The Perils of Talking
Filed under: Afghanistan, International Affairs, War on Terror
Ralph Peters has an interesting column on Afghanistan in today’s New York Post. Peters directly addresses the difficulties of negotiating with the Taliban.
THE TALKING TRAP: AFGHAN FOLLIES
By Ralph Peters, New York Post, November 13, 2008
NEGOTIATIONS are the heroin of the chattering classes, blinding them to every reality except the next fix they can inject into our foreign policy. The pushers - our delighted enemies - pile up strategic profits.
Certainly, there are situations in which negotiations make sense, such as structuring trade terms or defining alliance contributions. But the notion that, if only we can sit down with our enemies, we’ll inevitably persuade them to love us is a deadly self-delusion.
There’s a looming danger that President-elect Obama’s naive and profoundly anti-military cadres will misinterpret Gen. David Petraeus’ tactic of opening communications with Taliban elements and seek to make talks the centerpiece of the new administration’s Afghan policy. If so, we might as well pack up and leave now.
No American soldier should die just so diplomats can rack up frequent-flyer miles.
Negotiations during a conflict only work to our advantage when we’re in a position of strength that threatens the enemy’s existence or when bloodied opponents have wearied of the fight. Both conditions applied in Iraq.
They don’t apply in Afghanistan. In Iraq, al Qaeda had worn out its welcome. The Sunni Arabs wanted our help. In Afghanistan, Taliban-style Islamist fanaticism has a deep constituency. While most Afghans don’t want the Taliban back, a fierce minority does. And, unlike Iraq’s Sunni Arabs, the Taliban think they can win.
The equation is simple: We kill them, or we lose. Fighting fanatics is a zero-sum game.
What Sarah Palin Would Have Said
The New York Sun has the speech Governor Palin would have given today had her appearance at a rally to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance to the UN not been canceled.
I am honored to be with you and with leaders from across this great country — leaders from different faiths and political parties united in a single voice of outrage.
Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York — to the heart of what he calls the Great Satan — and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he has called for.
Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator’s intentions and to call for action to thwart him.
He must be stopped.
Michael Totten: The Truth About Russia in Georgia
I linked to this previously but Michael Totten’s “The Truth About Russia in Georgia” is the most comprehensive report I’ve seen on the conflict - it’s a must read for anyone who wants to know what really happened - and it deserves much greater prominence than I gave it earlier.
The Truth About Russia in Georgia
By Michael J. Totten, August 26, 2008
TBILISI, GEORGIA - Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.
Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before
Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.
Russian Aggression
If you haven’t read the Op-Ed by by Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman in today’s Wall Street Journal you should. I don’t agree with Graham or Lieberman often but they’re spot-on here.
Russia’s Aggression Is a Challenge to World Order
By Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2008; Page A21In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, the United States and its trans-Atlantic allies have rightly focused on two urgent and immediate tasks: getting Russian soldiers out, and humanitarian aid in.
But having just returned from Georgia, Ukraine and Poland, where we met with leaders of these countries, we believe it is imperative for the West to look beyond the day-to-day management of this crisis. The longer-term strategic consequences, some of which are already being felt far beyond the Caucasus, have to be addressed.
Russia’s aggression is not just a threat to a tiny democracy on the edge of Europe. It is a challenge to the political order and values at the heart of the continent. Read the rest…
A couple of other must reads:
First is Bret Stephens Global View column also in today’s Wall Street Journal:
Russia Is Dangerous But Weak
By Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2008; Page A19‘In Russia,” wrote the great scholar of Russian imperialism Dietrich Geyer many years ago, “expansion was an expression of economic weakness, not exuberant strength.”
Keep this observation in mind as Vladimir Putin and his minions bask in the glow of Western magazine cover stories about Russia’s “resurgence” following its splendid little war against plucky little Georgia. The Kremlin is certainly confident these days, buoyed by years of rising commodity prices and a bullying foreign policy that mistakes fear for respect — the very combination that made the Soviet Union seem invincible in the 1970s.
But the Soviet Union wasn’t invincible. And here’s a crazy thought: The same laws of social, economic and geopolitical gravity that applied in Brezhnev’s U.S.S.R. apply equally in Mr. Putin’s KGB state. Read the rest…
The Second is J.R. Dunn’s “Rollback Russian Expansionism” at Americanthinker.com
Rollback Russian Expansionism
By J.R. Dunn, American Thinker.com, August 26, 2008The only thing novel about the humiliation of Georgia is that the entity that carried it out is called “Russia” instead of the “Soviet Union”.
It has happened many times before. In Czechoslovakia in 1948. In Berlin the same year. In Poland and East Germany in 1953. In Hungary in 1956. In Czechoslovakia again in 1968. In Afghanistan in 1979.
We have a lot of experience in dealing with this kind of outlaw behavior. We know what works and what does not. There is no mystery here, and no secrets. To learn how to deal with a newly belligerent Russia, we need only look at the Cold War. Read the rest…
Update: Don’t miss the must read of all must reads… Michael Totten’s “The Truth About Russia in Georgia”.
TBILISI, GEORGIA – Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.
Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war. Read the rest…
Ho-hum Redux
I really should write something… Unfortunately, most of what’s in the news at the moment bores me to tears. I couldn’t care less about the Olympics and I’m sick of the presidential campaign… Cassandra at Villainous Company pretty much sums up my mood here.
I am deeply concerned about Russia’s assault on Georgia… I’m not expert on the region however and I’m not going to try and play one on the internet, I’ll leave to commentary and analysis on Georgia to C. Blake Powers (Laughing Wolf) at Blackfive and Michael J. Totten. If you haven’t read what they’ve written on the Georgian crisis you should.
That’s it for now.
Georgia On My Mind…
I’m deeply troubled by the news out of Georgia, I’m not a expert on the region and I’m not going to try and play one on the internet. What I am doing to do to point you to two excellent posts by C. Blake Powers at Blackfive.net.
The first is titled “No, It’s Not Good At All“, the second is “The Devil Went To Georgia“. There’s also an excellent OpEd by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in today’s Wall Street Journal.
The War in Georgia
Is a War for the West
By Mikheil Saakashvili, August 11, 2008; Page A15Tbilisi, Georgia
As I write, Russia is waging war on my country.
On Friday, hundreds of Russian tanks crossed into Georgian territory, and Russian air force jets bombed Georgian airports, bases, ports and public markets. Many are dead, many more wounded. This invasion, which echoes Afghanistan in 1979 and the Prague Spring of 1968, threatens to undermine the stability of the international security system. Read the rest…