All Discussions Tagged 'What' - The 4 Freedoms Library2024-03-29T06:09:03Zhttp://4freedoms.com/group/afghanistan/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=What&feed=yes&xn_auth=noStrategika: What will Afghanistan look like following US withdrawal in 2014?tag:4freedoms.com,2014-04-04:3766518:Topic:1463862014-04-04T05:45:11.494ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top"><div><div><div><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=fba7b28270&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank"><span><strong><img align="left" alt="Strategika: What will Afghanistan look like following the final U.S. withdrawal in 2014?" height="347" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/PzctSeFuaOzejlG4f5m6ibKz-D1lx9JHGUxdKin-eA9OoJkRT4m5KBc9d4jUteeiD9u6jdOG9U0uWPI6Us1ZUZwROU262CO_8ZMVBrKNiHVIwMAzUOiTzsY5CwLcg77kG6f1tH7wexHzEeQ0YtBzpjGy=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808/images/EmailImage_Issue12_edited.jpg" width="240"/></strong></span></a><br/>The current issue of <em><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=272eb53a2f&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank">Strategika</a> </em>ponders the future of Afghanistan, asking the question: What will Afghanistan look like following the final U.S. withdrawal in 2014?</div>
<div><br/> In his background essay, Max Boot analyzes how British, and subsequently, Soviet involvement in Afghanistan, suggest that the country's current stability can be maintained with continued assistance from the U.S. In the featured commentary essays, Col. Joseph Felter discusses the uncertainties of Afghanistan's internal political situation and Kimberly Kagan warns that the departure of the U.S. forces from Afghanistan will have disastrous consequences for both countries.<br/> <br/> Readers are also encouraged to return to our last issue on U.S.-China relations where they will find podcast interviews with our contributors available in the next few days.<br/> <br/> </div>
<span><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=ee56219917&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank"><img align="none" alt="STRATEGIKA" height="45" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/naQRANuTmzLh4k_3QByceWs-skfCr6ctqGZbaUnO7_jAGdU7x4ZCA6MoXOwyJUAR1VfVzWoFLK1Wc_a2Q65zxm9j6dXCRCqw82-LFnEIWoEwheYYR4fUHolX0mPdf_drlPgET_3Nbjt_TU1n=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808/images/strategika_button.1.jpg" width="150"/></a></span><br/> </div>
<hr/><div><br/> <span><strong>BACKGROUND ESSAY</strong></span><br/> <br/> <a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=aed446eb1b&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank"><img align="left" height="71" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/NI86uVLXIaJ6q1FzeK0NX1cbQfXSFwqJCBVayKO0-7am7jIOU0SQdZssTvbn27mt_nSxDLkSVw8wv65wrvhEW9nNVS_EFGM8z0o9Z-iqV8vcbWzhUxe4ML8QZb4p5bv6Zg=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808/images/Boot_Max.jpg" width="50"/></a><em><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=e96f335965&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank">Afghanistan—Graveyard of Empires?</a></em><br/> by Max Boot<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <span><strong>FEATURED COMMENTARY</strong></span><br/> <br/> <a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=985114c457&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank"><img align="left" height="75" src="https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/1uXOsFhfE_12LDJU3TWU-LSBZ7nl6JLzXBqydHSDryxhZqUo84taifcSbZpy7HBNWw_dOZZTRdEGcq1p0aDegQFg-Ze-9sQa-1KZksvtCLnzazqrR2_wNhmhOpCKx8Az-e46pcaM=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808/images/joseph_felter.jpg" width="50"/></a><em><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=8b9921c626&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank">How Good is Afghan Good Enough? Anticipating Security Conditions in Afghanistan post-U.S. Troop Withdrawal</a></em><br/> by Colonel Joseph Felter<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=a7d0df1c9b&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank"><img align="left" height="74" src="https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/DLM35G8oVdsJvA899-fCpHESkMw22mKgKK5TznjU-c_SOko4ZLxfOLyD9B3djFm-pc-RjgiCjoyNv9MnEcpEuo_Us3zpdZ2UN1vqN7V43dGSxYCNc8l9Y0dHVDG_ViJytNw7ZjuqpCuF9SXLNQ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808/images/Kagan_Kimberlye4cc47.jpg" width="50"/></a><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=831c49e0f9&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank"><em>The Folly of Abandoning Afghanistan</em></a><br/> by Kimberly Kagan<br/> <br/> <span> </span></div>
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<br/> <span><strong>RELATED COMMENTARY</strong></span>
<div><div><span><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=455a3536a2&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank">With the Taliban’s Strength Depleted, the Prospect for Stability Exists by Thomas Donnelly</a></span></div>
<div><span><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=d62ac23bbd&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank">Afghanistan’s Fragile Political Landscape by Mark Moyar</a></span></div>
