The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Go back and take a look at how the pisspoor execution of the war in Afghanistan has enabled the Taliban to regain ground in that country after they were first ousted. The Bush administration was never shy to pull the trigger. They were just magnificently inept - or one could argue not interested - when it came to securing the country they invaded. That's true for both Afghanistan and Iraq. **, they let Osama bin Laden get away because they were indecisive.

Afghanistan fell off the radar scope fairly quickly even before the Iraq War kicked off.

The country was never secured in the first place as we relied on the anti-Taliban forces to run the country.

The closest that anyone could have come to "securing" Afghanistan would have been to take the arms captured from Taliban, supplement these with more US arms and then hand them over to the Taliban's enemies (largely non-Pashtun Northern Alliance, Shi'a Pashtuns, non-Salafi Sunni Pashtuns opposed to Taliban's salafism and toadying to southern neighbour Pakistan...) telling them "YOU deal with Taliban as you see fit"

Bin Laden got away because they relied heavily on local troops and Pakistani promises. After hearing for years about how easy it would be to get Bin Laden, team Obama hasn't done much better.

Simple analysis of 1971 war and also Zia's actions of delaying 1981-1987--when Reagan finally started DIRECTLY supplying weapons to Northern Alliance after finding out Zia was supplying Hekmatyar (a tout who did diddly during those years) and other extremists (Taliban) whom it had cultivated as "extra unofficial regiments"--would have shown Pakistan's policy-mentality (which has been driven purely by hatred of its eastern neighbour since 1956) and reliability about fulfillment of any "promises".