Suggested Answers - Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

How long was Alexander the Great able to hold Afghanistan after conquering it in 330 BC?

Answer 1

It was only 3 years before Alexander had moved on to India and revolts were occurring in Afghanistan. By 323 BC, Alexander was dead and the quarter of his empire that included Afghanistan began changing hands frequently.

Question 2

What is unique about the GEOGRAPHY of Afghanistan that makes it almost the constant target for conquest?

Answer 2

It was athwart a major trade route between Europe and the Far East.

Question 3

What is nearly unique about the TOPOGRAPHY of Afghanistan that historically has made it impossible to conquer for more than a few years?

Answer 3

It is extremely mountainous.

Question 4

What famous graduate of Sandhurst (Britain's West Point) saw his first military campaign in Pakistan's (then India's) Northwest Tribal Area on the Afghanistan border in 1897-8 when Britain was using Afghanistan as a buffer zone to halt expansion of the Russian Empire?

Answer 4

Winston Churchill. His experiences in the Northwest Tribal Area were the subject of his first book, “The Story of the Malakand Field Force.”

Question 5

How long were the Russians able to hold Afghanistan after conquering its major population centers in 1980? How many Soviet troops were involved in the occupation before they were forced to withdraw?

Answer 5

Nine years. More than 100,000 Soviet troops were involved in the invasion, backed up by more than 100,000 additional Soviet forces.

Question 6

How long is the border between Afghanistan and the Northwest Tribal Area of Pakistan? Is this longer or shorter than the U.S.-Mexico border?

Answer 6

1,400 miles – which is almost as long as the U.S.-Mexico border = 1,969 miles.

Question 7

Where has the Taliban been headquartered since shortly after 9/11?

Answer 7

Pakistan’s Northwest Tribal Area.

Question 8

Where has al Qaeda, in general, and Osama bin Laden, in particular, been located since 9/11?

Answer 8

Pakistan’s Northwest Tribal Area.

Question 9

How long have the Northwest Territories been effectively autonomous from the rest of Pakistan?

Answer 9

Since before the independence of India from England and the fragmentation of Pakistan from India – both in 1947.

Question 10

How long has the Swat Valley been autonomous from the rest of Pakistan by agreement between the Islamic Fundamentalists and the Pakistani Central Government?

Answer 10

Since February 2009.

Question 11

Even though the Northwest Territories and the Swat Valley are autonomous from the rest of Pakistan and a "safe haven" for the Taliban and al Qaeda, why does the U.S. government not dare to do anything more than send over the occasional drone aircraft to assassinate a Taliban or Al Qaeda leader?

Answer 11

The government of Pakistan is so fragile and anti-Americanism in Pakistan so rampant that more aggressive action would probably cause the downfall of the Pakistani government followed by the establishment of an Islamic fundamentalist state (similar to the regime that has just been established in the Swat Valley). Among other things, this would mean the first Islamic-fundamentalist nuclear bomb.

Question 12

If the American public is constantly told that we should NOT take "our eye off the ball" then what is "the ball" - Afghanistan where the Taliban and al Qaeda were once located, or the Taliban and Al Qaeda themselves, which have moved to the Northwest Tribal Area of Pakistan?

Answer 12

The Taliban and Al Qaeda are “the ball” – though you’d never guess that from the public discourse of our politicians.

Question 13

Even if America "takes it eye" off the Taliban and Al Qaeda to concentrate on Afghanistan, what hope is there that America can do a better job of subjugating Afghanistan than the Russians in the 1980's?

Answer 13

Very little to none.

Question 14

What percentage of the world's supply of opium is grown in Afghanistan?

Answer 14

93%.

Question 15

If America is to make Afghan farmers happy to grow other crops instead, do those crops have to be supported at artificially-inflated prices and does a vast road or rail network have to be created to get those crops to market (since they would be so much bulkier than opium)?

Answer 15

Yes. Yes.

Question 16

Does the traditional counter-insurgency program of conquering and holding real estate and providing security for its population have to take into account how ecstatic the local population is to see us destroy their opium fields?

Answer 16

This is why we would have to pay sky-high agricultural prices for their replacement crops and construct a vast infrastructure to get those crops to market.

Question 17

What percentage of the territory of Afghanistan does the Taliban control today from its sanctuary in Pakistan's Northwest Tribal Area?

Answer 17

The Taliban now has a permanent presence in 72% of Afghanistan, up from 54% a year ago.

Question 18

What is the difference between a "war lord" and a "tribal chief"?

Answer 18

Whether you like her or him.

Question 19

What was the bitter assessment of the Russians in trying to "stand up" local village militias?

Answer 19

You can rent them, but you can NOT buy them permanently.

Question 20

How many US Air Force bombing strikes (not including helicopter rocket and cannon fire - in other words, just bombing from airplanes) were there in 2004? In 2007? What implications does this have for "collateral damage"?

Answer 20

86 in 2004 – 2,926 in 2007. Disaster.

Question 21

Who was R. James Woolsey Jr.?

Answer 21

R. James Woolsey Jr. was the Director of the C.I.A. during the first Clinton Administration. He resigned after 4 years in office for the announced reason that he disagreed with President Clinton’s new Executive Order that America would not use agents or informants who had committed violent illegal acts. He stated that though such a policy might not have been disastrous during the Cold War when sufficient numbers of Soviet officials might be willing to serve as double agents, the policy would be an unmitigated disaster in trying to infiltrate terrorist organizations which do not trust new members until they have committed violent illegal acts at the direction of the terrorist organization.

