2012-07-07
Afghan Air Campaign
Open Letter to Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan
Dear Sir,
Sorry for not contacting you sooner. You are a truly excellent leader as far as I am concerned, leading the brave Afghan people to victory. Note that I was listening to a song that mentioned Afghanistan just yesterday. You might be interested in knowing about an Australian (I am Australian too) singing about Afghanistan. The band's name is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Tattoo ("Rose Tattoo"). And the song is http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rose+tattoo/i+wish_20340147.html ("I Wish"). The words are "Wish I was a tribesman in in the hills of Afghanistan".
So as you can see, Afghanistan is very close to the heart of Australians. In actual fact, when I saw 9/11 on TV, the first thought that came to my mind was "hopefully now we'll have a chance to liberate Afghanistan". Here's are the exact words I used in my first email (to someone called Rod Speed):
> You noticed the massive terrorist attack in the US ?
No, thanks.
I hope the US invades Afghanistan now.
And here is my second email:
> > I hope the US invades Afghanistan now.
>
> Not a chance. No one has very succeeded in doing that.
>
> They may well fuck them over from the air tho.
By "invasion" I mean join the northern forces to overthrow the
government, and get an agreement with the northern forces to
install a democracy once done. Not stay there.
You see, during the 1990s when I was watching Afghan women being beaten with sticks by the Taliban, my heart ached. I desperately wanted to attack the Taliban, and protect the Afghan women. But it was not possible for me personally, or even the Australian government, to externally invade Afghanistan. Generally attacks like that are not done unless the enemy government first makes a move against the outside world. Which most dictators are smart enough to not actually do. Which means we have to just sit there watching helplessly. Even when we later find out from polls that 88% of Afghans support the international intervention (versus only 11% opposed)!
Anyway, the reason I am writing to you now is to request that you change military strategy in Afghanistan. First of all, you will need to live with Taliban terrorism for years to come. Just as Iraq is currently living with terrorism, and just as the UK lived with terrorism from the IRA for literally decades. At the end of the day, terrorism is a fairly low-scale problem (e.g. it doesn't prevent the population of the country from growing), and should just be left to the security forces to deal with as best they can.
The only real danger that would exist is if the Taliban were able to overthrow the government. But that is completely ridiculous as a concept. Here's the OOB:
Afghan government forces:
7550 APCs
300,000 Afghan security personnel
145,000 international troops
Taliban:
0 APCs
72,000 insurgents
The Taliban simply has no chance of victory - even if all the international troops were removed tomorrow.
And that's not including planes. Which brings me to my main point. Americans are jackasses. American military pilots in particular. I have watched in horror as American pilots managed to bomb the Red Cross building in Afghanistan twice in a week.I have watched them take potshots at Albanian civilians during the Kosovo war. I have watched them strike Iran when they were supposed to be striking at Iraq. I have watched them bomb Canadian soldiers and then get off scot-free. These pilots are flying well out of harm's way, yet they like to think with their balls instead of their head. They really need to be replaced by professional commercial airline pilots - considering they are travelling outside of the range of ground fire.
What was absolutely devastating was when they recently opened fire on Pakistani forces. It doesn't matter who was really in the right or not - the fact is, the US military can't be trusted, and should not be allowed to fly anywhere near Pakistan. If that means ceding territory to the Taliban, then so be it! Preserving the logistical route (luckily recently restored (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18719737)) into Afghanistan is what should be given absolute highest priority.
My suggestion on how to accomplish this is to simply use Pakistani aircraft. Pay them to provide air support over both Pakistan and Afghanistan. That way, when mistakes are inevitably made, Pakistan will have to answer for them, and will get used to the idea that mistakes are made in war.
American aircraft should be restricted to protecting military bases, and should not be allowed to travel more than 50km away from a base. And even then, preference should be given to allowing the Pakistani Air Force to defend those bases, because I repeat - Americans are incompetent jackasses that should not be trusted with bombs, unless there is no alternative. It's certainly better to have the American military involved than having no-one at all involved, and the entire Afghanistan ceded to the Taliban, as was close to the case in 2001. But in 2012, we have far more options at our disposal.
The biggest problem with losing the Pakistani supply routes is that it means we are dependent on the Russians for supplies. That means that the Russians can threaten to cut the only supply lines, if e.g. any NATO member were to act against the Syrian dictatorship. It is time to liberate Syria, and we cannot allow the Russians to blackmail us like that. Therefore could you please immediately demand that the US Air Force be stood down, and replaced by either the Pakistani Air Force, or nothing (ie only fight using ground forces - a building can be blown up almost as easily with an RPG as with a bomb)..
