Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911...

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Al Jazeera: You recently said ‘the Taliban is the future, the Americans are the past in Afghanistan’. Isn’t that a little far-fetched?

Hamid Gul: The Americans are defeated. It isn’t necessarily because their firepower and their might has weakened, but it is because their own people are sick and tired [of engagement in Afghanistan]. There is fatigue now, fatigue is the threat and is the worst thing for a nation to suffer from. There is no way that the Americans can hold on to Afghanistan.

Some in Afghanistan believe that the extent of civilian casualties has empowered the Taliban’s resurgence.

It is not only that. While the civilian casualties have certainly made the Taliban a popular movement in Afghanistan – some 80 per cent of the population support them – the people of Afghanistan are fed up with corruption.
They are sick of the influence of warlords and drug barons, and the continued American occupation.
If it was a shot stint – come in and get out after completing the job – the situation would have been different. But the Americans didn’t do that. If they wanted to disperse al-Qaeda, they succeeded after the first year, and after that they should have pulled out. The fact they stayed on betrays their real intentions in Afghanistan until Barack Obama, the US president, came and started talking about withdrawal.
It was only last December that Obama announced that the US will pull out of Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton said the same thing, but there is a dichotomy.
On the one hand they say ‘We are not here to stay in Afghanistan’, but on the other hand they carry out surges and want to prop up and build the Afghan Army.
However, they don’t give the money to build the Afghan Army – just $140mn. Compare this to how much it costs the US to keep just one soldier in Afghanistan – $1mn dollars per soldier per year in Afghanistan. They have now about 68,000 US troops. It is currently costing them $65bn just to maintain these troops. There are another 30,000 US troops now coming, so it will cost the US $100bn a year to maintain its forces in Afghanistan.
The US is a heavily indebted nation so how are they going to afford this? Some 57 per cent of Americans in the polls say they don’t like this war and want their boys to return home. The Americans can’t take casualties, that is their problem. To compensate, they started employing security contractors, some 104,000 security contractors currently in Afghanistan.
What does this mean? Mercenaries to be used where troops cannot be deployed? We have already seen what mercenaries did in Iraq. The Americans are more and more inclined – because the US military cannot suffer casualties – to employ mercenaries, not just from the US but also from the local population.
This is a very dangerous trend if we are to believe that mercenaries can win wars and carry forward the political objectives of the country. This means that whoever has more money can employ more mercenaries, win wars, win territories, etc.
Given everything you have just said, how do you think the latest US and Nato offensive against the Taliban is going to play out?
It is not going to work. I think it is an ‘eye wash’, it has political purpose back home. But there is no political purpose for Afghanistan. They are saying that they are protecting the civilian population, but they are dislodging the civilians from their homes in very harsh weather conditions in Afghanistan.
The cold winds from the steppes of Central Asia sweep these regions. When you launch such military operations, the people are inevitably dislodged and their fields abandoned. In this situation, what are the Americans trying to achieve – I don’t know.
There is much ambiguity about their political objectives. Every military conflict must have a political purpose. I cannot discern that there is any political purpose.

read the rest here: An Interview With Hamid Gul The Mujahid Blog

though I don’t fully agree with all that Hamid Gul says, some of this points are right on!

We as Pakistanis need to really get our heads examined. We’ve been brainwashed by the media and our government, we call the TALIBAN jahil, hypocrites, kafirs, terrorists when they are the ones who support humanity! I’m not talking about the groups that have taken the taliban name and have abused it. I do not support terror nor do they! So please people, it’s time to read into it rather than listening to news only when bomb blasts occur and we start to throw names at the same groups who support our cause, which is PEACE. Anger is alright but at the same time don’t be fooled/misled/ignorant! Direct your anger and protests at the right groups, insh’Allah HAQ will rule.

May Allah help the mujahideen fighting for the good cause
May Allah crush the enemy, punish them in this life and the hereafter
May Allah give us the ability to tell right from wrong
May Allah send peace to the ummah
Ameen!

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Re: Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911...

It is hard to fight and win when we do not know who the real enemy is.

Ameen to your prayers.

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This is the problem with this war is that we dont really know who the enemy is but for Pakistan's strategic interest the Taliban are a positive thing.