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<hr/><span><strong>ABOUT STRATEGIKA</strong></span><br/> <br/> <em><a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=1b23c12301&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank">Strategika</a></em> is a free online journal that analyzes ongoing issues of national security in light of conflicts of the past. <em>Strategika</em> offers two opinion editorials on a current crisis or controversy with a background historical essay. The journal also includes a brief section with suggestions for further study and discussion questions for educators on particular issues that arise from the posted essays along with additional commentary from the members.<br/> <hr/><p><span><strong>ABOUT THE WORKING GROUP ON THE ROLE OF MILITARY HISTORY IN CONTEMPORARY CONFLICT</strong></span><br/> <br/> As the very name of the Hoover Institution attests, military history lies at the core of our dedication to the study of “War, Revolution, and Peace.” It is with this tradition in mind that the “<a href="http://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=811e38d23e&e=d583ca67ee" target="_blank">Working Group on the Role of Military History in Contemporary Conflict</a>” has set its agenda—reaffirming the Hoover Institution’s dedication to historical research in light of contemporary challenges, and in particular, reinvigorating the national study of military history as an asset to foster and enhance our national security. By bringing together a diverse group of distinguished military historians, security analysts, and military veterans and practitioners, the working group seeks to examine the conflicts of the past as critical lessons for the present. The working group is chaired by Victor Davis Hanson with counsel from Bruce S. Thornton and David L. Berkey.</p>
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</table> Syria? What about the recent attacks on US troops in Afghanistan?tag:4freedoms.com,2013-09-05:3766518:Topic:1370512013-09-05T14:35:41.612ZPaul Austin Murphyhttp://4freedoms.com/profile/PaulAustinMurphy
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">I've received criticism for this piece from some 'fellow travelers', or from fellow counter-jihadists, for my references to the Taliban being 'fighters'. See what you think.<b><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> …</span></b></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">I've received criticism for this piece from some 'fellow travelers', or from fellow counter-jihadists, for my references to the Taliban being 'fighters'. See what you think.<b><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b></span></p>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">It’s ironic that just days after a possible US/UK military ‘intervention’ in Syria we are reminded about another intervention – the one in Afghanistan. In this case, <a href="http://www.navytimes.com/article/20130902/NEWS/309020003/Militants-attack-U-S-base-Afghan-supply-route">Taliban jihadists have just attacked a US base</a> in eastern Afghanistan (Sunday, 1<sup>st</sup> September). Three of their fighters were killed in the process.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">This means that the war in Afghanistan has not been won after 13 years. If we intervene in Syria (even if not so directly as in Afghanistan), how long will the deadly consequences of such an intervention in that country last?</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">One thing I did note about the British reports on this attack was the wording. The journalists uniformly called the Afghanistan fighters ‘militants’ and ‘insurgents’. When Islamists kill civilians in the West they are also sometimes called ‘militants’ or ‘radicals’. They are terrorists and/or jihadists. Even when they deliberately kill civilians in their own countries, they are still terrorists and/or jihadists. However, when they kill US or Afghan soldiers in Afghanistan, they are fighters. On that issue, I agree with the Western Left.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">Of course many Afghan Muslims are going to fight against a foreign force within their midst. That’s why we should have no illusions about any military intervention in Syria. Even if we did help the Sunni victims of Assad (if they are victims of Assad), as well indirectly – or directly - help the Islamists or ‘militants’ (them again) in the process, then there will come a time when most Syrians will no longer need or want our help. Who knows, perhaps that would occur only a week or so after they had achieved their victory against Assad. And then would it be Iraq all over again?</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">As for the Afghan fighters. I’m not romanticising the Taliban, or carrying out a piece of (Marxist) theorising which miraculously turns them from being Islamic zealots <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>into being ‘liberationists’ or ‘anti-imperialists’. I’m simply saying that when they fight US and Afghan troops - though not when they kill civilians in the random manner they do every day - they are fighters. This is not to say there were no good reasons for going into Afghanistan in October 2001. But once there, most Afghan Muslims were almost bound to fight against them – even those who weren’t Islamic fanatics. This is a vague case of patriotism/nationalism – even if it is indeed Afghanistan and therefore that loyalty is primarily to the tribe (Pashtuns or other tribes) rather than to the whole of Afghanistan (let alone to the Afghanistan state). In addition, it may well be the case that most – though not all – those men in the Afghan army - and even the police - are there for financial or career reasons; not for any deep hatred of the Taliban or, conversely, out of love for the American troops and what they’re doing in their country. In fact the many renegade actions of Afghan troops and police over the last 13 years have shown that to be the case.