 2012 Iraq is under control of Iraqi leadership and corruption has swept through the country like a plague. The security forces are in shambles and al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) is carrying out bombings at will with no remorse. In letters captured from Osama Bin Laiden, OBL describes AQI as despicable and with out regard for the lives of their Muslim brothers and sisters. In short Iraq is a mess and the current Shia government is flirting with Iran's Mullahs.

U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, and U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, talk in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 20, 2012.

A similar situation is happening in Afghanistan but it is far worse. Corruption and cronyism is a way of life as in any Muslim community and a country based on the Islamic religion government corruption is a way of life. Afghanistan is no exception to that rule. Unfortunately the source of this corrupt money pit is the American government, a good example of this is the Dawood national military hospital in Kabul Afghanistan. Whistle-blowers testifying in front of congress stated that doctors and nurses routinely withhold food, medicine and medical care from patients that do not pay up. It was also reported that despite millions of dollars allocated for building maintenance and modernization the hospital is in deplorable condition as they put it "Auschwitz-like". Blood, fices and urine cover the floors, patients die from infections and malnutrition, family members are forced to take care of their wounded kin folk because they can not afford to bribe the doctors and nurses for treatment. The Afghan Surgeon General, Gen. Yaftali and the MoD’s Director of Finance, Major General Amiri, embezzled $20 million from the MoD and pilfered $153 million worth of medical supplies intended for patients at the hospital and  Afghan National Army (ANA) troops in the field. Both Yaftali and Amiri are directly connected to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. 

They are not leaders in the sense that we think of officers. They steal their soldiers’ pay, medicine, food, fuel, bullets and blankets and sell them on the black market. The Taliban and al-Qaida turn around and buy these supplies with the proceeds from opium and heroine. The Officers use U.S. taxpayer supplied vehicles and aircraft to further their own business interests over the well being of their armed forces or nation. The ANA soldiers in turn go AWOL at official rates close to 30%, in actuality the figure is closer to 40% in early 2011. Out of the ANA troops that remain in the service 70 to 80 percent are stoned on hash regardless of their duty status.

The Afghan people are bitter because they think the American system has failed them, the truth is it is the corruption of the Afghan government, President Karzai has failed them. The “green on blue” attacks that have been carried out by previously vetted Afghan personnel are retribution for the injustice that these people are living through every day and will be experiencing well after the Americans are gone. Public statements by The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Martin Dempsey are week and full of hollow reassurance. The general arrived at Bagram Airbase on August 19th he advised reporters that traveled with him aboard his C-17 aircraft that he was their for meetings with coalition and Afghan leaders. One of the topics the general will discuss is the recent green on blue attacks that were carried out by Afghan security forces and have killed 10 international troops, mostly Americans, in the past two weeks. In the latest incident Sunday, a person wearing an Afghan police uniform shot and killed a coalition service member. At least 39 international coalition members have been killed in such attacks this year.

During the visit, Dempsey held meetings at the highest coalition levels – Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces in the AFPAC theater, and Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command. The chairman also met with Army Lt. Gen. James Terry, the commander of the corps command. General Dempsey also held meetings with his counterpart, Afghan Army Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, greets Afghan National Army soldiers during a shura, or meeting, at the provincial district governor's compound in Sharana, Paktika province, Afghanistan, Nov. 2, 2010. Provincial leaders, elders and representatives from nearby Forward Operating Base Rushmore attended the shura.

Dempsey said he was pleased that Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly spoke out against these attacks. “The president speaking on it was tremendously important, and I hope it permeates to the lowest levels of the Afghan government and military,” he said. “We speak out about it, and we take measures to mitigate the risk.”But the more Afghan leaders speak out about this, “the better off we will be,” Dempsey said. Coalition and Afghan leaders are looking at the vetting process for Afghan soldiers and police. “We’ve had an eight-step vetting process in place in earnest for about a year, but we haven’t turned the corner on it,” he said.

This is wonderful but the root cause of the problem is that the ANA rank and file is extremely low paid, under equipped, poorly fed and inadequately housed. The Afghan forces have been throne under the tank by their own leadership. These guys come from small villages and hamlets and have been promised a better life by enlisting into service for their country. At the time of their enlistment they probably had a vision of being part of something important and a way out of the subsistence life that their family has been scratching out for generations.  

The broken system that is in place in Afghanistan is one of the reasons for these attacks. The disadvantaged Afghan grunts are poorly educated Muslims (only 14% can read and write) and are easy manipulated. They were convinced that their participation in the security forces would be beneficial for them and their families, it has proven not to be the case in their eyes. After their enlistment the grunts become a target for the Taliban. The Taliban turns the solder against his command structure with the food and supplies that the solder was to get but was pilfered and sold on the black market by the ANA elite. The Americans have invited these lightly vetted persons into their base for training and giving them access to weapons and information. The very thing that the Taliban is in need of.

The plane that General Dempsey arrived in on the 19th was hit by rocket fire wile parked at Bagram airbase on the 21st. Wile their was no one on board the C-17 it took information from an insider to hit the symbolic target. The Taliban has infiltrated Bagram and other bases with operatives and they report to the Taliban on village raids, troop movements, and supply distribution points. The green on blue insider attacks are not limited to a single solder taking aim at his American trainer but clandestine activities that culminate in downed helicopters and patrol ambushes. What it comes down to is trust, the Muslim can not be trusted. Islam teaches that anything you do to further the Islamic world caliphate is acceptable. To further exacerbate the problem of insurgent infiltration is that the less a person has the easier it is to corrupt them and these people have nothing. To make matters even worse is that the ANA solder sees his wounded compatriots mistreated and uncared for. Ultimately they see themselves as expendable cannon fatter on the wrong side of their Islamic culture. The Taliban sees these foot solders as low hanging fruit ripe for the picking, they are easily turned and radicalized for the price of a few bags of rice and a chicken.