DESTRUCTION CONFUSION.

WE BOMB TO WIN, THEREFORE WE LOSE.

Secretary of Defense Gates has got rid of the U.S. Commander in Afghanistan. The replacement of Gen. David McKiernan less than a year after he took over is supposed to mark a major change in military leadership in a worsening war environment.

So bombing civilians to death by the hundreds to free them from this hostile life does not work? Intriguingly, I heard that this general had been critical of the massive use of Flying robots ("Drones")... In which case his firing will not be a good sign. As everybody who has seen the Terminator movies know, flying robots can be defeated by true human freedom fighters...

And another thing I know is that the war will not be won from the air. Actually why should there be a war? For eight years, the USA has attacked Afghans in Afghanistan to achieve what? A much bigger war?

I say: bombing within miles of any house should be forbidden.

Also, flying robots should not be part of any offensive operations, outside of a well defined battlefield. Robots will be of course very effective, as long as they leave civilians safe and sound.

Telling the Afghans what to do, and what to grow should not be an option either. (When Obama goes on a rampage against poppy fields, he is exceeding his powers, and infuriating the Afghans; better to go to the Taliban and persuade them to go legal, and use the money to purchase civilian goods instead of weapons; many countries grow poppies for legal painkilling, and there is a big market out there).

Long term, the only way out is to convene all the Afghan resistance and the government, and hash out a gigantic compromise on a secular basis. Then use NATO just to insure the compromise, including lots of civilian help.

The fact that the present Afghan constitution is Islamist makes it impossible to fight Muslim fundamentalists with a straight face. This was exemplified with Obama's complete confusion about article 137 of the Afghan Constitution, that allows husbands to rape their wives and orders the later to enjoy it. This is straight out of the Islamist code (and partly from the Qur'an). If Obama finds it "abhorrent" (as he said), he finds the Qur'an abhorrent, and he may reconsider having NATO fighting for it against guys who precisely want to implement it.

The war cannot be about little girls going to school, while the Islamist code say otherwise. Better go to the Taliban, and cut a deal with them about this sort of things.

If you want to win a war, you better figure out what you want first. Just killing people, and forcing the survivors to do what you want, as NATO is presently doing in Afghanistan-Pakistan, is not enough. Besides it is highly immoral, and immorality loses wars.

Patrice Ayme
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/