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">The Taliban actions in this instance were clearly military in nature and part of their war effort. They attacked a US base in eastern Afghanistan. After a long gun battle, three Taliban were dead. Luckily no American soldiers were killed.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">Before the gun battle, the fighters, not the ‘militants’ or ‘insurgents’, had torched NATO supply trucks on the road leading to the US Torkham base in the Nangarhar province.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">British soldiers are said to be pulling out of Afghanistan in 2014; though some will remain there in an ‘advisory capacity’. This is something that many British Muslims appear to forget when they - as well as their Leftists enablers - accuse us of being ‘foreign occupiers’, ‘colonialists’ and all the rest. Indeed the same is true about Iraq. British troops pulled out of that country in 2011. Nonetheless, there are still 66,000 US troops in Afghanistan but no US troops in Iraq. The last US troops pulled out of Iraq in 2011. The US Government has also promised to pull out all troops from Afghanistan in 2014… and then do you honestly think that Islamic terrorism will suddenly stop either here in the West or in the Muslim world? Of course not! A jihad that’s been going on for 1,400 years is hardly likely to stop <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">just like that</i>. <a href="http://paulaustinmurphyseverythinganything.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/interfaith-muslims-on-reasons-for-jihad.html">Other reasons and justifications will be found</a> - both by Muslims and Leftists - for further terrorist attacks. What’s happening in Syria? Israel’s ‘treatment of Palestinians’? The banning of the burka in France? The lack of a clampdown on ‘Islamophobes’ in the UK and Europe? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Western non-Muslim ‘personnel’/workers – not troops! – in Saudi Arabia? A church being built too near one of Birmingham’s Muslim ghettos (if churches are built at all nowadays)? Another ‘blasphemous’ film or book?</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H7tLhw90c8Q/UihURlGOZAI/AAAAAAAAL5U/c98whtuCcPk/s1600/SunniShia1206.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H7tLhw90c8Q/UihURlGOZAI/AAAAAAAAL5U/c98whtuCcPk/s320/SunniShia1206.jpg?width=550" width="550" class="align-full"/></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">Even though in this case only I’ve called the Taliban ‘fighters’, as I said, they are not always so. In fact they are usually terrorists or just plain killers. And what can be more terroristic than killing your own people? This is a daily fact that many Western and American Muslims systematically ignore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> Muslim-on-Muslim killing far exceeds Western-on-Muslim killings by many orders of magnitude. It always has done. But most Western Muslims have never really been that concerned with Muslim-on-Muslim killing. (The long-running Palestine Muslim-on-Muslim <a href="http://www.phrmg.org/intrafada.htm"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">intrafada</i></a> - which <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/hamasvsfatah/JonathanSchanzer">has claimed more lives</a> than those claimed by the Israelis during the three intifada - is a very good example.) Muslims killing Muslims doesn’t play into Islamists’ ideological and religious game-plans. However, the singular exception to this (for Sunnis) is when Shia kill Sunnis, or (for Shia) when Sunnis kill Shia; which is precisely the case with Syria.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">As for the Left, most Leftists have no interest in Muslim-on-Muslim killing either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> In the Afghanistan case particularly, there have been dozens of Muslim civilians killed by the Taliban recently. Then again, Muslims are killing Muslims on a massive scale in Iraq too; as well as in Syria. What many Leftists and Muslims will now say is that the West, miraculously and predictably, is somehow responsible for all these deaths too. It always was responsible, according to Muslims; and has been ever since Muslims lost the last of their many imperialist empires after World War One. In the Left’s case, this is the position you are bound to adopt if you treat all Muslims as children without free will or conscience. Similarly, if you treat them as children who are literally incapable of changing their own political, social and economic environments. This is the Leftists’ condescending vision of all Muslims as the endless victims of us ‘white folk’ (though not Leftist ones!) in the West.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">The Taliban’s terrorism against its own civilians is deliberate – as terrorism always is. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">terror</i> in their terrorism is vital. It’s not just about getting rid of foreign or even domestic enemies. Hence the many civilian (Muslim) causalities of the Taliban’s Islamic piety. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More specifically, through such terror the Taliban is not only trying to scare the ‘Christian Crusaders’ out of Afghanistan. The terror is aimed primarily at Afghan civilians as well as at Afghan troops. It’s a warning shot to show the non-Islamist – until now - Afghan forces what they’re up against. It’s also telling Afghan civilians – Muslims - that they must support the Taliban otherwise death shall await them.</span></div>
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