On The Pakistani Government (Part 2 of 1,300,000)

Our Enemies

Howdy,

(Any GCV+F-related news and other products will be listed below the tear line, if you will).

Let’s get into it.

This afternoon, I had a great conversation with my two friends, Jason Howk and John Agoglio, for episode 8 of Shoulder to Shoulder. I learned a ton from these two men. John was at CENTCOM during 9-11 and helped cobble together a plan out of almost nothing. Jason, on the other hand, was in Afghanistan in 2002, trying to figure out how to stand up an Afghan Army from nothing but a cobbled-together staff of misfit toys since all of the manpower had already been redirected for Iraq.

(Don’t worry, I won’t write about the entire episode)

John helped stand up Afghanistan’s counterinsurgency academy (proud graduate), which helped train tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines (sorry, guardians, you were still a twinkle in your momma’s eye). Jason advised some of the most senior American and Afghan officials. Both of these men are my Afghan teachers, for sure.

The thing that stuck out in our wide-ranging conversation was that the Afghans told us from the start—Pakistan was the real problem.

Many senior Afghan leaders told both men repeatedly that if we didn’t direct our war effort at Pakistan, then the war would go on forever.

Why?

Because Pakistan can crank out terrorists from their madrassa factories at lightning speed, it’s a plug-and-play type of deal.

Everyone was aware of this, even back in 2002-03. Tragically, President George W. Bush (see: I criticize him too) made a horrendous mistake and let Pakistani President Musharraf play him and his team like a fiddle from the start.

Musharraf (good riddance) fine-tuned his relationship with President Bush. He would conduct limited operations against terrorists, all right, but only against the Pakistani Taliban because they viewed him as no better than the takfirs. It wasn’t even all that much of a hidden game. Hell, Musharraf admitted as much when he said, “There is no doubt Afghan militants are supported from Pakistani soil.”

Pakistan has long played this little game with us. As the great Hussain Haqqani showed in his excellent book Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding, the Pakistanis have been manipulating us from the start. They quickly realized that polished, English-speaking Pakistani officers easily manipulated their American interlocutors.

Long story short, the Pakistanis have had our numbers for nearly fifty years. We know they are the Taliban and that the Taliban is them. There are no fundamental differences. We just made them up in our little minds.

Pakistani ISI killed over 73K+ American, Afghan, and other allied soldiers during twenty years of war.

This is not an opinion. It is a fact. It is known.

The gents discuss some possible strategies we could’ve used, but all that is just a parlor game. The what-ifs/should-haves are fun, and “lessons learned” should definitely be learned, but only if they inform our future Afghan strategy.

And here’s the thing, folks. The Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the Islamic State (to name just a few) are coming for us. It’s who they are. They say it out loud repeatedly. And they’re far smarter about us than we are about them.

I know I say this a lot, but it’s true: just because you retreat from the battlefield doesn’t mean your enemies won’t come after you.

In fact, it’s advantageous to attack your enemies in retreat (see: Abbey Gate).

Until Next Time

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Please check out our latest episode of Shoulder to Shoulder: Untold Stories From a Forgotten War.

In this week’s episode, we interview an American treasure, Dr. Trina Clayeux, and her colleagues at Give an Hour. They’re doing the Lord’s work, and we’re so grateful to have her on our show.

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