Defend the defensible

In the cockpit of a CIA-contracted C-17 flying over the Pamir Mountains in early November 2001, soon to be Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah turned to me saying, “You deserted us once, look at the consequences for both America and Afghanistan, don’t do it again.”

Not wishing to apologize for U.S. policy decisions, I responded, “It appears that God in His irony has bound together the most blessed and the most burdened of countries. We cannot escape one another.”

As the transport descended beneath the palisades all around us, I returned to my seat. Peering out the window, I thought this would be about the time for a hostile to fire a surface-to-air missile at us.

The terrain looked like moonscape, devoid of humankind’s imprint. The Northern Alliance’s delegate to Uzbekistan ambled over. Sitting down next to me, he oriented my map to the land below. He told me, in effect, that this was his old neighborhood. He increased my anxiety somewhat by talking about Stinger missiles and Soviet helicopters.

Minutes before landing, the deputy chief of the CIA mission, eyeing my New York City Fire Department hat, lifted his black shirt to reveal a bright red FDNY sweater. He was from Brooklyn, N.Y., I was from the Bronx. We laughed together and talked about getting even with the bastards that bombed us. I felt so alive, so privileged to be among such intrepid companions like my new acquaintance from Brooklyn.

Later, Army 5th Special Forces Commander Col. John Mulholland told me at the former Soviet Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, that his troopers buried shards of the World Trade Center everywhere they had been so far. That I thought was getting even indeed. Thanks to my brother Raymond that map now is on display at One Police Plaza, the New York Police Department headquarters building.

Hopping into jeeps we passed by an honor guard of Tajik-Afghans dressed in their mountain mufti uniforms. These were the troops of Jamiat-e-Islami that bested the Soviets. These were the braves that had denied the Taliban total control of Afghanistan. These were soldiers still in mourning for their assassinated leader Ahmed Shah Massoud killed by al Qaeda on Sept. 9, 2001, a mere two days before the attack upon America. I wanted to honor them in return shouting out congratulatory phrases in Persian-Farsi. A few of them responded in kind.

However, these moments of military romanticism among gladiators are not enough to bind a great nation to erstwhile allies, previous commitments, and transitory interests but it should cause a good nation to pause before jettisoning an honorable past association.

Ultimately, only President Obama can decide whether our interest is so compelling as to demand the continued sacrifice of our blood and treasure in Afghanistan. It is on him.

The president would do well to read the memoirs of 19th century veterans of Britain’s Afghan wars before granting our commanders their requests for additional troops. This swamp cannot be drained.

The Pashtuns still flock to the jihad howls of fanatical cave-dwelling mullahs just as they did more than a century ago. It is in the genes, particularly so among those clans that populate the territories on both sides of the colonial-imposed Durand boundary.

These clans have little interest in Kabul, even less in the European concept of a united nation-state. However, they will subordinate their private quarrels and unite against a foreign presence, considered a danger to their faith. Moreover, they are not likely to neglect this duty for a fist full of dollars. They are different in kind, not degree from the Arabs of al-Anbar province Iraq.

A few suggestions: The United States should do the possible. and not be tied to past florid rhetoric or overly ambitious verbal commitments. There is no restart button on Afghanistan.

We should strategically withdraw to defend the defensible and consolidate the strength of the forces now deployed to those Afghan provinces that are peopled by ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara which make up about 50 percent of the Afghanistan’s population. They will fight the Taliban and al Qaeda.

These people also have leaders who will lead with inspiration, like former presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah as well as experienced leaders like Tajik Gen. Mohammed Fahim and Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostam.

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