U.S. intelligence: 'Time is running out' in Afghanistan

[unhappycamper]

U.S. intelligence: 'Time is running out' in Afghanistan
By Thomas L. Day and Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Monday, December 28, 2009

KABUL — As the U.S. and its allies try to overcome logistical hurdles and rush some 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan in 2010, intelligence officials are warning that the Taliban-led insurgency is expanding and that "time is running out" for the U.S.-led coalition to prove that its strategy can succeed.

The Taliban have created a shadow "government-in-waiting," complete with Cabinet ministers, that could assume power if the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai fails, a senior International Security Assistance Force intelligence official said in Kabul, speaking only on the condition of anonymity as a matter of ISAF policy.

As the Obama administration and its European allies face dwindling public and political support for the eight-year-old Afghan war, the Taliban now have what the official called "a full-fledged insurgency" and shadow governors in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, including those in the north, where U.S. and other officials had thought the Islamic extremists posed less of a threat.

The Taliban's return to the northern provinces, including Baghlan, Kunduz and Taqhar — which McClatchy reported Aug. 28 — poses serious security, logistical and political problems for the U.S.-led ISAF and Karzai's government.

The northern region is under the command of German forces, but they and other European contingents operate under restrictions imposed by their governments that limit offensive operations against the Taliban.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/81358.html



unhappycamper comment: Is it time to bring them home yet?

[KharmaTrain]

1. Time Ran Out In 2002...

There was a golden moment after the Taliban were driven out where there could have been REAL elections and where foreign intervention was welcomed. And what did the Afghan people get? A corrupt chieftain in Karzai who poured the billions in "relief" aid into his pockets while a majority of the population continued to live in dirt poverty. Not only that, now the country was being occupied by yet another foreign army with little interest in the country other than as a pawn in some international chess game. It became the difference of the tyraany of a Karzai (a Northerner) and his western protectors vs. the tyrrany of the Taliban who represented the majority Pashtun from the wouth.

Sadly even after misadventures in Vietnam, Lebanon and other places, our government still hasn't learned the difference between a local insurgency and one staged by a third party. The Taliban ARE Afghans...they were in the country before we got there and no amount of bombs will eliminate them. They're just biding time until our will and interest wane (which is happening). This is their homeland...it's stupid to think that somehow we'll be able to wipe away centuries of history and culture.

Unfortunately this country also lost focus of what the mission was...to clear out the Al Queda bases in that country. That has been accomplished and they've moved onto other places. Somehow "liberating" became an intoxicating word...and the Taliban became the boogiemen, yet we knew virtually nothing about them and still do. It's a mistake that will result in many needless deaths in the months and years ahead. In the end, once Karzai loses his mercenary army, he'll be given the same treatment Najibullah, the Soviet puppet got.

[lib2DaBone]

2. Quagmire. Bring the troops home. Quit bombing wedding parties...

..and don't give them a reason to blow up our airliners.

[bigtree]

3. Taliban not a threat to Afghan government, said Karzai's spokesman

29 December 2009

KABUL - The Afghan government Tuesday shrugged off suggestions from Western military intelligence that Taliban rebels were gaining strength in their war to overthrow President Hamid Karzai’s administration.

“The presence of the Taliban in Afghanistan as an alternative government is an unrealistic perception,” said Waheed Omar, Karzai’s spokesman.

“Obviously they have the power, operating from hideouts, to terrorize people but being able to take over as an alternative government is unrealistic.

“The Taliban in the short term could pose a threat to the lives of people but they are not a threat to the state.”

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2009/December/international_December1597.xml§ion=international

[NJmaverick]

4. Reading some of these articles it's pretty clear the US

either needed to surrender and retreat or bolster their forces in the region. The Taliban and Al Qaeda definitely seems to be winning at this point in time.