..out of the dark

Les også: Forsvarsministeren: - Endrer ikke vårt oppdrag

En norsk offiser i 30-årene ble mandag morgen drept i en skuddveksling i Lowgar-provinsen i det sentrale Afghanistan.

Løytnanten tilhørte Hærens jegerkommando. Patruljen hans var på oppdrag sammen med afghanske spesialstyrker da de ble angrepet ved 09-tiden norsk tid.

(Also read: "Defense minister: will not change our mission".

A Norwegian officer in his thirties was killed in an exchange of fire in the Lowgar- province in central Afghanistan.

The leutenant hailed from "Hærens jegerkommando" (the Army's Ranger division). His patrol was on a mission together with afghan special forces when attacked, about nine o' clock Norwegian time.)

Why are we here? What are our people fighting for? The answer to that is easy. On the one hand, it would be operational folly to extricate our presence in the areas we are engaged in. In the short to medium term, we are needed, due to the fact that the general army provides actual stability and safety for Afghani government operations of various kinds - in spite of everything. And there is, at this time, no alternative due to the humanitarian situation in the country.

On the other hand, the reason for our situation in Afghanistan today, and the reason why our operational profile is such an abysmally depressing set of bad choices, and ineffective mitigations of inevitable and predictable disasters - is twofold. First, our politicians are weak. Due to the effective Nato- agreement - regardless of the abuses certain countries, in collusion, has perfected when it comes to the process of applying Nato forces in imaginative ways - we are simply not able to implicate the civillian point of view into the process, once the initial (if reserved) green light has been given. This is not because the military locks our representatives out, but simply because they are unwilling to put out their necks out in a very difficult political question. I.e, on NATO's role in the future, against a growing EU and more obvious and natural connections for us with eastern- europe, Russia, China and India. As well as a growing middle- eastern group of countries in more souvereign status.

Second, we are in this situation because of the US's - the civillian and military establishment's - ability to force the military option on the table as the first choice. This has sabotaged our ability to affect any change in Afghanistan from day one, and preempted any establishment of the various programs deemed necessary to even make it worthwhile to assist in keeping the peace.

Of course - why was this not obvious to everyone, from the very beginning? Why have we ended up sending our troops defending military camps, rather than the operations necessary to sustain a small country? Why have we ended up sending special forces into hostile territory, rather than providing operational cover for point- defense?

Curiously, our wise, wise, foreign- political spokespeople are quite unable to truly answer that fairly straightforward problem in any way. Weak and pathetic as they are, while knowingly pushing flatly false narratives about terror- threats. (Hallo, Jagland.)