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Experts discuss USIP book on ‘the hijacking of Afghanistan’
January 31, 2008
By Beth Hearn
A panel of experts on Thursday stressed the importance of a long term solution for Afghanistan at the launch of Roy Gutman’s new book, How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan. The event was hosted by United States Institute of Peace.
The book investigates how it was possible for the U.S. to be so unaware of the risk posed to it by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Gutman, who is currently foreign editor at the McClatchy Washington bureau, put forward a series of factors. The first was the U.S. policy of supporting the Mujahedeen in overcoming Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the late 1970s, and a lack of attention to what kind of government would be in place after Soviet withdrawal.
Political events, including the United States’ failure to investigate the Taliban’s claims that their troops were being massacred by Uzbeks in the mid 1990s, gave bin Laden the opportunity to gain their trust and effectively “hijack” the country, Gutman said. This led to Taliban Supreme Leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, stating that “half my country was destroyed by war, and I would not mind if the other half was destroyed in order to protect our guest (bin Laden).”
There was also a lack of communication within the U.S. The State Department was aware of the Taliban’s unflinching support for Osama bin Laden, but Gutman alleged that the message was never effectively passed to the Joint Chiefs or the Foreign Relations Committee or, indeed, the public.
Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, suggested that the lack of a functioning U.S. embassy in Kabul also played a major role in allowing us to “miss the story.”
The media also had a role in the failure, according to Tom Gjelten, veteran journalist and NPR Correspondent. He said that journalists found it “impossible to maintain professional distance from the story of 9/11.”
Gutman claims that the United States effectively attempted to take a shortcut to peace in Afghanistan: it looked for short term solutions in the form of military action and sanctions, without effectively considering the long term implications or getting to the root of the problem.
“The time to do something was in the early 1990s, before the Taliban, but the opportunity was missed,” said Riedel. Then, in dealing with the situation, we took the “easy option of covert action.”
Unfortunately, in the case of Afghanistan “the aphorism ‘learn from your mistakes’ is really a hopeful prescription rather than a factual description of events,” said Richard Smyth, Visiting Professor of International Relations at the U.S. Army War College.
Once again we are seeing a revival of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Riedel said that there have been 140 suicide attacks in the last year; in 2002 there were two. In Pakistan there have been 56 in the last year; in 2002 there was one.
The panel agreed that the process of building peace in Afghanistan will take decades, and cannot be considered independently of the wider context of the region. Pakistan is of particular importance, said Riedel.
Gjelten emphasized the importance of media attention and focus to bring public attention to the events that will shape our future. “What is the next story that we are in danger of missing?” he asked. |
