Taliban gaining strength in Afghanistan

[Doctor_J]

It's official - Smirk has given Afghanistan back to the Taliban. Question - was this by design?

'A brazen attack by hundreds of Taliban militants on an isolated town had been building for days, a coalition spokesman said Friday'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060519/ap_on_re_as/afghan_violence

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. Just ask Russia how well messing with Afghanistan works

.
.
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didn't Russia have to back off cuz they just couldn't do it?

And WE, - way across the globe, think WE can overtake them?

USA went in there with mega missile strikes, and after destroying the habitats of many innocents, quickly diverted their weaponry to Iraq, which was their intent IMO

NOW, they have horns-waggled our Canadian Government to head the main Combat force - would never have happened under our Chretien guy, but between our financial ghoul Martin, and our ass-kissing Harper - we got a serious problem.

From the posted Article:

"In all, more than 100 people were reported killed in a string of attacks and engagements across Afghanistan that started Wednesday and continued through Thursday: up to 87 insurgents, at least 15 Afghan police, an American civilian training Afghan forces, and the first female Canadian soldier to die in combat.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the mission in Afghanistan will not be deterred by a recent surge in violence there, and opponents of nation-building will be defeated, the head of the alliance said Friday.

"NATO will stay the course and the spoilers will not have a chance," the alliance's chief said during a visit to Lisbon. "The operational plan is robust and the rules of engagement are robust."
_____________________________________________________________________

"robust"

nice word that

but it seems it means sumthing like shoot first, ask questions later

An American trait

but seems to be becoming a Canadian one

We have crossed the barrier from being known as a Peacekeeping nation, to supporting Warmongers, . .

I grieve . . .

[uppityperson]

2. On the other hand, the Taliban held the country together for yrs

Brutal? Yes. Misogynistic? Yes. But they held the country together rather than having multiple even worse tribal war-lords (to use a phrase that has been publicized yet serves a good purpose). Multiple nasty people vying for power and oppressing/killing their people or 1 group doing the same yet being able to provide a bit more services to their people? The USA had a chance, a brief chance, to effect real change in this extremely poor downtrodden country, and chose to not do so. It just sucks.

[ugarte]

3. Taliban gaining strength in America

Seems to be a disturbing worldwide trend.

[Spazito]

4. The real truth is the Taliban never lost strength in Afghanistan

they simply gave up Kabul while continuing to control the rest of Afghanistan in tandem with the warlords.

[cosmicdot]

5. still would like to know where the $43 million went

the money given to Afghanistan by Bu$h/Powell in May 2001 ... is a little traceability and accountability too much to ask?

[Doctor_J]

7. $43M?

That's about 45 min occupation of Iraq. You're asking them to account for pennies. What're you, some kind of terrorist?

[Veronica.Franco]

6. Taliban, Al-Qaeda regroup in Afghanistan, defying U.S. strategy

Taliban and al-Qaeda forces are rising in number and increasingly using roadside bombs and suicide strikes. Last year was the deadliest yet for U.S. forces there and attacks are at their highest level since 2001, when the Taliban regime that harbored al-Qaeda was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion.

``We have lost a lot of the ground that we may have gained in the country, especially in the South,” Afghanistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Said Jawad, said in an interview. The fact that U.S. military resources have been ``diverted” to the war in Iraq ``is of course hurting Afghanistan,” he said.

The escalating violence is reviving questions about President George W. Bush’s decision to make Iraq the central front in the war on terrorism. Instability in Afghanistan could allow Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network to regroup there, analysts said.

``Afghanistan is a wild, tribal place in which the various armed actors take advantage of any decrease in pressure,” said W. Patrick Lang, former chief Middle East analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. ``We pulled troops out and put them in Iraq and that took pressure off. I don’t think the U.S. effort there backsliding should come as any surprise.”

Some experts on defense policy and the region say that confidence is misplaced. ``They absolutely miscalculated from the beginning,” said Barney Rubin, director of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation. ``We don’t have enough forces where they should” be, and ``that has absolutely led to insurgency,” said Rubin, who visited Afghanistan last month.

Nazif Shahrani, a professor of Central Asian and Middle East Studies at Indiana University at Bloomington who focuses on Afghanistan, said, ``If we were serious about the war on terror we should have focused our efforts on fighting a more effective war on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

``Instead,” he added, ``we focused on Iraq and that gave the Taliban and al-Qaeda time to regroup and find money and weapons.”

http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=97378

Repost from discussion page ... the moderator moved this one and I thought it might be MORE interesting posted along with this thread ...

[Disturbed]

8. Didn't Busholini crow that Afghans now have Democracy?

Wasn't this a grand success last year?

[Veronica.Franco]

9. Oh my yes ...

Didn't you know our fine lad has had one glowing success after the other ... ;-)