Brzezinski: Western Powers Going Down Same Road as Soviet Union in Afghanistan
September 15th, 2009Via: Herald Tribune:
Western powers now in Afghanistan run the risk of suffering the fate of the Soviet Union there if they cannot halt the growing insurgency and an Afghan perception that they are foreign invaders, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former U.S. national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter.
In a speech opening a weekend gathering of military and foreign policy experts, Mr. Brzezinski, who was national security adviser when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in late 1979, endorsed a British and German call, backed by France, for a new international conference on the country. He also set the tone for a weekend of somber assessments of the situation.
He noted that it took about 300 U.S. Special Forces — fighting with Northern Alliance troops — to overthrow Taliban rule after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Now, however, with about 100,000 U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan, those forces are increasingly perceived as foreign invaders, much as the Soviet troops were from the start, Mr. Brzezinski said.
For President Barack Obama, Afghanistan is the foreign policy issue that has “perhaps the greatest need for strategic review,” said Mr. Brzezinski, who met with Mr. Obama during the presidential campaign last year, and endorsed his candidacy but was not a formal adviser.
“We are running the risk of replicating — obviously unintentionally — the fate of the Soviets,” Mr. Brzezinski said in his speech Friday night.
The presence of so many foreign troops underpins an Afghan perception that the Americans and their allies are hostile invaders and “suggests transformation of the conflict is taking place,” he added.
A new international conference would help devise a more refined strategy, Mr. Brzezinski said in a brief interview Sunday. Using the military to support a development strategy would help prolong the European presence, he suggested — “our European friends are less likely to leave us in the lurch.”
If the United States is left alone in Afghanistan, Mr. Brzezinski said Friday night, “that would probably spell the end of the Alliance.”
A discussion on Afghanistan on Saturday featured, among others, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British foreign secretary’s special representative for Afghanistan and a former British ambassador to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
“All is not doom and gloom in Afghanistan,” Sir Sherard told the conference, the Global Strategic Review of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, a nongovernment organization. But “walking away would destroy everything that has been achieved.”
“The pullout option is not one that any government could responsibly follow,” he added, emphasizing, that America’s role was crucial. “While Obama remains committed, we remain committed.”
This is what I’ve never understood. Afghanistan was a major catalyst in Russia’s economic collapse, and they shared a border with the country, fer chrissakes! Somehow US leaders have convinced themselves they can do it better, but doubtless what they mean is that they’ll simply park enough forces there indefinitely to keep the opium money coming their way, and let the worthless fringes of the country go to hell…
Actually, I see the US administration is already talking about needing MORE troops there, despite doubling their numbers last year. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8257688.stm)
One day our armed forces are going to wake-up to how bitch-slapped they’ve really become…and I imaging they’ll be pissed…
Don’t allow his association with the Carter administration to fool you. Zbigniew Brzezinski is one of the most astute foreign policy thinkers of our time and, on this issue, he is right on track. I believe that current Taliban-Al Qaida-Islamic Fringe strategy is to keep us in Afghanistan indefinitely and gradually demoralize our troops and drain our will and resources. There’s an old saying, “Fish and guests start to stink after three days.” In this case, three days is actually eight years and we have worn out what welcome we may have had in the region.
Just who the H does Brzesinski think he’s fooling? My lord. His pants are full of it.
And @lagavulin – THANK YOU for your insight.
Isn’t the big B the one who managed events so that Afghanistan became Russia’s equivalent to U.S. involvement in Vietnam? Uh,I dunno, but it sure seemed that involvement in Afghansistan – at least in my mind – played a large role in the USSR collapse.
Whoever the TBTB – whether from USSR or US- has at any point in time since I’ve been alive viewed Afghanistan as a cash cow. Drugs, oil, love to treat women like uh, something worse than sheep, wear that veil, but let me do you at will, etc.
The WMD in Afghanistan is the poppy. Whoever controls Afghanistan rules the drug trade. How many nations around the world have involvement in AFghanistan? They are there to protect and serve what?
Poppies. Poppies. Think of Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. Poppies.