Robert Young Pelton Profile picture
Oct 5, 2018 11 tweets 4 min read Read on X
America's war in #Afghanistan began on July 3, 1979. Yes, six months before the #Soviets invaded and long before Operation Enduring Freedom. That's four decades of winning, losing and not giving a damn when the Taliban rolled in. counterpunch.org/1998/01/15/how…
the talibs or #Taliban owe their origins to Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, who translated the Koran into Persian and the Deobandi Dar al-Ulum in Deoband in the Uttar Pradesh province of India opendemocracy.net/sayed-hassan-a…
Frustrated at the number of checkpoints run by warlords and with much of Afghanistan and Kabul destroyed by militias, In September, 1994, Mullah Mohammad Omar left the Sang-i-Hisar Madrassa in Maiwand to form a militia to oust a local warlord in the border town of Spin Boldak.
I met the talibs in 1995 and they held a shura to allow the first interviews of the Mullahs. they said they did not allow photography. I told them if I can't see them face to face they are like women hiding behind the burqa. They held a shura to review my request.
They came back and agreed to the interviews. All except the one-eyed Omar who said "the path to his heart was though his voice." Tricky bastard. I spent a lot of time filming whatever and whenever I wanted in to in Kabul including on the front lines just north of Kabul.
The talibs wanted NGO money and American support. They knew us to be strong allies. After all, we both love pickup trucks, guns and family values I would joke. When they tried to strong-arm the NGOs a flurry of UN-sponsored embed stories began about cruelty and barbarity
We ignored half a decade of barbarity and destruction in Kabul by the warlords we had backed and for the first time there was peace in Kabul. So the taliban became an islamic republic backed by Pakistan, KSA and the UAE. It was then they began killing Afghans as they moved north.
5 years later I was back. This time with Dostum and SF and Mullah Nuri and Fazl. They surrendered and Dostum began quoting Abraham Lincoln in his speeches. After successfully backing the power curve, we went back to the colonial idea of a Pashtun running the country from Kabul.
Later I worked as an advisor for two four stars. I set up a ground network of 1200 Afghans, stayed out of the FOBs and was able to deliver immediate ground truth and complex analysis of events with mapping, power players and solutions. We cut peace deals and helped put out fires.
We set up face to face meetings between Talib commanders and one stars, negotiated regional stability, solving CIVCAS problems. I offered to write regional guides and provide Afghan mentors. It took the CIA eighteen months to figure out that were were working in country.
Today I got a polite back side request from a U.S. military unit for a sitrep on Afghanistan. It's not rocket science people. Hire smart people to do smart things. Then let talented people do talented things. We can "win" this war if we can just clear the clowns out of the way.

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More from @RYP__

Oct 9, 2018
Back when the CIA kept international journalism afloat. Travel publisher Eugene Fodor also allowed CIA NOCs to use his company offices as fronts. nytimes.com/1977/12/26/arc…
May 15 1984. The CIA is upset that the media can publish anything they want. muckrock.com/news/archives/…
May 13 1984. Two days earlier. the media reveals that the United States throws foreign elections by donating millions of dollars to favored candidates. nytimes.com/1984/05/13/wor…
Read 4 tweets
Oct 9, 2018
Al-Saif Al-Ajrab. Arab bodyguards have a really bad habit of using low grade steroids to bulk up. When I left Libya one of my bodyguards asked to bring horse steroids. It also shrinks their balls to the size of raisins. alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2…
Abu Starsky and Hutch
send hijackers and money. salon.com/2018/10/09/the…
Read 7 tweets
Oct 7, 2018
1979 was a pivotal year in history. Iran, Russia, China and Britain all began events that would take us where we are today. newsweek.com/why-1979-was-y…
A muj friend of mine in Afghanistan worked with Azzam's assistant Bin Laden and said he would only pay for transporting rockets if you were a Salafist. Saudi money created al Qaeda. Hezbi head Hek stockpiled all the weapons and money we gave him. Only fighting to get more money.
I know of at least 8 CIA missions scrubbed to get bin Laden. That does not include Khartoum's no strings offer in 96 or the Talib's 01 offer to hand him over if they could provide evidence of 9/11 collusion. In 98 Bin Laden blew up two embassies the Uganda plot was foiled)
Read 4 tweets
Oct 4, 2018
Ghani doesn't want to, and won't, meet with Prince. I was asked many times if Ghani was corrupt. No, he is not. So that is your answer. nytimes.com/2018/10/04/wor…
The CENTCOM boss that runs our army over there weighs in...you know the ones that are accountable, swear an oath of allegiance (to our country), have to clean up the mess and don't do 90 days on, 30 off at four times the day rate. Sorry no cake for Erik. taskandpurpose.com/centcom-votel-…
The Taliban has always used every aviation CIVCAS event to their advantage. Airstrikes using bad intel are probably the most corrosive violent event to U.S. support As this "al Emara" Talib news network shows. alemarahvideo.com/wp-content/upl…
Read 6 tweets
Oct 1, 2018
Mercenary provocateur for hire Steve Bannon was testing inflammatory memes as early as 2014. The Breitbart, fake news, troll factory, Facebook, Jingoist divisive targeting tactics are popular in third world countries and also used by terrorist groups.
The 2013 paper that inspired the current targeting. Facebook users who took the "myPersonality" quiz were unwittingly handing over the data of 360 of their "friends". Stillwell refused to work for SCL so they copied his work and created Cambridge Analytica apa.org/pubs/journals/…
Friendly and Conventional: "predominantly White residents with comparatively low levels of education, wealth, economic innovation, and social tolerance. Residents of this region also tend to be politically conservative, religious, and civically engaged in their communities."
Read 15 tweets
Sep 27, 2018
Viceroy Paul Bremer is not going to stroke Erik an Order 17. He has already been kicked out of Somalia, Puntland, Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Jordan and who knows where else. 3500 trigger happy mercenaries are not going to solve Afghanistan's civil war. tolonews.com/index.php/afgh…
1) Pay $3.5 BILLION dollars (cash)
2) Hire 3.500 third-world ex-death squads
3) Lease a bunch of old planes. Put guns and bombs on them
4) Kill all the bad guys or things that look like bad guys
5) Wait 6 months
6) Blame the Afghans, U.S. Iran, Taliban or Clinton for not winning
Fantasy vs Reality
defence.pk/pdf/threads/pa…
Read 4 tweets

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