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WASHINGTON - Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Wednesday that militant insurgents in Afghanistan are growing in strength but will be fought "relentlessly and aggressively" by bolstered American troops.
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on President Barack Obama's new strategy expanding the Afghan campaign, Petraeus said the United States would take the fight to the Taliban and insurgent forces in both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.
Not surprising at all. We started well, following 9/11, to cripple Al Qaeda by first dismantling a regime (Taliban) that supported the network, and then going after Al Qaeda. Then, we smelled oil and revenge. And turned around and went west, into Iraq. I felt bad for our military which had gotten a pretty good foothold in Afghanistan, but was now diverted away from it. Their primary efforts became secondary, and it provided an opportunity for the Taliban and Al Qaeda to regroup.
Pakistani involvement doesn't surprise me at all. The connection has existed for at least two decades, and then there is ISI towards which we turned a blind eye for way too long. ISI has had close ties with terrorist networks that operate against India (primarily Kashmir). This was acknowledged only recently. Pakistan's democracy had started to fail in the late 60s, and we supported the elements that were weakening it, with Nixon going against the woes of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and supporting everything that crooks in Pakistan dictated. Things have not been good there, at all. This mess has been in the making for a long time, and worsened by taking focus off Afghanistan/Al Qaeda in 2003.
Now we have a bigger region and mess to deal with, along with that ridiculous war in Iraq.