A New Afghanistan Nightmare (Ramzy Baroud)

[Tace]

Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust

Feb. 21, 2009 -- When U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke met with Afghanistan’s "democratically" installed President Hamid Karzai in Kabul Feb. 14, he may have just learned of the historic significance of the following day. Feb. 15 commemorates the end of the bloody Russian campaign against Afghanistan (August 1978-February 1989).

But it is unlikely that Holbrooke will absorb the magnitude of that historic lesson. Both he and the new U.S. President Barack Obama are convinced that the missing component for winning the war in Afghanistan is a greater commitment, as in doubling the troops, increasing military spending, and, by way of winning hearts and minds, investing more in developing the country.

That combination, the U.S. administration believes, will eventually sway Afghans from supporting the Taliban, tribal militias, Pashtun nationalists and other groups. The latter is waging a guerilla struggle in various parts of the country, mostly in the south, to oust Karzai’s government and foreign occupation forces. While Kabul was considered an “oasis of calm” -- by Jonathan Steele’s account -- during the Soviet rule, it’s nowhere close to that depiction under the rule of the US and its NATO allies, who had plenty of time, eight long years, to assert their control, but failed.

In fact, just as Holbrooke sat within Karzai’s heavily guarded presidential palace, roadside bombs were detonating across the country, in Khost, in Kandahar and elsewhere. Several police officers were killed, the latest addition to the hundreds of soldiers and officers who die each year as they desperately defend the few symbols of the central government’s authority. Aside from its shaky control over Kabul, and a few provincial capitals, the central government struggles to maintain the little relevance it still holds.

This deems most of the country a battleground between Afghani militias, seen by a growing number of Afghans as a legitimate resistance force against an illegitimate occupation; that being U.S. and NATO forces.

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/a-new-afghanistan-nightmare-ramzy-baroud.html

[balantz]

1. It appears that things are going along swimmingly.

Now there is a whole nation that can be branded as the enemy as we continue to occupy the supposed land of Osama the Boogey Man.