Ryan Mauro posted an article at Frontpagemag.com today entitled, “Why WikiLeaks Will Fail.” Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com, National Security Advisor to the Christian Action Network, and an intelligence analyst with the Asymmetric Warfare and Intelligence Center.
Mr. Mauro points out that the aim of WikiLeaks in the past was to undermine the war effort in Iraq. WikiLeaks has now turned his attention to Afghanistan. This week it released over 90,000 secret documents with the goal of casting U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan in a negative light.
Mr. Mauro states that the leak may have the opposite effect of what was intended. According to the article, the documents:
“…expose the Taliban’s close alliances with Iran, Pakistan and Al-Qaeda and thus bolster a key rationale for the war in Afghanistan – that the U.S. military is fighting terrorists abroad so that we do not have to face them at home.”
The documents leaked reveal the Taliban as radical Islamists acting as proxies for foreign elements, including al-Qaeda. The documents also point out that the Taliban and Iran have worked in unison since September 11, 2001. The documents confirm that Iran supplies weapons to the Taliban and has also been involved in training the Taliban.
The article concludes:
“The reason Iran’s meddling in Afghanistan hasn’t been made public is explained in one file. President Karzai requested that the U.S. not publicize the finding of Iranian weapons in Kandahar, so as not to jeopardize an upcoming visit by Ahmadinejad. An April 2007 file says that he wanted “to avoid additional friction with Afghanistan’s neighbors.” The documents also show that Afghan and U.S. officials were having trouble thinking up ways to counter Iran’s efforts to influence political parties through bribery, spending $4 million on 90 parliamentarians. It appears that fear has caused the Afghan government not to expose Iran’s terrorism connections.”
It’s time to fight the war in Afghanistan with two hands, win it, and get out. We can help stablize that country, but we have to exercise some serious force first.