Obama's Failed Mission in Afghanistan

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9. actually, the focus of this administration was bolstering the Karzai regime

. . . both militarily and economically.

While true that there was a dual focus on 'al-Qaeda' in Pakistan and on the Afghan-Pakistan border, there was also the effort to 'push back' the Taliban to 'give room' for the Karzai regime to establish itself. That was the reason given for the escalation of troops by this president into Afghanistan and the escalation of their offensive role. It's just not credible to say that Obama's 'surge' forces were operating primarily against 'al-Qaeda' in Afghanistan because the Pentagon and the commanders in the country all admitted that the number of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was negligible and insignificant. The operation in Kandahar (which is all but over) was meant to be a defining stance to expand the influence of the Karzai regime to the outer provinces. That's why such a big deal was made about establishing an outpost there and setting up a provincial government there to replace the Taliban rule which is the norm outside of Kabul. That effort is being abandoned without any measurable or lasting, transformational success. The defining mission of the 'surge' was a failure on their own terms of gaining the trust and acceptance of the Afghan people and drawing the rest of the country to accept and not resist the U.S.-enabled Karzai rule.

That's what the U.S. military's stated goal was in Marjah, as it is in other areas of Afghanistan's volatile south: to persuade the local population to side with the government of Afghanistan over the Taliban.


Here's an article I collected after the battle lines moved from Marjah to Kandahar: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/world/asia/27prexy.html

WASHINGTON — Even as it presses its campaign to run insurgents out of the Taliban stronghold of Marja in Afghanistan, the United States military is looking ahead toward taking the fight to Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual and political heartland, White House officials said Friday.

A senior administration official said the United States was planning a major offensive this year in Kandahar. The announcement confirms what military officials have been saying for weeks: that the Marja offensive, in which intermittent fighting continued even as the Afghan government symbolically claimed control of the city on Thursday by hoisting the Afghan flag, was a forerunner for a much bigger battle ahead.

“I think the way to look at Marja, it’s the tactical prelude to larger, more comprehensive operations later this year in Kandahar city,” the official said at a background news briefing arranged by the White House under ground rules of anonymity. “If our overall goal for 2010 is to reverse the momentum and gain time and space for the Afghan capacity, we have to get to Kandahar this year.”

The public announcement that the military intends to try to push the Taliban out of Kandahar is part of an administration approach that includes warning both residents and insurgents — sometimes months in advance — that a big force led by American troops is on its way. American, NATO and Afghan officials talked openly about the Marja offensive in advance, even going so far as to announce at a news conference in Kabul that an offensive involving thousands of troops would begin “in the near future.”