May 4, 2012
Asia Times

US-Afghan Pact Won't End War - Or Night Raids

by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - The optics surrounding the Barack Obama administration's "Enduring Strategic Partnership" agreement with Afghanistan and the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) accompanying it emphasize transition to Afghan responsibility and an end to US war.

But the only substantive agreement reached between the US and Afghanistan - well hidden in the agreements - has been to allow powerful US Special Operations Forces (SOF) to continue to carry out the unilateral night raids on private homes that are universally hated in the Pashtun zones of Afghanistan.

The presentation of the new agreement on a surprise trip by Obama to Afghanistan, with a prime-time presidential address and repeated briefings for the press, allows Obama to go into a tight presidential election campaign on a platform of ending an unpopular US war in Afghanistan.

It also allows President Hamid Karzai to claim he has gotten control over the SOF night raids while getting a 10-year commitment of US economic support.

But the actual text of the agreement and of the MoU on night raids included in it by reference will not end the US war in Afghanistan, nor will they give Karzai control over night raids.

The Obama administration's success in obscuring those facts is the real story behind the ostensible story of the agreement. . . .

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Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in US national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006.

Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, "From U.S., the ABC's of Jihad," Washington Post, March 23, 2002

[The US ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, announced recently that a US$511 million contract had been awarded to Caddell Construction to build the world's largest embassy in Kabul--Syed Saleem Shahzad, "Pakistan opens its door to US ops," atimes.com, November 23, 2010]

"Secret US and Afghanistan Talks Could See Troops Stay for Decades," The Wisdom Fund, June 13, 2011

"Highlights of US-Afghanistan strategic partnership deal signed by Obama and Karzai," washingtonpost.com, May 1, 2012

["The assertion that maintaining a long-term presence in the country is the best way to prevent future attacks on the U.S. belies the reality on the ground: that our mere presence is destabilizing."--Jennifer Bendery, "Dennis Kucinich: New U.S.-Afghan Agreement Means We're Not Leaving Afghanistan," huffingtonpost.com, May 2, 2012]

[By hiding behind the claim that the organization provides for 'common defense,' NATO allows us to wage wars of choice under the guise of international peacekeeping. . . .

NATO was originally founded to provide a strategic counterbalance to the Soviet Union. Its founding purpose no longer exists, but NATO continues to circumvent the authority of the United Nations and to provoke other nations. NATO is an anachronism. Instead of trying to bolster the organization, we should begin serious discussions to dismantle it.--Dennis Kucinich, "NATO Talks a Sham: War in Afghanistan Is Not Ending," huffingtonpost.com, May 21, 2012]

[Global market value of Afghan heroin in 2009 given by mainstream sources puts it at somewhere between $60 Billion and $65 Billion.--Sibel Edmonds, "Afghan Heroin Myths and Facts Recapped and Simplified for Mainstream Followers," boilingfrogspost.com, May 23, 2012]

[In early 2010, the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) claimed that it had nearly 400 Afghan bases. Early this year, that number had grown to 450. Today, a military spokesperson tells TomDispatch, the total tops out at around 550.--Nick Turse, "Afghanistan's base bonanza," atimes.com, September 6, 2012]

[Even with 4,200 bases set up to secure the country, along with close to 80,000 troops from the most technologically sophisticated and well-funded military on the planet (with assistance from 40,000 personnel from other powerful armies) and an allied indigenous force of around 350,000 soldiers and police, the Afghan War has dragged on for more than a decade. All that military might has been unable to decisively defeat a rag-tag, minority insurgency of limited popularity.--Nick Turse, "Afghanistan overdoses on military bases," atimes.com, September 12, 2012]

[. . . the only strategy Washington and London are firmly committed to is an exit strategy.--Michael Glackin, "No more pretending in Afghanistan," Daily Star, September 21, 2012]

Gareth Porter and Shah Noori, "Taliban outflanks US war strategy," atimes.com, September 22, 2012

John Glaser, "US Intends to Keep 10K Troops in Afghanistan Beyond 2014," antiwar.com, November 26, 2012

[A is for Allah, J is for Jihad . . . the Afghan Ministry of Education, which works closely with CAII, has decided to omit all recent history (read the past thirty years of war) from its curriculum.--Mark Graham, "USAID in Afghanistan: Plunderers and Prey," counterpunch.org, December 5, 2012]

Kevin Sieff, "Strong American role still exists at Afghan-controlled prison," washingtonpost.com, March 29, 2013

Spencer Ackerman, "After U.S. Troops Leave, Armed Drones Will Patrol Afghanistan’s Skies," wired.com, April 23, 2013