McChrystal Reneges on Karzai's Deal with Elders of Kandahar

On April 4, Afghan President Hamid Karzai held a shura meeting in Kabul with more than 1,000 tribal elders from Kandahar, and promised them that NATO's planned Kandahar offensive would not be carried out without their support. Just a few days before, an unnamed military official in Kabul, had indicated that the strategy to gain control of the Taliban stronghold was to "shura our way to success." That is, the NATO operation was to be conducted in consultation, and at the invitation of, local tribal leaders.

However, according to investigative reporter Gareth Porter, McChrystal has now backed out of that promise. According to Porter, citing numerous other reports, the tribal leaders who attended Karzai's shura meeting made it absolutely clear that they didn't want the NATO operation. A spokesman for U.S./NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal told Porter, therefore, that local tribal elders "could shape the conditions" in which U.S. troops operated, but they would not determine when or where they will be deployed. Now, the offensive is likely to go forward against the opposition of the local leadership, virtually guaranteeing that the major Kandahar offensive, which has been pre-announced by McChrystal and CENTCOM's Gen. David Petraeus, is going to be an all-around fiasco.

It should come as no surprise that the Kandahar political and tribal leaders said thumbs down to the planned U.S./NATO offensive. The country has been living through the hell of a Thirty Years' War since Brzezinski first launched the anti-Soviet provocations in Spring 1979, under the guidance of British intelligence's Bernard Lewis. The entirety of the former economy of Afghanistan has been destroyed by war—which is exactly what the British intended—and has been replaced by dope.