Articles of Impeachment:

British commander in Afghanistan: U.S. anti-Taliban plan "doomed to fail"
"the security situation is getting worse...so is corruption, and the government has lost all trust"
SFGate.com, October 6, 2008 go to original
See Article III.1 Manipulating Intelligence and Lying to Justify War

Politicians cook up wars, whether they're legitimate or not. Generals and their troops are sent to fight them. The failure of George W. Bush's Iraq boondoggle, which was based on lies and has chalked up an unfathomable expense in American taxpayers' dollars and an inestimable cost in human lives, speaks for itself.

Now, though, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the commander of the United Kingdom's military forces in Afghanistan, has told the Times "that, in his opinion, a military victory over the Taliban [in that war-ravaged country] was 'neither feasible nor supportable.'" Carleton-Smith's interview with the British daily has made headlines around the world.

In Afghanistan, the British military commander has overseen Britain's 16 Air Assault Brigade, "whose troops have suffered severe casualties after six months of tough fighting...." Later this month the command of British forces in Afghanistan will be handed over to a brigade of the Royal Marines. Carleton-Smith told the Times "that it had been 'a turbulent summer'" and noted that, although there are "deep fissures and fractures" among the Taliban, that rebel organization, "tactically, is reasonably resilient, certainly quite dangerous and seems relatively impervious to losses. Its potency is as a force for influence."

In what will probably come as a shock to American policy-makers in Washington, the British commander "indicated that the only way forward was to find a political solution that would include the Taliban. The government of [Afghan] President Karzai has launched a reconciliation program, although the hard core of Taliban commanders is thought to be implacably opposed to any compromise." Carleton-Smith "said that in the areas where the [Karzai] government had no control, the Afghan population was 'vulnerable to a shifting coalition of Taliban, mad mullahs and marauding militias.' In other areas, however, progress was being made, and children were going back to school."

Statistics: The Guardian points out that there "have been 120 British military fatalities in Afghanistan since military operations began in the country following the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban in 2001." The invasion came after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States on U.S. soil. The newspaper adds that, today, the United Kingdom "has around 8000 troops in Afghanistan, mainly concentrated in the volatile southern province of Helmand."
In late August, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (right) met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul; are Taliban forces in Afghanistan really invincible?

In its interview with Carleton-Smith, the Times notes that his "grim prognosis follows a leaked cable by François Fitou, the deputy French ambassador in Kabul, claiming that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British ambassador [in Afghanistan], had told him the strategy for Afghanistan was 'doomed to failure.'" In Fitou's recent message to his boss, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the high-ranking diplomat indicated "that Sir Sherard believed 'the security situation is getting worse[;] so is corruption, and the government has lost all trust.'" Fitou told Sarkozy that "Sir Sherard had told him Britain had no alternative but to support the U.S. [in Afghanistan], 'but we should tell them that we want to be part of a winning strategy, not a losing one. The American strategy is doomed to fail.'"

The BBC describes Carleton-Smith's remarks as "blunt and uncompromising" but notes that they "reflect what many diplomats and military officials have being saying privately in...Kabul." The British news service adds: "By almost all accounts, the fight against the Taliban and other anti-government forces, such as al-Qaeda, is not going well. The number of insurgent attacks is increasing, and the fighting is spreading across Afghanistan, particularly in the south and the east of the country....Bush has said he will commit more troops to tackle the deteriorating security situation. In the face of this bleak outlook, however, Brigadier Carleton-Smith says that the international community must, essentially, downgrade what it hopes to achieve in Afghanistan."

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