TONITE, TENS OF THOUSANDS WILL ENTER BATTLE ON OUR SIDE, FEW AMERICANS
WILL EVER KNOW

Half way around the world, Americans sit out another night facing the
uncertainty of life and death. Their enemy has survived and defeated
some of the world's greatest armies. A war 8 years old is centered in
some of the roughest terrain on Earth, the border regions of
Afghanistan and the Pakistan. The only major force helping America in
its war against the loose confederation of Taliban warlords, Al Qaeda,
Chechen fighters and Arab extremists is Pakistan, a country ignored
and often reviled by Americans.

Billions are given, each year, to Israel, one of the world's great
military powers. Billions more, tens of billions have been spent
training armies in Iraq and Afghanistan, armies despite years of war,
never seriously tested in battle. Worse, companies like Halliburton,
Blackwater and others have "misplaced" over 120 billion dollars that
was meant to fight the war on terror. No questions were asked. Now,
when Pakistan sends 30,000 picked troops to war at our side, though
besieged in a 50 year old conflcit with India, America offers them 1.5
billion dollars. One defense contractor alone had a larger cost
overrun than that developing a claw hammer for the Air Force

Pakistan has been subjected to relentless terror attacks, partly
because of its partnership with the United States. Hundreds have died
in the last few days alone. However, it gets much more complex than
that. While the United States tries to maintain a "balanced policy"
between Pakistan and India, two nations at odds with each other since
1947, India is arming Taliban "surrogates" to fight Pakistan. The idea
is to bog down Pakistani troops and take control of Kashmir, an area
both countries have coveted and continually clash over.

The massive influx of new, top quality Russian arms the Taliban is
receiving has to come from somewhere. Those who know history will look
to India and their long time associates in Russia as the source. Those
weapons are used on both sides of the border, used to kill, not only
Pakistani troops but Americans as well.

Hey, wait, it gets even better. For months American papers have been
filled with discussions of war with Iran. Every day, we expect Israel
to attack Iran. News services talk about little else, how much the two
countries hate each other. Iran and Israel have more things in common
that being enemies. They also have decades of working together when
nobody is looking. Some of this came out during the Iran/Contra
hearings. When making a buck is involved, Israel and Iran will put
their hostility away in a New York minute and have.

What do we have to accept about Pakistan? One country will have
influence over Afghanistan and be the premiere power of the region. It
could be India with Russia or Israel as partners. It could be Iran.
Should it be Pakistan? Can we trust an Islamic nation that has women
fighter pilots?

What Pakistan does not have is money. It has no oil and limited
national resoucres. Its government has a history of corruption and
miltary influence. Normally, this would make any country a perfect
ally for the United States.

What does Pakistan want? Americas presence in Afghanistan has
radicalized areas of Pakistan and brought thousands of foreign
fighters to the region who are tyrannizing the tribal regions of North
and South Waziristan. However, if America leaves without achieving a
stabilized Afghanistan, something the continuation of Bush era
mistakes is likely to make impossible, Afghanistan will continue as an
area of conflict, perhaps driven by outside forces intent on
destabilizing a nuclear Pakistan.

If we think that this war is being pushed on both countries by
terrorists alone, we are being fools. There are bigger stakes at play.
The simplistic Bush view of this as a Global War on Terror ignored,
not only regional rivalries but the underlying issues of oil and gas,
opium and geopolicitical gamesmanship.

Bush and Cheney came to a chess match with a pocket full of checkers.

America's goals are easy, getting out of Afghanistan, leaving it free
of foreign terrorists, in this case, the ones who came there because
we did. America's other goal is to leave Afghanistan with a popular
democratic government. There are some powerful areas of disagreement
about how to do this, but are those reasons adequate justification for
thousands of deaths?

Back in the 1980s, the US armed the Mujahideen, Islamic Jihadists who
fought to drive out the Russian influenced government in Kabul. Now we
face some of the same allies as enemies. They are now called the
Taliban. They are not a single group with a single set of beliefs.
They are citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan. For their own countries
to fight them is a form of civil war, a war of the worst kind, the
cruelest kind. America knows this better than most nations.

The choices are complex but the problem is, many of those tasked with
making the choices know too little of the realities of the region. We
may be fighting groups today that could be our allies tomorrow. We
learned that in Iraq with the Sunni militias.

In the short run, keeping Pakistan as an ally, not in a global war,
but in a limited regional conflict meant to stabilize what has become
the most critical conflict area on Earth is inescapable. Money and
technology, things we have thown around like drunks on a Saturday
night for years are on the menu again.

Is the answer perfect? No, not hardly. Is it simply what we have to do
now as a step in showing resolve to our allies, a step we hope will be
followed by our enemies seeing, not only our resolve but our
willingness to act with more strength and less arrogance.

Its time for America to go to school. We need to learn who our friends
on the playground are. We need to know the rules of the game we are
playing, something we have failed to do for too many years.

We have been played by friends and enemies alike. Its time to stop and
play to win, a game that can mean scoring a goal or two, picking up
the ball and going home. We can decide when the game ends, not others.

Article Source : http://www.opinion-maker.org/navigation.do?mode=showArticles&id=1021

Casady