Qargha Lake siege undercuts U.S.-led narrative that Afghanistan war is on track

[rug]

Posted on Fri, Jun. 22, 2012 05:04 PM
By Jon Stephenson
McClatchy Newspapers

QARGHA LAKE, Afghanistan -- The handful of insurgents who launched an assault on a resort on Qargha Lake, west of Kabul, provided yet another deadly reminder Friday that security in Afghanistan is hardly as rosy as portrayed by U.S.-led coalition commanders and Pentagon officials in Washington.

The attack – in which insurgents stormed the peaceful resort frequented by Afghan families, leaving 18 Afghans dead including a police officer and several security guards – capped off a week of bloodshed that has seen a spate of audacious and well-planned attacks. With every episode of fresh violence, the story that the war is going well, or at least according to plan, seems to be unraveling.

It was the latest blow to the spin promoted by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan: that security here is improving, that Afghan forces are becoming self-sustaining and effective institutions and that a growing number of Taliban are giving up the fight as international forces prepare to withdraw.

Few Afghans believe any of this, and for good reason. More than two dozen Afghans were killed and dozens were wounded Wednesday in two insurgent attacks in eastern Afghanistan, including an attack in Khost province that also killed three coalition soldiers. Another two dozen people were killed in a spate of violence in southern Afghanistan in the two days before that. Four policemen and two civilians were killed Monday in Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/21/3671642/qargha-lake-siege-undercuts-us.html

[Octafish]

1. ''Money trumps peace.''

Ten years of profit and all the power the neocons can carry. Otherwise, the Afghan invasion is a complete disaster with no solution. What's crazier, apart from more of the same, no one in authority knows what to do. Rudyard Kipling warned us.