In what looks an awful lot like a clumsy attempt to use the US Army to pass out pork-barrel projects to boost the preferred candidates in an election that's to take place in a few months in a country where the government barely can be said to control the capital city.
New U.S. commander plans tactical change in Afghanistan AP 12/20/03
A wave of violence this year has belied U.S. claims to have brought security to Afghanistan, two years after an American-led assault drove the Taliban from power for harboring al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
Attacks have forced the United Nations and other aid groups to withdraw from some regions, undermining aid delivery and confidence in the reconstruction efforts of the U.S.-backed government ahead of elections slated for June.
The United Nations has even accused the U.S. military of playing into the hands of Taliban agitators in its hunt for terror suspects, with two botched raids that killed 15 Afghan children earlier this month.
Yeah, that's Afghanistan. Sounds an awful lot like Iraq, doesn't it? War the Bush and Rummy way. Congress should have looked hard at what Bush and Rummy were doing in Afghanistan before they give them a blanket authorization to blast into Iraq. To combat the "weapons of mass destruction" that didn't exist.
Aid groups worry that their attempts to remain independent in the eyes of Afghans, including Taliban sympathizers, has been compromised by U.S. involvement in delivering assistance. ...
The top U.N. official in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, warned last week that the world body may have to abandon its two-year effort to help reconstruct the war-battered country unless security improves.
But none of this worries Lt. Gen. David Barno, the new US commander in Afghanistan. The "terrorist organizations" are on their last legs, he assures us.
Wait, didn't we win this war two years ago? Wasn't Bush presenting the new Afghan leader and celebrating that victory in his 2002 State of the Union address?
No comments:
Post a Comment