How to Create an Afghan Blackwater

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

Book summary from a reviewer:

This book turns upside down the American perspective on the war - yet another circular firing squad operation from D.C. After the Soviets pulled their troops out in 1989 they didn't wash their hands of the country, rather they continued to support the communist government in Kabul, and the U.S. continued to support the mujahidin to counter the residual communist influence. Both the Soviets and the U.S. stopped their respective support in 1991 and the country was left with a power vacuum - the Soviets had wiped out the traditional structure of local governance run by elders and to fill this vacuum various warlords and wannabees battled for power in a nightmarish civil war: women were grabbed off the streets and raped, no property was safe from theft, and executions swift of anyone thought to oppose a newly-installed war lord. Opposition to this brutal internal battle for power grew, mainly among the Pashtun in the south, the Taliban was born, and by 1996 pretty much prevailed. Although the Taliban enforced strict Sharia law including no music, TV or other satanic pass times, they did mete out justice to protect the civilian population, a sense of security returned after the terror of the civil war. Then we had 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan and the installation of Karzai in Kabul. The Taliban, that was a loose confederation of local actors, was immediately impressed (terrified) of American air power, had no objection to Karzai (a fellow Pashtun), decided to back the Kabul government and give up their weapons. They had had enough of war, one that was continuing with the Northern Alliance when the U.S. invaded, and wanted to retire to civilian life now that there was a credible central government. Instead, the U.S. targeted all-and-any Taliban, conducted night raids into homes - often killing innocent civilians - and arrested any ex-Taliban member who came in to surrender and shipped him off to Gitmo for years, at times even the wrong person. It did not take too many of these incidents to convince the Afghans that the Americans were an invading force out to destroy their culture and religion. The nascent movement was helped and organized by a Taliban central committee in Pakistan and the Afghans began to rearm - the Americans went from being saviors to an enemy rather quickly. The U.S. offered to make anyone rich by providing information on ex-Taliban and many sprang for this opportunity as it not only provided cash but an "in" with the Americans as an intelligence source, allowing local rivals to be liquidated by the Americans. We ended up with 400 scattered bases in Afghanistan, all of which needed to be supplied by truck and each convoy needed protection. You can guess the rest. Endless amounts of money were poured into local Afghan contractors, a key source of funding for the Taliban. America has spent over $100 billion for "reconstruction" in Afghanistan, a large portion of which simply disappeared; the government in Kabul is one of the most corrupt on the planet. The police force stood up by American advisors is totally corrupt and has fanned out across the country for seemingly one purpose - to extract money at the point of a gun from the locals.

Since Al-Qaida - perhaps 100 strong? - immediately fled to Pakistan at the opening of the U.S. invasion, our troops had to "do something" once in country. The Taliban had been branded as terrorist and were therefor open game for the American military, still there 16 years later banging away. Washington totally misread the political-security situation that had developed in the 1990s and turned a potential ally (the Taliban) into an enemy. Thirty-eight years on from the Soviet invasion the country still finds itself at war, and Washington's take of the situation unchanged.


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