Inside Story of How Washington is Losing its Battle

[reprehensor]

Original:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120303E.shtml

Inside Story of How Washington is Losing its Battle
By Andrew Neil
The Scotsman

Sunday 30 November 2003

In New York the mood is buoyant as the American economy continues to purr at a satisfying rate, but 250 miles to the south in Washington DC there is increasing private gloom among those in the know that events in Afghanistan and Iraq are going badly wrong - and growing despair about what to do about it.

President Bush’s bold Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad gave US troops a much-needed fillip and he said all the right things. But behind the scenes the war on terror is going badly wrong in its two main theatres. "In both places it is worse than you think," I was warned before arriving in the US capital for a series of off-the-record briefings. The warning was accurate.

Take Afghanistan first. You don’t read or see much about it these days. The reality is grim. The Taliban is resurgent; al-Qaeda is there too, but not as relevant as it was. Attacks on aid workers are soaring; many are refusing to leave the urban areas. The warlords are back in control of the countryside, where opium production is already above pre-invasion levels. "Afghanistan is a narco-economy once more," said one intelligence analyst.

The Taliban regularly mounts attacks in the rural areas and is expected to hit urban centres with greater force. "If they knew how weak we were," confided one intelligence source, "they would have done it already." Coalition forces are confined to Vietnam-style strategic hamlets from which they emerge for operations only in great force, before returning to their enclaves. Hamid Karzai’s grip on power is tenuous..

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. The original title is changed

It was how it's losing it's "bottle", meaning courage.

[reprehensor]

2. Dear God!

I'll get Pitt on the phone right away!

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. I only meant it changes the meaning of the title

n/t