America Pushing Pakistan to Fight the Taliban

It seems that America under Trump’s “America First” Regime is endeavoring to open up an expanded offensive in Afghanistan against the Taliban.   It is one of Trump’s many contradictions, but we can see it as a result of his fetish to be surrounded by Generals – apparently the Generals wouldn’t consent to play along unless Trump allowed them some of their own preferred toys, and these old Generals love war.  You see, for the Generals, actually taking the trenches themselves is only some distortedly nostalgic memory pumped up by ‘survivor’s bias’, but if you could ask the Service Members who got killed fighting, they probably wouldn’t think much of it at all.    So, anyway, Trump gave his Generals Afghanistan to play with.   But like petulant children, the Generals also demanded that they should Win (yes, you would think they would recognize that as being their own responsibility, or, better yet, to expect from them more maturity as Warriors – that they be able to appreciate a good War, win or lose, that a True Warrior’s satisfaction is in having a Good Fight, not necessarily in winning it, and that History still remembers certain Crusaders who gloried in having fought well against Saladin even though they got their asses kicked).  Well, getting back on topic, the Americans, even when they had 200,000 boots on the ground (is it 2 boots per soldier?), couldn’t corner the Taliban into any decisive Conventional Battle because they couldn’t or wouldn’t follow the Taliban into Afghanistan’s rugged hills and mountains, where one feisty mule is worth a thousand battle tanks.  But that is their own fault, or the fault of America’s Political Oversight, that they did not see from the start that the might of the America’s Military Fighting Establishment was unequal to uneven ground, and so they should never have gone in there in the first place.  But the way ‘Assigning Blame’ works is one is always supposed to point at something or somebody besides one’s self.   So when the Generals wish to cry and make excuses for their quagmire helplessness, they point to the Pakistan Frontier and say that it is Pakistan’s fault for not doing enough to close their border against the Taliban.

 

But this is just an excuse – it is just words used as smoke and mirrors.  One only needs to look at any survey relief map of the Pakistan Frontier Border with Afghanistan.  It’s the same kind of hills and mountains that the Americans have not been able to secure within Afghanistan.  There’re a few roads but a million goat tracks.  And Warriors, Bandits and Goat Herders have been digging protective caves into those hills and mountains since before Alexander… heck, Adam’s Uncle probably dug a cave or two.   Also it is well to point out that when America had 200,000 boots on the ground (is it two boots per soldier?) they couldn’t close off the Pakistan Border from their own side of it.  So apparently the American Generals wish that the Nation of Pakistan should commit more troops to the region then the Americans themselves were ever willing to send.  But why should they?  The Afghan War has always been just an American Adventure designed exclusively for America’s profit (wasn’t their some idea for a Pipeline at one time, before the War became simply a matter of the American Generals trying to save face and salvage a Win so their old War Colleges wouldn’t remember them as no account losers and design 300-level courses on how to be exactly not like them).   Also, I believe that I read somewhere that the largest part of the Pakistanis Military are of the same ancient tribal affiliation as the Taliban and share the same patois, so to speak.  So it is doubtful that they would fight even if ordered to.  Now, yes, the Pakistan Military does indeed go up against the Taliban when it commits some crazy fanatical atrocity against some instance of modern secular culture and economy (such as terrorizing schools for girls – schools which the Fanatics hate because they encourage girls who will become women who will become wives to go off to work where their bosses will inevitably sexually harass, assault and then rape them.  The way they see it is that the Man is only Husband at Home, while the Boss is the Husband at Work… which is the same way American men used to see it, if we take the time to remember that far back.   It is an argument that we must concede some credence to, in view of current American revelations concerning the sexual abuse of educated girls and women in its own workforce.  And, by the way, anybody who looks at the data regarding wage trends will see that an increase in female participation in the workplace leads inevitably to a decline in general wages.  For instance, we can see in America that before women entered the workforce in mass, one man could typically support an entire household.   But now it takes two paychecks to support a household.  So, in effect, Women, for the sake of their ‘freedom’, sold themselves into wage slavery and families as a whole are not the better off for it, and while I can appreciate that the original hope women had was to be able to become independent and not totally reliant upon having to get married… marriage being a kind of institutionalized and euphemized prostitution … well, it did not work out exactly as they planned, did it?  Their bid for freedom simply turned into double duty.  So one can perhaps understand the reluctance of other peoples to follow enthusiastically and with no reservations into America’s Political Social and Economic footsteps.   But Crazy Atrocities can never be tolerated – such as murdering little girls in order to save them from what? – ‘fates worse than death’?   But as long as the Taliban inside Pakistan keep the peace and do not provoke showdowns with the Pakistan Government, then Pakistan has no very compelling interest in supporting America’s Military Adventurism.

