In all seriousness, the old Soviet tanks and military scrap metal only enforces OLD memories of war that need to be abandoned and there is money to be made here. This needs to be addressed to recapture the dignity within that country and its priority to maintain its ethnic and national pride.
I am going to highlight the issues I feel fell between the cracks in the sidewalk and they involved strong bipartanship President Obama can engage in and General McCrystal may find comfort in. I feel the same way about Stanley McCrystal as before. He is a rock star as far as I am concerned and he is the answer for Afghanistan AND Pakistan. He and the Ambassador also support the shared economic uptick that Iran provides to this region and that is good thing.
But, McCrystal is a good guy and very centered on what will work.
There were two Republicans I really thought had a lot to say and one in particular that needs to speak at length with President Obama simply because he sees a different war front that will also reduce the cost of this conflict. In a minute.
There are also three ladies following in the steps of Dianne Feinstein of California that have a very interesting perspective and direction to their role on this Committee. They are all African Americans and I will speak to their very valuable roll in one comprehensive way. I am not exaggerating when I say I think they are more valuable then many of the other committee members. They did their homework and are committed to a realistic outcome to this war. I am proud of them. They aren't thrilled with the President's initiative here. They have their reasons and they are sound reasons. They must continue their focus even if the President's requests are granted. Absolutely. In a minute or two.
I first want to apologize if I don't get all these names exactly correct, but, I think I have it mostly right. The way C-Span sometimes runs its credits blocks out the names of the panel members as their names are on the table and the credits sometimes do not reflect the name of the member speaking especially when they only have a minute to speak.
I believe some of this is not as bipartisan as I first thought.
Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger is a junior House member. It is his first term. And it is he that was only given a minute to speak. I thought he was a Republican, he is actually a Democrat, however, the other member is a Republican by the name of Mr. Miller.
It went like this. General McCrystal made the statement, "...The people of Afghanistan are very afraid of the militias and warlords...."
The discourse between the committee members and the General and Ambassador went on a while and it came time for the one minute of Mr. Ruppersburger. He stated in some anger that he only had one minute to speak and it was a comment more than a question which the General was able to respond.
The statement went like this, "I am annoyed I only have one minute to speak because I have a strong background with Afghanistan. The statement the General made has me very concerned. He stated the people are afraid of the militias and the militias are comprised of the young men/sons of the villages. That means the orientation these militias are receiving are causing them to hate their own families and village leadership. There is a way to trim the costs of this war and that is to pay the young men within these militias to participate in the national military and remove them from the influence of the local economies...." Sorry your minute is up.
That statement was upheld by the Ambassador in one of his earlier statements in that he said, the cost ratio for Afghan troops opposed to USA troops is 40 to l. It costs the Afghan government $1.00 USA to operate their soldiers to every $40.00 it costs the USA to operate theirs.
That statement also was validated as a policy statement by the General, "We will recruit and train many more Afghan forces in the coming months (with great success in a subsequent statement) that will support the withdrawal of President Obama to begin July 2011. The decisions at that time will be dictated by the conditions on the ground. (In a later statement to another question 'If there is a decline in improvement at that time it will enter the pitcure regarding the USA's roll in Afghanistan as well.)
The point that Rep. Ruppersburg was making is that the Taliban and al Qaeda have such a strong hold on the country and culture of Afghanistan that the young men recruited in the militias are disabled in their culture as taught by their families and villages to a violent orientation based on hate and acting on that hate regardless of their 'former' love of their families, friends villages and country. That is a significant statement and the knowledge base of this House member should be better known to the President to understand what he can bring as insight.
Also. The Ambassador can ask for Anthropologist to assist he and General McCrystal to investigate the culture and the undermining of the Afghan people, perhaps especially their young men, as to the influences and the ACTUAL 'orientation' they meet up with to commit these heinous acts.
That insight, by the way, will lead to greater understanding of the global strategies of al Qaeda and the websites of these sociopathic religious leaders.
Finding an Anthropologist that will work with the USA military, that is a USA citizen and will be willing to work in Afghanistan perhaps intimately with villagers in tandum with soldiers and perhaps a second Anthropologist working randomly on the same level but reporting independently will probably prove a great challenge. It will however bring brevity to the General's initiatives.
The issue, of course, with the Afghan forces is a matter of loyalty and willingness to move against these 'home grown Afghan' militias and warlords. But, as the Ambassador stated, the current leadership in all ministries under Karzai are 'world class' leaders. They are trustworthy and ready to build their departments. Those departments will be filled with 'citizens' the Ambassador sees being added with proper recruitment, proven loyalty to defeat the corruption of Afghanistan and within the next year. So, the changes are coming, but, requiring some time and support to achieve them.
As to the Republican that comes into this picture, Mr. Miller. He also backs up the General in that he stated, one of the worst initiatives of the Bush Administration in Afghanistan was to move against the freedoms and influences of some of the local cultures, even though they were viewed as somewhat extremist by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. Not completely his words, but, these are.
"The al Sadr ministry should have been left alone and allowed to come to understand freedom." Something like that, but, he specifically pointed to the idea that Cleric al Sadr in the beginning of Iraq was a strong asset that could have added to the peace of his people rather than the radicalization, but, it was handled with oppression and violence and radicalized the Cleric, who was one of the last of his ancestral line (which is strongly coveted by the religious Shia), rather than allied him.
We all remember how completely stupid Bremer was to close down the Cleric's newspaper when he was only beginning to understand what Freedom of the Press and Speech was. And we all remember the hostile actions of Bush and Blair by removing the Ayatollah from Iraq while they moved aggressively against the Cleric at the Imam Ali Mosque. They were defeated in that deception as well when the Ayatollah returned and called a massive movement of his people to the Mosque to end the conflict. Bremer, Bush and Blair were completely stupid in their so called, 'Hearts and Mind Campaign.' It alienated them rather than recruit them to understand freedom and democracy. In the case of the Iraq Shia, they just were coming out of the oppression of Saddam who genocided 50,000 Shai in 2002 and there were the issues with the marshes and their water drainage. So, it was completely wrong to move against a rare and important Cleric that had as a mentor 'The Peace Ayatollah.'
Mr. Miller is also a very valuable and dedicated asset the President needs to speak with directly to learn of his insight and what he can add to the best approach that General McCrystal is advocating.
The ladies were awesome. They don't want this war. They believe the people of Afghanistan are too far gone to ever achieve what the hopes are of the American people. They might be right and it is a perspective that is not entertained by others. They need to proceed with their concerns in a real way. They are somewhat novice in their sincere knowledge to support their position and was seeking information today, but, Anthropologists would assist them greatly. They are deeply concerned this is a culture of violence that CANNOT and WILL NOT change. Their concerns should go forward along with everyone elses. If they are most correct and this is all futile, it needs to become a method of policy in regard to Afghanistan and a reality in relation to the nuclear arsenal in Pakistan. Either we stabilize the region or we simply cannot.
I thought the meeting went extremely well, many fronts were covered, the members mostly well prepared, there was little political fanfare, although there was some, and procedurally was nearly perfect.
I appreciated all the talent in the room today. The General might note, his folks sitting behind him appeared fatigued of the meeting shortly after it started and seemed to have 'neck fatigue' in that they twisted their necks and rubbed them frequently. At least they didn't fall asleep or rub their eyes. I am sorry they found the proceedings boring, I did not.
That was not necessarily the case of 'the suits' sitting behind the Ambassador. They listened intently.
I think the issue is, the folks with the General are used to more 'action' positions than they experienced today.