The Americans control the media so who they want to glorify and build will be seen as the next best thing.

Hamid Gul is right they cant hang onto Afghanistan forever and this useless Karzai government will either have to change or ousted in the long run. I guess Hamid Gul probably knows he situation better than most as he has been involved for a long time in this issue

The Taliban maybe a lot of those things that people call them but this current Karzai led government and its partners are much much worse! I dont support their ideas and way of life but I support this American led government much less.

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Re: Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911…

they can do whatever the **** they want to do in Afghanistan. the country deserves Taleban, IF it wants them. Which is far from clear, given that opinion polls paint a diametrically opposite picture to what Gul sahab is saying.

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Re: Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911...

Defeat is too strong a word but he is right about war fatigue in America. We've had enough; let Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq etc sort their own mess themselves. Just withdraw completely and stop sending military or money to these countries who clearly no longer want us, have not wanted us for a couple of year now and we are only cheesing these people of more and more.

It is not like law and order is being maintained now with several hundred thousand NATO troops out there.

The counter argument about Al Qaeda re-establishing itself in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a valid concern and certainly we've got to watch for that. That does not require 500000 soldiers. A select covert trans-national force should do it.

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Re: Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911...

^there is no alciada

continued engagement in any of these countries will bring retaliation. you can call that an act of alciada if you want. if your leaving then leave and leave by telling the world you made up all the allegations just like iraq

what does iraq, afghanistan and pakistan have in common? they were all peaceful before the US turned up

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Re: Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911...

^ don't waste time in this foolish notion that there was peace. Iraq invaded Kuwait and committed genocide. Afghanistan housed Osama and gave a platform for Al Qaeda and Taleban. Pakistan was where the funds to 9/11 hijackers came from and on the military front, initiated regional war in Kargil.

So yeah, US was absolutely right in getting in there and getting rid of the rascals from power. The issue is staying on after that for too long. We cannot stop you guys from committing harakiri if you're hell bent on it!

And let's save our money a bit too! Why pour a couple of hundred billions annually down the godforsaken drains out there...only to be hated more by the same foolish people.

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This Hameeda bulbul is stuck in Islamo-Jiahdism of 30 years ago.

Somebody tell him, to wake and smell the cofffee.

it is truly sad to see a ex-officer of Pak army, so willingly supporting the concept of Talibanism for one thing and one thing only -----

+++++ For death and destruction in the region

But this dumbwit doesn't realize that in the process he is burning down his own house, and his own beautiful country.

Any sane animal (and not even a human being) stops when his OWN home territory is in danger,

But not this Hameeda bulbul. He is so far gone in his nutty situation that he is oblivious to every reality of the day.

F the Faghanis and F every other @rsehole in that Fing country.

We better watch out for our own. Before it is too late.

The Jernails of Hameeda bulbul type, do not realize that their own homes and mansions in Pak will be burnt down first, the GHQ and Kakool academy will be turned to ashes.

Does he not see, or hear, or feal. Is this Hameeda badmash Summun bukmun?

When a force destroys their own police and army, it turns the country into graveyard just like the regions occupied by primitive tribals of Africa and the middle East.

It is doubly sad to see some of the Pakistani posters on this thread, who are educated, they reside in the West, and yet they too refuse to see, and hear.

They too have become summun bukmun.

Why? you wonder an educated western settled person would be siding with Hameed Badmash.

Perhaps a combination of mental diseases dare I say, the mental disease that is a deadly mixture of Islamism and in turn anti-Americanism.

Oh people rid your minds of this confusion. Do not advocate burning down Pakistan just because Fing Faghanis are under American boots.

Wake up before it is too late. And your loved ones in Pak, and even those whom you dislike like us the Pak nationalists, are in great peril due to Islamism and anti-West-ims.

Please stop before it is too late.

Hameeda badmash is a shamon, selling cr@cakpot. Do not smoke his hashish, and do not turn into Hashishans and show up in Pak to fight your petty Jihads.

Pakistan will burn down in no time the day Pak army and police is defeated, then you all won't be able to visit your ancesteral homelands.