 

Of course America could try to make it in Pakistan’s interest to side against the Taliban.  You see, we can look back into History and see why Military Forces have been used to subjugate frontier regions.  It is because Tribes, Cities, Nations or Empires wished to exploit these regions for economic development, settlements for their expanding populations, or to secure trade routes against barbarian chaos and banditry.  All of that must start with Economic Investment.  The Military will not get involved until some Program for Economic Development is put at risk.  For instance, America’s pushing its indigenous Peoples into marginalization was caused by almost purely economic considerations, and all of the militarism and cavalry charges were simply the subsequent effects of the forces of financial interest.  We can see the same kind of development in the expansion of the Roman Empire, where the Legions were used only as a means of effectively ‘smoothing the ground’ for economic development – while the Legions marched for Glory, they were sent for Profit.  So, if America was really serious about bringing in Pakistan as a partner, then America would have to develop and pay for some plan of economic development for all those barren hills and mountains along the Pakistanis Frontier with Afghanistan.  Who knows, maybe they could bring back the Soma Plant and use those Hills for mass cultivation.  But it would take a lot of investment and the money would have to be spread around sufficiently throughout Pakistan’s population in order to give the people themselves a compelling interest in fighting to pacify its frontier region.

 

But while America used to provide Foreign Aid Investments on a large scale, well, that was only during the Cold War which in a certain sense was a kind of Bidding War between America and the Soviet Union for the hearts, minds and Special Interests of the rest of the World.  But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, America no longer had a reason for pretending to be the Good Guy against the Soviet Villain, and so all that Foreign Aid was cut off as no longer necessary, and America could permit itself to relax its frozen smile and let its hair down and act wholeheartedly like the predatory Capitalists that they in fact always had been.   Of course, China is now taking over the World with its own Foreign Aid Investments, and it is telling us something about America’s boast about Democratic and Free Capitalist Superiority that the Americans  can’t even pretend to be able to keep pace with China’s level of Investment in various developing countries and continents, but instead retreats back into its own borders, builds walls, and cries that it must pinch every penny, despoiling and impoverishing its own citizens and allowing its schools, roads, rails and bridges to crumble and fall down and cave in  from neglect, all in order to become “Great Again”.       

 

So America is caught in a contradiction with Afghanistan and Pakistan.   America’s retreat from the World is inconsistent with the large economic investments it would require to develop that entire region, which is what it would take to make it actually worth fighting over.  Yes, America in the past had tried various cheap shortcuts to imposing its power, such as sponsoring Dictators, where instead of using widespread investment to get an entire population on board with a comprehensive program for Economic Development; they would simply pay off one Thug War Lord who would be supposed to use his Army for purely American interests.  But history shows us that such dictators have a difficult time maintaining their power against popular opinion, political opposition and even open rebellion, and often enough they eventually find it necessary for their survival to stand up against and oppose America.   And I believe that Pakistan has now reached enough of a Political Consensus and level of Accommodations between its various interests and demographics that America can simply no longer short change them and impose some nickel and dime Dictator on the cheap.   Pakistan is now big enough, important enough, and developed enough that it is largely Dictator Proof (well, as long as it can continue its own economic development, which would be significantly helped along if it could work in greater partnership with India.  You know, if France and England are able to get along… or maybe I should say France and Germany, then we can perhaps imagine a time when Pakistan and India will come to see that they have more to gain by being friends than by being enemies.  Oh, a Chinese Partnership with Pakistan, though possible, would not be as desirable as close ties with India.  The Pakistanis and the Indians are after all historically the Same People who in some momentary fit of passion allowed themselves to be separated by Religion.  Perhaps the chief advantage in a Pakistan-India rapprochement is that both Pakistan and India are well versed in what has turned into the New Lingua Franca, English, while China holds out with its primitively ideographic language and remains largely unintelligible to the rest of the World, and likely even unintelligible to itself.  You see, reading and writing Chinese is very difficult to learn even at the elementary level, even for the Chinese, and the untold secret regarding China’s chronic problems with Quality Control is that the greater part of its Workforce couldn’t possibly be literate enough to know every fine detail that would be involved with Quality Production.  Imagine Western Production Engineers who didn’t quite know what any of the big words meant, and a workforce who had to either guess or depend upon verbal instructions at every turn.  That would be China.  So Pakistan would be better matched with India just by virtue of being able to talk to one another and because their workers and engineers can be relied upon to understand written instructions.  Indeed I pray for the day when India and Pakistan become the World’s Manufacturers, and displace all that cheap low quality Made In China crap.   The Indian Subcontinent is both more literate and I believe they have a more solid and reliable moral center than the Chinese who have had scandals involving the Production and Sales of poison Baby Milk and poison Pet Food, which again, may have only been Quality Issues because nobody in these Chinese Factories can really read Chinese and they got their ingredients all mixed up… but how can we be sure that such poisonings were simply not moral lapses involving trying to substitute cheap ingredients for dear ones, and the perpetrators only defense would be that they didn’t think anybody would be hurt “that bad”.  Then there is the hugely significant problem with China’s Pro-Han Racism.   It is no big secret that China almost openly expects the entire World to bow down and kiss its butt.   They don’t make a lot of noise about their Racial Superiority, but this is only because they already believe that most of the World either assumes all of that already, or will have little choice but to acknowledge that ‘truth’ when it becomes the de facto condition of a Chinese dominated planet.    So it goes without saying that China would not be able to see Pakistan as an equal partner, but India and Pakistan would be two Brothers that just happen to disagree about Religion, and, historically speaking, that is not an insuperable problem).  

