The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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The Real Enemy Grows Stronger
by James Dunnigan
June 26, 2015
Despite the anger at Pakistan and distrust of ISI the new Afghan government is cooperating with Pakistan in trying to force most Afghan Taliban to negotiate a peace deal. Pakistan drove the drug gangs out in the 1980s but the drug business simply moved to Afghanistan and both countries now suffer from widespread addiction and the growing financial and political (via bribes) power of gangsters thriving on drug profits. Pakistan is openly (and covertly) pressuring the Afghan Taliban to call off their current “Summer Offensive” and get serious about peace talks. Some Taliban factions are willing to talk (and are talking) but many Taliban factions are either too addicted to the drug money and power it confers or are still determined to turn Afghanistan back into a religious dictatorship. Many of these religious fanatics are breaking away and joining ISIL which weakens the Taliban still further. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan agree that the main enemy here is the drug gangs, some of them masquerading as Taliban. In both countries the growing power of these gangs is felt everywhere, not just by locals becoming addicts but because government officials and even tribal leaders are taking bribes to openly or covertly support the drug lords.
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