Friday, February 25, 2011
From this valley they say you are going*
The Pech River Valley may have traditional songs sung about it but US troops won't be singing them any time soon, even if they are leaving. The military has decided that the valley is too large a drain on US resources to stay there.
*Complete lyrics here.
After years of fighting for control of a prominent valley in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the United States military has begun to pull back most of its forces from ground it once insisted was central to the campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.It is their country and their Thief in Chief Karzai of the Afghans says his boys can handle it so we should leave it to them. The symbolism of it may be a small problem, however.
The withdrawal from the Pech Valley, a remote region in Kunar Province, formally began on Feb. 15. The military projects that it will last about two months, part of a shift of Western forces to the province’s more populated areas. Afghan units will remain in the valley, a test of their military readiness.
While American officials say the withdrawal matches the latest counterinsurgency doctrine’s emphasis on protecting Afghan civilians, Afghan officials worry that the shift of troops amounts to an abandonment of territory where multiple insurgent groups are well established, an area that Afghans fear they may not be ready to defend on their own.
The Taliban and other Afghan insurgent groups are all but certain to label the withdrawal a victory in the Pech Valley, where they could point to the Soviet Army’s withdrawal from the same area in 1988. Many Afghans remember that withdrawal as a symbolic moment when the Kremlin’s military campaign began to visibly fall apart.We would all be better served if that were the beginning of a complete withdrawal from the whole damn country. If we are as broke as the Republicans say we are, coming home is about all we can afford.
Within six months, the Soviet-backed Afghan Army of the time ceded the territory to mujahedeen groups, according to Afghan military officials.
*Complete lyrics here.
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