 

Oh, but there is one crazy insane possibility open to America.  America could issue Pakistan an Ultimatum saying that America will go to War against Pakistan if Pakistan does not go to War against the Taliban.  This would actually be a repeat of how America started its War against the Taliban in the first place.  You remember, America gave the Taliban a similar ultimatum demanding that they go to War against the Al Qaeda, that is, to stop giving them ‘sanctuary’.   We know how reasonable that demand was.  America is still chasing Al Qaeda around after much more than a decade, but somehow America back in 2001 thought the Taliban could go out and simply take 10 or 15 minutes to arrest all of Al Qaeda and throw them in jail.  But this example of bone-headedness does sort of prove how simple minded America can be, or pretend to be, even without short-sighted Trump or his tunnel-visioned Generals at the helm.   

 

Or America could decide to open up its own fighting and bombing campaigns within Pakistan’s borders, expecting Pakistan to keep back and acquiesce to it.  The problem there is that while the Taliban now only have to cross the Border Line to arrive at safety, if America were to bomb those present sanctuaries, the Taliban would just move further into Pakistan, and all the way to Islamabad if need be.  Sooner or later America would insist that the Pakistan Government take sides.  And the most basic problem with siding with the Americans is that everyone but the Americans understands that America will eventually tuck tail and go home, and when they do nobody has any doubts that the Taliban will be able to regain control of the Afghan Government.   You see, the Taliban demonstrated  in their last Civil War that they can defeat all the other tribes put together, assuming that they made some strategic alliances with some of the peripheral Tribes.   And even with American Support, the Non-Taliban Elements in Afghanistan have been unable to subdue the Taliban.  Or perhaps while they may hate the Taliban, they do not hate them to the extent where they would be willing to commit treason against their Nation by selling it out to the United States in order to gain some momentary advantage.  Indeed, I wonder that the present Regime of Traitors who run things in Kabul don’t fight much harder, because if they can’t win while America is actively engaged in helping them, then they surely won’t stand a chance when American inevitably leaves, and then the Taliban would have every conceivable right and justification in hanging all them all for treason.  Indeed, those fighting in the Puppet Regime’s Afghan Army right now are virtually Dead Men Walking.  Their only chance at mitigating their crimes would be to stage a Pro-Taliban Insurrection before the American’s leave.   This should be a warning to the poor American Service Men stationed in Afghanistan to watch their backs and get ready for the modern version of the Delhi Mutiny of 1857. 

 

So Pakistan has little interest in fighting the Taliban, since  in what may be the very near future the Taliban will rule Afghanistan, and the Pakistanis would be crazy to declare war now on those who will soon be their neighbors as well as having always been their Tribal Kinsmen.  And we may also assume that while Pakistan would consider an American Declaration of War against them as being catastrophic, on the par with a tremendously destructive natural disaster, still everyone realizes that America has no staying power, and in order to protect their lasting Sovereignty and national self respect they would be willing to weather any American Storm.  

 

Besides, Pakistan is a Nuclear Power.  Oh, and I wonder that everybody is so worried about Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.  Wouldn’t it be easy enough to send nuclear bombs to America in shipping containers?   One only has to pay the same bribes to the same Customs Officials saying the container contain the same contraband heroin as usual.  Now that I think about it, America is probably already dotted with Chinese and Russian nuclear weapons in various urban storage units or private homes that are primed and ready to go at the push of a button.  I suppose that is why America now finds it so urgent to immediately suspend its principles regarding Freedom of Navigation in order to blockade North Korea and interdict all of its shipping.  All North Korea would have to do is get one shipping container out and mixed into the International Shell Game of tens of thousands of shipping containers and then it could come in to any American Port from any other Port in the World.  So yes, America needs to be nice and polite to any and all of the World’s Nuclear Powers, whether they have missiles, airplanes, submarines or simply just a shipping container and a big first class stamp.  I suppose somebody should tell Trump of the danger, but they are afraid he might shut down all America’s Ports… or build sea walls around them.     

 

But, getting back on topic for my summation, we must all wonder why the American Generals would even suggest the idea of dragging Pakistan into the Afghan fray.  Maybe it’s a problem where these older Generals who have been heavy drinkers their entire careers are now marginally demented, but they still have too many Stars on their lapels for younger less brain dead officers to argue sense to them without fear of being disciplined for insubordination.   Or it could be a case involving the American Generals’ unexamined assumption that they never lose Wars, and this even after having lost, or at least having failed to ‘win good enough’, every war they fought since World War II.  Well, in any case somebody needs to tell Trump that there are significantly sensible overriding reasons why it is wise to keep Generals under Political and State oversight and control.  Wars should only be fought for Political and State reasons, and not so chronically alcoholic and semi-senile Generals can put another notch on their pistol grips.    Trump needs to put his toy soldiers back in their 5 sided box and bring back career government service people to do the jobs that they were educated for, and have experience with, and have a fairly long tradition of doing well.   While Government Service People may not provoke and win many Wars, perhaps we could count on them better to not Lose the Peace.