Study- Confusing Official and Functionary views from Af-Pak – 22 Apr

Study- Confusing Official and Functionary views from Af-Pak – 22 Apr: The analysis of media reveals a strange phenomenon of perception being spread in Afghanistan. The official statements of US/NATO/Afghan Officials ...

The analysis of media reveals a strange phenomenon of perception being spread in Afghanistan. The official statements of US/NATO/Afghan Officials show a totally different picture from the facts and views of people working in Afghanistan including their own soldiers. Is this due to a disconnect in the chain of handling Afghan affairs or an intentional endeavor to blur the fact  . Compilation of some data is as under:-

US and NATO OfficialPolicy stance
The wave of attacks in Afghanistan yesterday was conducted by the Haqqani network, a Taliban faction that operates from safe havens in neighboring Pakistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said. “ April 16 – (Read Here) US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan C Crocker also blamed the Haqqani network on Thursday for conducting coordinated attacks in Kabul and other cities. Talking to reporters in Kabul, he demanded Pakistan to crack down on what he called “Haqqani safe havens” in Pakistan.  April 21, 2012 (Read here)
"Pakistan must play a positive role if there is to be peace and stability in Afghanistan or indeed the entire region," said NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "We want to forge a strong partnership with Pakistan." However, this requires that Pakistan cracks down on terrorists who use the country as a safe haven, said Rasmussen. 20 April- (Read here)
US Republican Senator John McCain has slammed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for its alleged links with the Haqqani network, and added that it is responsible for American deaths in Afghanistan. McCain said he had sympathy for Pakistan's military since the government is dysfunctional, but stressed that it remained a "source of never-ending frustration" that the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) had a continuous relationship with the Haqqani network, when the army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is responsible for appointing the ISI chief. (Read here) In a May 2009 interview with CNN,President Zardari  remarked all intelligence agencies have their sources in militant organizations but that does not translate to support. "Does that mean CIA has direct links with al-Qaeda? No, they have their sources. We have our sources. Everybody has sources." (Read here)
In blunt comments broadcast by Radio Pakistan on Saturday, Ambassador Cameron Munter said: “Let me tell you that the attack that took place in Kabul a few days ago that was the work of the Haqqani network. “There is evidence linking the Haqqani network to the Pakistan government. This is something that must stop,” Munter said. Asked to provide evidence of the link with the Pakistani government, Munter said only “we believe that to be the case”. September 18, 2011 – (Read here)
The United States has said that it will continue to press Islamabad to 'squeeze' the al-Qaeda linked Haqqani network, as Afghanistan blamed the Pakistan-based group for the latest brazen attacks in Kabul. Declaring "there were indications of Haqqani involvement" in the weekend attacks in the Afghan capital, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she had pressed Pakistan to 'squeeze' the Haqqani network when she visited Islamabad last October. "I will continue to make that point, and press it hard," April 17 – (Read here)

Facts and realities from peopleon ground

The new strategy, winning the “hearts and minds” of the Afghanis has only lead to a failure to understand the Afghan people. “We send teams out to lecture tribal leaders and warlords on how we want to bring them prosperity. When is the last time you brought prosperity to Walmart? You cannot give away something that must be sought and earned, like democracy,” Shaffer argues. “The Afghan people have no tradition of a central democracy, yet we want to ‘give’ it to them.” In his press release Allen praised the Afghanistan Security Forces who are working to provide “a sovereign Afghanistan responsive to its people.” Contrary to that postulate the men and women serving in uniform face a daily barrage of attacks from the Taliban/Haqqani insurgents located in the numerous safe havens located in the outskirts of Afghanistan’s large population centers…with this kind of chaos permeating from the White House and military leaders in the Pentagon, it’s time for the truth…. April 18 (Read Here)

An ABC News/Washington Postpoll showed that public supportfor the war in Afghanistan hadplunged to an all-time low, withonly 30 percent of respondentssaying that they believed theconflict was worth fighting. Itwas the first poll in which amajority of self-identifiedRepublicans agreed with thatproposition.

