In his June 23, 2019 Military Times opinion article “America’s three big mistakes in Afghanistan,” Brig. Gen. Donald C. Bolduc (Ret) correctly noted three factors, which contributed to the pending U.S. defeat in Afghanistan: “Misstep No. 1: The expansion of US forces and the introduction of large conventional units into…
Executive Summary The United States must now accept the fact that we failed to meet our objectives in Afghanistan and, upon withdrawal, the best outcome we can expect would be a new U.S. regional strategy that prevents our adversaries from benefitting from that failure. Pakistan, not Afghanistan, is the epicenter…
(Please note – the title is by the editor at “The National Interest,” where this article was originally published, and reflects less the point of the article, that U.S. leaders knew of Pakistan’s duplicity and permitted it, hoping that bribes to Pakistan or the ill-suited counterinsurgency strategy would work in…
Washington has overlooked the explosive potential of Islamic State influence in Pakistan, which will only accelerate in the expected power vacuum left after a U.S. withdrawal. How did a small, fringe Wahhabi splinter group, led by a fiery speaker with a sixth-grade education, known mainly for defacing Buddhist symbols, carry…
The vacuum left by the coming de facto humiliating retreat of the U.S. military from Afghanistan at the hands of Pakistan and its Taliban proxy will likely be initially filled by a coalition of ascendant Taliban and a complement of China-Pakistan-compliant Afghan politicians. The $1 trillion U.S. investment in Afghanistan…
It is all over for the United States in Afghanistan except for negotiating surrender terms and a humiliating retreat; an exit parade of American vehicles as Pakistanis cheer their victory over us, courtesy of their Taliban proxies. Yet the incompetence continues, even as the year’s second American soldier was killed in Afghanistan.…
Pakistan, the Taliban’s inventor and long-time benefactor, hopes that once their proxies are again ensconced in Kabul, they will be responsive to its direction as they were in the 1990s. The generals in Islamabad — the de facto government of Pakistan — must know that it is a mistaken assumption.…
It is no longer a question of whether the United States will leave Afghanistan; it is a question of under what conditions. Will it be a repeat of the chaotic withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975 and America’s subsequent timidity in the pursuit of our national interests? Or will it be…
Who are “they?” Every Trump voter knows that. They are all of the Democrats, most of the media and many in the Republican Party. They make up what is known as the Deep State, an exclusive political country club of members not like Trump or us, more obvious than secretive, but…
(Nota bene: Editor’s title – key points being the risks when sub-contracting our foreign policy and ethnic nationalism as a counter-force to Islamism, the Islamic State being only one of many) Overruling many of his military and civilian advisers, President Trump has ordered the withdrawal of 2,000 American troops from Syria, bringing…
There is an extensive Taliban infrastructure and support network in Pakistan along its border with Afghanistan, which includes education, recruiting, training, financing and command and control centers. In these areas, the Taliban often operate freely alongside the Pakistani military and with the support of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency, the ISI.…
The China Daily, a Chinese government media outlet, published an article, “Pakistan key to Afghan peace process,” by an author from Pakistan, an ally of China, which not only drips with irony but unabashedly explains the Chinese-Pakistani plan for the future of Afghanistan. It originates from the “non-governmental” Beijing think tank, the…