Winning the War in Afghanistan

Leon Thompson, is yellowscene.com’s new political blogger, whose academic background includes: graduate studies in urban-suburban administration, a degree in history with a minor in secondary education, and an accounting degree. Professionally, he has years of information technology, finance, corporate retail, and ERP consulting experience. Politically, he has functioned in leadership roles in the Republican Party in Connecticut.

Winning the war in Afghanistan is possible despite comments to the contrary by Russian diplomats and international card-carrying members of the Truce society.

The northwest frontier province of Pakistan has been annexed. The Government of Pakistan has abdicated its responsibility to rule the Swat valley. The Swat valley is not politically part of Pakistan nor will it be in the near future. Winning the war in Afghanistan will require cleansing the Swat valley of Taliban and Al-Quaeda extremists. Benazir Bhutto is quaking in her grave. Pakistan is a volcano ready to erupt. Action delayed will be resolution denied.

Remarks acknowledging the annexation and the abdication of responsibility by the government of Pakistan are accurate. Any attempt to refute the reality on the ground is simply denial and indicative of “the truth hurts.”

NATO forces must cleanse the Swat valley and southeastern Afghanistan of Taliban and Al-Quaeda extremists to win this war. While all of Afghanistan is infected by the extremists, the decapitation of these two heads will annihilate the terrorist body. The Swat valley and southeastern Afghanistan must be cleansed and re-cleansed as in spraying a farm with insecticide. NATO forces must be relentless. This is not an arena for kid gloves, pacifist comments by Amnesty International, or moral proclamation by the ACLU.

Pakistan’s military assets are in danger of being confiscated. That is the objective of Taliban and Alquaeda extremists. I envision an abbreviated life for the current Pakistani government. NATO forces had better prepare for the impact of this eventuality. Power ill gotten is not sustainable.

This conflict is about to get unavoidably messy, but action delayed will be resolution denied. This war is being waged eight years late, but it’s better late than never. The Afghanistan affair should have been undertaken before the Iraq tryst. Multi-tasking is not a strong attribute of warfare. There is a reason why the likes of King David, Alexander the Great, and Genghis Kahn focused on one enemy at a time. Simply put: you confront the enemy, defeat the enemy, and move on to the next.

The verdict on the Iraqi conflict is an incomplete. For NATO’s sake I hope everything goes smoothly with the reduction in troops enterprise, but that’s unlikely given the reality and projected trend. Of course, I never believed all the rhetoric about the surge. As far as I am concerned, the rhetoric regarding the surge in Iraq was just a willingness to deceive. The fact is, by not keeping the focus on Afghanistan the success of the real mission was jeopardized, but there is still time. Winning the war in Afghanistan is possible, providing NATO forces realize that action delayed will be resolution denied.