Moreover, 62 percent ofrespondents said they believedthat most Afghans oppose whatthe U.S. is trying to do there. 08 April (Read here) 

Talks not of CIA but Military links

Sitting in the spartan parlour of the governor of Sangin's office, Lieutenant Colonel Tom Savage waits for his opposite number in the Taliban to turn up for tea. Fittingly, perhaps, for a man whose day job is killing Lt Col Savage's fellow US Marines, the insurgent leader will only ever meet at night, and even then, it is a cloak-and-dagger affair. Shortly after 9pm, there is a crunch of gravel in the fortified compound outside, and in walks a figure swathed in black save for a slit for his eyes. He peels off his veil with theatrical flair, greets the Colonel, and over a dinner of stew and rice, the two discuss the one thing that both badly want, but neither can deliver alone – peace.  "I have talked to three different local Taliban commanders, and this particular one is a pretty respected guy," said Lt Col Savage, who says they may well have killed his own men, and almost certainly some of the British whom the Marines inherited part of southern Afghanistan from last year. 23 July, 2011 (Read here)

According to a summary of the investigation results, compiled       in May and reviewed by The Washington Post, the military found “documented, credible evidence . . . of involvement in a criminal enterprise or support for the enemy” by four of the eight prime contractors. “This goes beyond our comprehension,” said Rep. John F. Tierney (D-Mass.), who last summer was chairman of a House oversight subcommittee that charged that the military was, in effect, supporting a vast protection racket that paid insurgents and corrupt middlemen to ensure safe passage of the truck convoys that move U.S. military supplies across Afghanistan. Intelligence officials traced $3.3 million, withdrawn in 27 transactions from the commander’s account, that was transferred to insurgents in the form of weapons, explosives and cash. “I would hate like hell to think my kid was over there” and the Taliban was “coming after them with something bought with our taxpayers’ money,” Tierney said. July 2011-   (Read here)

“We’re now spending $2 billion dollars a week in Afghanistan. We spent $120 billion there last year. It is not doing much good. Most of the $60 billion the U.S. has spent in Afghanistan on aid and development is wasted. After investing $30 billion on standing up the Afghan national security forces, their performance is still abysmal. By most accounts, the insurgency is rapidly growing. Afghans don’t want us there. Increasing numbers of Americans want the U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. Most of the soldiers I talk to want to get out.

I think the U.S. officials need to accelerate the withdrawal of the troops, and prepare to assist with the inevitable humanitarian crisis that is bound to overwhelm Afghanistan when we leave. We broke it. We need to help pick up the pieces.” (Douglas A. Wissing, author of the  Funding the Enemy: How U.S. Taxpayers Bankroll the Taliban. ) April 2, (Read here)

• How U.S. money ends up in Taliban hands

U.S. military and government investigators found that money paid to four of the eight contractors hired to transport military supplies across Afghanistan ended up with criminal networks and insurgents. Investigators developed case studies to show how the system works. For details see US military studies.

(Click to enlarge – Source: U.S. military-led Task Force 2010. Graphic: TheWashington Post. Published on July 24, 2011, 11:24 p.m.)

• Lifting the curtain

The military began investigating reports of funding diverted to insurgents just months after signing a trucking contract with Afghan companies. A slide, completely redacted for public release, was part of a briefing prepared by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command in summer 2009.

(Click to enlarge. Source: U.S. Army Investigation Command. Graphic: The Washington Post. Published on July 24, 2011, 11:11 p.m.)

But optimism still persists just listen to Michael Scheuer one of those Americans, of who there are many, who has both the intellect and the moral courage to speak truth to power. Says Pakistan did what you can expect of best of friends.  He resigned from the CIA because he felt that the agency was amenable to considering only such analyses, which were ideologically driven. On leaving the CIA he wrote his first book. He then joined a think tank, and lost this job–again because he was not willing to follow an agenda. Indeed, those of us who only follow the mainline U.S media, have little idea that all apparent U.S blunders–whether they be related to their military planning, foreign policy, or the economy–all had plenty of  people standing up against such policies. But such people were either dumped, or not listened to.   Click Below

listen to Michael Scheuer

Conclusion:

The unipolar world seems to be fast moving towards psychological operations where facts and logics are blurred under dust of perceptions. However, it remains moral and intellectual duty of writers and intellectuals to use all means to make the society and historians aware of the facts for the generation to decide the type of new world order  they want.