This report by the Committee majority staff is part of our continuing examination of the conflict in Afghanistan.
When we went to war less than a month after the attacks of September 11, the objective was to destroy Al Qaeda and kill or capture its leader, Osama bin Laden, and other senior figures in the terrorist group and the Taliban, which had hosted them. Today, more than eight years later, we find ourselves fighting an increasingly lethal insurgency in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan that is led by many of those same extremists. Our inability to finish the job in late 2001 has contributed to a conflict today that endangers not just our troops and those of our allies, but the stability of a volatile and vital region. This report relies on new and existing information to explore the consequences of the failure to eliminate bin Laden and other extremist leaders in the hope that we can learn from the mistakes of the past.
Sincerely,
JOHN F. KERRY, Chairman,
SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
November 30, 2009
Dear Friend and Reader:
We are fast approaching the astrology of Uranus stationing direct, and the hours leading up to President Obama’s Full Moon speech on America’s plan to “finish the job” in Afghanistan. On Tuesday night, he is scheduled announce another phase of what was started over eight years ago in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. by Al-Qaeda. With Uranus stationing direct at 23 Pisces, we might ask: What job is he planning to finish? And is it possible to finish any job in Afghanistan? For this, we have to look at history. Please follow along with a summary.
The war in Afghanistan is President Obama’s by inheritance. This inheritance did not begin in 2001 with the multinational hunt for Osama Bin Ladin. It began much earlier during the Cold War with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, a Communist state established by the Saur Revolution in 1978. With Soviet backing, Afghan Marxists modernized the country, built roads, hospitals, and schools. Traditional marriage laws were upended for a more modern system that encouraged women’s education. These changes met resistance from the more traditional Muslim population. Harsh landscape and language divides made it difficult for new policies to take root nationwide. Insurrection was inevitable. A civil war between the Afghan Marxists and insurgents, also known as the mujahideen, began immediately, spurring the Soviets to invade Afghanistan in 1979 to support the Marxist government.