U.S.  Adjusts Border Tactics—The Rest of the Story

Anne Flaherty’s Associated Press piece, which appeared in yesterday’s paper was written in a code so transparent that the average four year old American could pull out the essentials.  In the first two paragraphs, there are three items of interest:

1. we cannot defend the vast border between Afghanistan and Pakistan,
2. we will instead be defending Afghan villages; and
3. we are told this by Army Col. Viet Luong.

Americans are being told for the first time that we cannot prevent the Taliban from crossing the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.  This should be a surprise to no one: We have never been able to prevent people from crossing the Mexican/American border, why would moving the action to Pakghanistan, where we are hated on both sides of the border make this easier?  Next, we are told by Col. Viet that we are poised to defend Afghan villages—essentially giving up the countryside.  Remember Vietnam? Remember strategic hamlets?  This is a huge shift in American policy.  No longer will we be proposing and following policies in Afghanistan that are doomed to failure—we will now be adopting and following policies that have already failed.

Don’t panic. Here’s what will happen next.  All American forces will be withdrawn to major Afghan cities, which are easier to defend.  They will stay a week.  Our forces will then be moved to the Hawaiian Islands.  There they will be trained in what the Pentagon is calling “Alerted Activities.”  These activities include snorkeling—to search for Taliban submarines, surfing and boating—to keep an eye on the Taliban Navy, and sun-bathing—to watch for the Taliban Air Force.  It seems likely that the soldier’s families will be able to join them in Hawaii, as this will add to the number of “alert eyes.” General Petraeus, reached in his secret bunker at Pearl Harbor stated, “this is a war I am confident of winning.”

This whole operation is to be paid for by slashing aid to Pakistan to zero.  Our ability to control the money we send to Pakistan has long been in question, the fear being that much of it goes to support the Pakistani intelligence service. As Vice-President Biden mumbled recently when he thought the cameras were off—in as succinct a statement as we are likely to get from this Administration—“and who knows what those crazy f-ckers are doing with the money.”