Yours faithfully,
Paul Edwards.
|
Dear Sir,
Sorry for not contacting you sooner. You are a truly excellent leader as far as I am concerned, leading the brave Afghan people to victory. Note that I was listening to a song that mentioned Afghanistan just yesterday. You might be interested in knowing about an Australian (I am Australian too) singing about Afghanistan. The band's name is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Tattoo ("Rose Tattoo"). And the song is http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rose+tattoo/i+wish_20340147.html ("I Wish"). The words are "Wish I was a tribesman in in the hills of Afghanistan".
So as you can see, Afghanistan is very close to the heart of Australians. In actual fact, when I saw 9/11 on TV, the first thought that came to my mind was "hopefully now we'll have a chance to liberate Afghanistan". Here's are the exact words I used in my first email (to someone called Rod Speed):
> You noticed the massive terrorist attack in the US ?
No, thanks.
I hope the US invades Afghanistan now.
And here is my second email:
> > I hope the US invades Afghanistan now.
>
> Not a chance. No one has very succeeded in doing that.
>
> They may well fuck them over from the air tho.
By "invasion" I mean join the northern forces to overthrow the
government, and get an agreement with the northern forces to
install a democracy once done. Not stay there.
You see, during the 1990s when I was watching Afghan women being beaten with sticks by the Taliban, my heart ached. I desperately wanted to attack the Taliban, and protect the Afghan women. But it was not possible for me personally, or even the Australian government, to externally invade Afghanistan. Generally attacks like that are not done unless the enemy government first makes a move against the outside world. Which most dictators are smart enough to not actually do. Which means we have to just sit there watching helplessly. Even when we later find out from polls that 88% of Afghans support the international intervention (versus only 11% opposed)!
Anyway, the reason I am writing to you now is to request that you change military strategy in Afghanistan. First of all, you will need to live with Taliban terrorism for years to come. Just as Iraq is currently living with terrorism, and just as the UK lived with terrorism from the IRA for literally decades. At the end of the day, terrorism is a fairly low-scale problem (e.g. it doesn't prevent the population of the country from growing), and should just be left to the security forces to deal with as best they can.
The only real danger that would exist is if the Taliban were able to overthrow the government. But that is completely ridiculous as a concept. Here's the OOB:
Afghan government forces:
7550 APCs
300,000 Afghan security personnel
145,000 international troops
Taliban:
0 APCs
72,000 insurgents
The Taliban simply has no chance of victory - even if all the international troops were removed tomorrow.
And that's not including planes. Which brings me to my main point. Americans are jackasses. American military pilots in particular. I have watched in horror as American pilots managed to bomb the Red Cross building in Afghanistan twice in a week.I have watched them take potshots at Albanian civilians during the Kosovo war. I have watched them strike Iran when they were supposed to be striking at Iraq. I have watched them bomb Canadian soldiers and then get off scot-free. These pilots are flying well out of harm's way, yet they like to think with their balls instead of their head. They really need to be replaced by professional commercial airline pilots - considering they are travelling outside of the range of ground fire.
What was absolutely devastating was when they recently opened fire on Pakistani forces. It doesn't matter who was really in the right or not - the fact is, the US military can't be trusted, and should not be allowed to fly anywhere near Pakistan. If that means ceding territory to the Taliban, then so be it! Preserving the logistical route (luckily recently restored (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18719737)) into Afghanistan is what should be given absolute highest priority.
My suggestion on how to accomplish this is to simply use Pakistani aircraft. Pay them to provide air support over both Pakistan and Afghanistan. That way, when mistakes are inevitably made, Pakistan will have to answer for them, and will get used to the idea that mistakes are made in war.
American aircraft should be restricted to protecting military bases, and should not be allowed to travel more than 50km away from a base. And even then, preference should be given to allowing the Pakistani Air Force to defend those bases, because I repeat - Americans are incompetent jackasses that should not be trusted with bombs, unless there is no alternative. It's certainly better to have the American military involved than having no-one at all involved, and the entire Afghanistan ceded to the Taliban, as was close to the case in 2001. But in 2012, we have far more options at our disposal.
The biggest problem with losing the Pakistani supply routes is that it means we are dependent on the Russians for supplies. That means that the Russians can threaten to cut the only supply lines, if e.g. any NATO member were to act against the Syrian dictatorship. It is time to liberate Syria, and we cannot allow the Russians to blackmail us like that. Therefore could you please immediately demand that the US Air Force be stood down, and replaced by either the Pakistani Air Force, or nothing (ie only fight using ground forces - a building can be blown up almost as easily with an RPG as with a bomb)..
Yours faithfully,
Paul Edwards.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 08:26 
