American, British and other European families silently shed tears before the bodies of their dead sons, amid rising unrest from the high cost of a war that is gradually losing its justifications and the ability to convince. Afghan families too are angrily burying their dead, civilians killed while trying to get a gallon of fuel from a tank truck hijacked by the Taliban and bombed by NATO warplanes. This is the Afghan predicament, where no one can win and no one can accept defeat, and where staying is very costly, yet withdrawing may come at a much greater cost. With time, it seems that the purpose for which Bin Laden “raided New York” is being achieved little by little. Indeed, the war of attrition against the West has become a reality, and the demarcation line between civilizations has taken shape and is being strengthened, while solutions become more complex and possibilities frightening. The Al-Qaeda leader drew Western armies to his land, his mountains and his caves, where they are now stuck. The rapid victory they at first thought they could achieve did not occur, and they are no longer able to abandon the goal that drove them there, or to acknowledge that they are faced with an enemy able to quickly and efficiently adapt to changes in their methods and tactics. The Americans have said that they would make use of their experience in Iraq in terms of rallying to population against the fighters and arming local “awakenings”. But terrorists in Iraq were coming from abroad and it was easy for Iraqi clansmen to identify them and ask them to stay away or lead the authorities to them, before deciding to fight them themselves. In Afghanistan, on the other hand, fighters are deeply embedded in the social fabric, as most of the country is under Taliban control by night, before fighters return to their “truce” with occupation forces in the daytime. Moreover, approaching the Afghan population means exposing the soldiers to increased danger, as it reveals their movements to the Taliban, as took place with the bombing that killed the deputy chief of Afghan intelligence a few days ago, after the movement obtained complete information about his movements from the inhabitants of his hometown themselves. Thus every Afghan becomes a potential suicide bomber, allured by the banner of “Jihad” and the money of opium planters and traders. Even the party which the West collaborated with and chose a president from has not been able to come out of corruption and nepotism, the latest example of which was the falsification which reports confirm took place in the presidential elections and which no one was able to conceal, embarrassing the governments who defended the experience by calling it a model of democracy, the seeds of which they planted and watered with the blood of their soldiers. As for returning to traditional warfare, which means taking positions in the capital Kabul and other parts of the country and defending them or waging attacks and raids against Taliban positions, it would be tantamount to acknowledging failure, that the battle may last to no end, the number of casualties will increase and that what is required is sending more and more troops, as London and Washington seem to be heading towards, but that this will probably not determine the outcome of the battle. The Russians have experienced Afghanistan before, sent more than a hundred thousand Soviet soldiers to its soil and collaborated with a segment of the Afghan population led by a “Communist Party”. But they quickly discovered the illusion of being able to subdue this complex country, with its various tribes, including the “tribe” of US intelligence. Today they are greatly concerned about the possibility of Atlantic forces taking surprising steps if they were to realize their complete failure, leaving Russia and countries allied to it that border Afghanistan exposed to destabilizing retaliatory attacks, aside from the danger looming over nuclear Pakistan. Neither the ability to win nor the ability to withdraw: what is the solution then? If anyone has an answer, let them contact NATO headquarters immediately.
