Why it's not working in Afghanistan

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HH30Df02.html

Remember when peaceful, democratic, reconstructed Afghanistan was advertised as the exemplar for the extreme makeover of Iraq? In August 2002, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was already proclaiming the new Afghanistan "a breathtaking accomplishment" and "a successful model of what could happen to Iraq". As everybody now knows, the model isn't working in Iraq. So we shouldn't be surprised to learn that it's not working in Afghanistan either.

The story of success in Afghanistan was always more fairy tale than fact - one scam used to sell another. Now, as the administration of US President George W Bush hands off "peacekeeping" to NATO forces, Afghanistan is the scene of the largest military operation in the history of that organization. Personal e-mail brings word from an American surgeon in Kabul that her emergency medical team can't handle half the wounded civilians brought in from embattled provinces to the south and east. American, British and Canadian troops find themselves at war with Taliban fighters - which is to say "Afghans" - while stunned North Atlantic Treaty Organization commanders, who hadn't bargained for significant combat, are already asking what went wrong.

The answer is a threefold failure: no peace, no democracy, and no reconstruction.

Doing things backward

Critics of US Afghan policy agree that the Bush administration, in its haste to take out Saddam Hussein's Iraq, did things backward. After bombing the Taliban into the boondocks in 2001, it set up a government without first making peace - a scenario later to be repeated in Iraq.

[SweetLeftFoot]

1. here in Britain

its being reported the fighting in Helmand is most intense British troops have since Korea.

Think about that for a second.

[hippiechick]

2. Afghanistan ? We have troops in Afghanistan ?

I thought we were fighting terra by looking for Osama Bin Laden near his brother Saddam's castle in Iraq.

:sarcasm:

[watercolors]

3. Grandson being deployed there in Dec or Jan

Not good news for our family, more stress, he has seved two tours in Iraq. He is not a happy person right now, and regrets his choice to enlist. He wanted a military career, but is having second thoughts. He has seen too much, we hope he gets out and goes on to college. he has two more years to finish his tour of duty.