Question 22

Will it ever be possible to undo the damage done to America's human intelligence capability by the policy that caused Woolsey to become the last high American official to follow the time-honored tradition of "resigning as a matter of principle"?

Answer 22

Not for a very long time.

Question 23

Who is Marine General Jim Jones?

Answer 23

James L. Jones Jr., a four-star Marine General, served as the Commandant of the Marine Corps 1999-2003, and as Commander of the U.S. Forces in Europe and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe 2003-2006.

In January 2009, he became President Obama’s National Security Adviser.

Question 24

What is the reported position of Gen. Jones?

Answer 24

That the war in Afghanistan must be won at all cost in order to deny Al Qaeda a “failed state” from which to operate.

Question 25

What is the reported position of Defense Secretary Gates?

Answer 25

That the American “foot print” in Afgahnistan should be minimized.

Question 26

Is relying on human intelligence more compatible with the position of Gen. Jones or Secretary Gates?

Answer 26

Neither Gen. Jones nor Secretary Gates discusses the possibility of ignoring territory and concentrating instead on infiltrating terrorist organizations.

But both the win-at-all-costs vis-à-vis territory and a minimal “foot print” are compatible with infiltrating terrorist organizations.

Question 27

Why is reliance on human intelligence "the elephant in the room" that nobody is willing to talk about?

Answer 27

Either because the war in Afghanistan is “for show” (see Question 29 below) or because nobody wants to divulge publicly information about our human-intelligence capabilities (or lack thereof).

Question 28

Is there anything that could ever be done to pacify Al Qaeda if they resent not only the existence of Israel but also resent even more (according to Osama's statements) the repressive regimes that they believe have been imposed on oil-rich Islamic countries in the Middle East to keep oil flowing? Would we be willing to sacrifice our oil-based economy in order to avoid the wrath of Al Qaeda? Would Osama bin Laden even be willing to withdraw his fatwa to nuke 10 million Americans if we did sacrifice our oil-based economy to let oil-rich regimes topple?

Answer 28

Not unless Americans can be convinced to live in grass huts and use their own back yards for raising live stock and cultivating whatever else they need to eat!!! (Since there would be virtually no transportation and, EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, there would be no fertilizer which comes almost solely from petroleum.)

And even then, the American population would have to be reduced radically in order to survive on such a meager food supply!!!

AND WHO KNOWS WHETHER SUCH DRASTIC ACTIONS WOULD SATISFY OSAMA BIN LADEN??? (And EVERY other Islamic fanatic, since it may only take one!!!)

Question 29

Isn't the war in Afghanistan "for show"? A probably-ineffective "insurance policy" for whatever American administration is in place when the first American city is nuked (as most experts believe will happen soon, including the Founding Dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government who wrote a book about Osama's fatwa when it was only for nuking 4 million Americans and who was a "moving force" on the 2007 Democratic Congress' Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism)? After all, isn't it better to have been doing something before disaster strikes, no matter how ineffectual and downright counter-productive might be the action taken?

Answer 29

Yes, it is “for show.” And vis-à-vis doing something no matter what, perhaps yes if the objective is to fool public opinion, but definitely not if the objective is effectiveness.


*****
AND FOR EXTRA CREDIT, SINCE THE NEWSWEEK COVER STORY COMPARED AFGHANISTAN TO VIETNAM -

Question A

How did the French colonial masters get back to French Indochina (which later fragmented into Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) following World War II?

Answer A

The French Navy (which had been comparable to the British Navy because the French Empire had been almost the size of the British Empire) was sunk within weeks of the capture of Paris by the Nazis, when it failed to sail to England in accordance with an ultimatum from Winston Churchill to avoid its falling into the hands of the Nazis.

Accordingly, the French had no means of returning to French Indochina following World War II. So Harry S. Truman ordered the U.S. Navy to transport the French colonial masters back to French Indochina.

Question B

What happened to the French in 1954?

Answer B

They were massacred at Diên Biên Phú, as a result of which they withdrew from all of French Indochina.

Question C

How was Eisenhower able to salvage anything following the French withdrawal?

Answer C

He divided the Vietnam portion of French Indochina into North and South Vietnam, with effective U.S. control over South Vietnam – while promising elections to be held forthwith in South Vietnam. The promised elections never took place.

Question D

How many American military personnel were there in South Vietnam at the time President Kennedy was assassinated? Were they combatants or merely advisers? For what did President Kennedy (by his own admission) bear the most blame?

Answer D

Approximately 25,000 all of which (per the official U.S. Government position) were merely “advisers.”

President Kennedy engineered the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem on November 2, 1963. Although President Kennedy himself was assassinated 20 days later on November 22, 1963, he could already see from the chaos that followed the assassination of Diem that it had been a mistake.

Question E

What was the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident and what was the "Gulf of Tonkin" resolution?

Answer E

On 2 August 1964, the U.S. Navy’s Destroyer USS Maddox was attacked by 3 North Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin between North Vietnam and the huge island of Hainan which is part of China. Two days later, the USS Maddox reported a second engagement which was later determined to have been erroneous.

The result of the two reports was the passage by Congress of the so-called Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which granted President Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was threatened by “communist aggression” including the use of American military forces without a declaration of war.

President Johnson used the resolution as his legal justification for the Vietnam War. (It should be noted that World War II was the last time the United States “declared war” as required by the U.S. constitution – the Korean War (1950-53) was termed by President Truman a “police action” that did not, therefore, require a Declaration of War.)

Question F

To what level did President Johnson build American troop strength INSIDE VIETNAM following the "Gulf of Tonkin" resolution?

Answer F

625,000.