Why Afghanistan is a Lost Cause for America

There are very few days in the news that real positive results come from the battlefield of Afghanistan. Oh, sure, every so often, we hear that American military ousted the Taliban from a hamlet made of mud, or killing a handful of them after a deluge of heavy weapons, gunships and artillery.

This is all deja-vu of the Vietnam war except for the terrain. The Taliban are elusive, just as the Viet Cong were. By day, they are friends, by night, foes. Now the Taliban want to talk peace, or what they really want is to buy time until we leave, just as the Vietnamese did from 1971-74, then they launched a massive offensive once their buildup was complete.

Many Afghans consider the US the lesser of two evils, the other is the Taliban and corrupt, inept Afghanistan government. Those Afghans that want America to win face the odds. For instance, many private trucking companies employed by the US military to bring in supplies must pay the Taliban, either directly or indirectly, money for safe transit across disputed or unsecure areas. If a trucking firm is paid $1000 for goods delivered, up to $600 of that money paid by the US, actually goes to the Taliban, otherwise, the truck would not allowed to move through. Last year, one Afghan truck firm was paid $200,000 to deliver laptop computers to Khandahar. During transit, the Taliban seized the freight and it was not released until they had been $150,000!

All Afghan contractors working for the Americans face the same problem, thus, in effect, the US taxpayer is provided the enemy with incredible funding to buy more weapons. Some Gulf Arab nations also provide donations to them. The money is used to hire more fighters. To make things worse, the Afghan government is more apt at making its local citizens enemies than making them friends. The corruption is at all levels and the government has threatened to force its own people out of their own land. This creates more Taliban fighters. When American weapons cause Afghan civilian losses, it creates hatred and more Taliban fighters. Many Afghan's will simply go whomever is the strongest and many perceive the Taliban as that, especially in the many areas where there is little American presence (which is much of the country).

For the unemployed Afghan, the Taliban offer: free food, tea and sugar and hundreds of dollars (much of it from transit bribes) to fight the Americans. What a mess! American money is allowing the Taliban to recruit and employ more Afghan men. America is paying for this! So far, America has not created many jobs to employ them, so the Taliban do.

There is worse. A majority of Afghans prefer the Russians to the Americans, despite the fact that they invaded the country in 1980. The Russians created many more development projects, yet in the end, after seven years, they threw in the towel.

America has been there almost 10 years.