Night Doctrine and Zero Units in Afghanistan
war comes at a high human cost, we consistently underestimate that cost
So, the story is circulating that Rahmanullah Lakanwal belonged to one of the Zero Units in Afghanistan. It’s difficult to know what’s real and what’s propaganda, recall in the immediate aftermath a story circulated about R/L being an illegal alien, and then the connection to the CIA-backed Zero Units emerged. We await further investigation about R/L and his background and the motive for his brutal terrifying crime. All that said, I’ll take this opportunity to raise awareness of the Zero Units and what the CIA organised and enabled in Afghanistan. It raises questions about the America World Police Foreign Policy which dominated Bush presidencies and continued with Obama. You can read the investigative piece that accompanies the above video at ProPublica: The Night Doctrine.
I’ll make this article brief, because it’s fairly straightforward.
Fun fact: the CIA doesn’t fall under the Leahy Law, “which applies only to congressional appropriations that fund the State and Defense departments,” and therefore is not subject to the Leahy Law1, designed to prevent the perpetrating of gross human rights abuses by the US. That means the Zero Units working under the direction of the CIA also weren’t subject to the Leahy Law.
First, the war in Afghanistan was a fcuking misguided war that never should have happened.
Even before that, we all know that a 1980s/90s CIA mission in Afghanistan backed the mujahideen against the Soviets, to hasten the collapse of the USSR. And we know how that ended up biting America in the ass.
Some cursory research into Zero Units tells me they were ultra brutal hard core. And when the US left Afghanistan with the original mission unfulfilled, how you think these Zero Unit blokes felt?
Generally, how you think anyone who fought in Afghanistan to liberate the country from terrorists and extremism now feels? They feel angry that America World Police couldn’t accomplish its stated mission and just gave up and fcuked off back to the land of plenty where they watch football games and eat cheeseburgers.
Be clear, Rahmanullah Lakanwal killed Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounded Andrew Wolfe. That’s wholly on Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
However it bears thinking how Rahmanullah Lakanwal got to the US, that’s through his Zero Unit service. War costs. It costs in ways we don’t imagine. And everything is connected when you look at it thoughtfully with nuance.
Lessons?
Enabling and propping up mujahideen was a sh1tty strategy of geopolitics and war.
War is a sh1tty strategy to achieve peace.
Don’t start wars you aren’t prepared to see through to the end.
Be prepared to deal with the living casualties of war, the ones you sent to the front line to fight your war whilst you sat at home eating popcorn and watching the news like an asshole armchair quarterback.
The west has a moronic understanding of lesser jihadism and of the Islamist psyche in general. The west values life and Islamists do not, they patiently plot and they don’t value their own lives.
Through the “war on terror” it’s waged against the people of West Asia and the Middle East, America World Police has fuelled the terror it claimed to want to eradicate. The west also has a moronic grasp of how radicalisation works and of how terrorists get birthed. Killing for peace is like fcuking for virginity, that’s some wisdom from the late great George Carlin.
Question: Will the US-CIA decision makers learn from their mistakes?
Answer: No. They will not.
From the US State Department: The term “Leahy law” refers to two statutory provisions prohibiting the U.S. Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights (GVHR).