We'll be either like Afghani jannat of warlords,

or worse under Indian hegemony, why?

Because our dear soldiers and police officers will be all gone just like some who became shahid yesterday in Lahore and in Saidu sharif.

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why didnt you just say you were an indian, i would have ignored you from the off.
even if the americans leave, i want you indians to stay for a couple of weeks after them

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OK. Shardi's comments was E$tupeed. But you too are going over the edge.

Shardi is in denial about Qaida and Talibots.

And you too are in denial that Indian government is making the situation worse now just like it has during Soviet invasion, and post invasion instability.

Your government needs to get the hell out of Afghanistan pronto. Because it is not helping but hurting Afghanistan and in the process hurting India.

Remember we do not live in far off planets, we the Paks are joined with Indians. And thus our life is shared and so is our death.

Those Indians intellectuals who blindly support Indian presence in Fghanistan forget that ultimately these pathetic approach will hurt or in worst case, burn down India too.

Afghan hoards descending on India's center is nothing new.

It has happened for 100s nay 1000s of years. So it can happen again, until Indian government wises up and works WITH Pak to make the right decisions.

Our tifffff on Kashmir should not blind us from the big picture. That our lives and deaths are common just like our border.

hope you get the point.

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Burqa,

As usual an inciteful assesment of the situation.

Just to let people know a bit about General Gul, as head of the ISI was responsible for the mis managed attack on Jalalabad in 1989. He is seen an a ni kamma ISI head, who also had involvement in the Ojhri bomb blast. Junejo had trained his guns on him before he was dismissed. His predecessor Akhtar Abdulrahman considered him to be a poor choice. He is also the fore most suspect in the killing of Gen Zia. Most Afghan despise him, as he has publicly called them cannon fodder. The man has more suffering to the Muslim Ummah then the Isrealis, Indians and Americans combined.

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Re: Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911...

Why do Pakistanis imagine they have some sort of influence in deciding whether it is right or wrong for Indians to be in Afghanistan? Seems to me they want a little satellite puppy dog Afghanistan indebted to them exclusively. talk about visions of hegemony.

Alright so if the response is that Pakistan will either support directly or at least look the other way when Pakistani based terror groups attack the Indians in Afghanistan, isn't that the exact same terrorist blackmail that you tried for nearly a decade across the border from Kashmir? where did that land you?

Yeah, India could take a pragmatic but short term view of succumbing to the irrational demands of Pakistan based on their irrational assessment that the Indians are in Afghanistan to direct attacks on Pakistan, and leave from Afghanistan. Then what happens? The nexus between taleban government in Afghanistan and the Pakistani government agencies is what got the world into the terrorist mess in the first place. So yeah, Indians can leave Kabul, American can leave Kabul - ISI and Taleban can once again start their slow dance -

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:) LOL! Burqa, u are a riot.

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You are VERY confused. Hameed Gul is not talking about Taliban in Pakistan, they are different, even Afghani Taliban don’t support these shmucks. According to Hameed Gul 80% of Afghan population supports Taliban whereas in Pakistan it is completely opposite. What is happening in Pakistan is because of TTP idiots.

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Re: Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911...

it's time this senile old fool was put behind bars.

is it not obvious that we have failed with our strategic depth, etc when our country has become a victim of these far fetched fantasy-based policies devised by FA-fail jarnails?

and then there is that other idiot Colonel Imam. someone remind him that he is a Pakistani - not a bloody Afghan. it shows how badly we have failed that our army wallas who wanted to use the Taliban for their own means started believing the bs they were teaching the Taliban. our army has failed and many its own ranks are drinking the koolaid that it wanted others to drink.

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:lifey:

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Captain sahab, that's what I believe too. But the majority of the people who only watch mainstream media label everything taliban's doing. I guess it's the media's fault...?

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When something happens and Taliban get the blame actually I think people point towards TTP Taliban.

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lol... What?

And Kargil? Indians try far to hard to ride Americas coat tails by connecting and promoting their own problems in conjunction with Americas legitimate war on terror.

America and the rest of the world could care less about Indias problems in Kashmir.

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Re: Hamid Gul on the Taliban, America, Afghanistan, 911...

^legitimate?