NYT: Mood of Anxiety Engulfs Afghans as Violence Rises

[Pirate Smile]

Mood of Anxiety Engulfs Afghans as Violence Rises

By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: June 30, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 29 - The loss of a military helicopter with 17 Americans aboard in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday comes at a time of growing insecurity here. For the first time since the United States overthrew the Taliban government three and a half years ago, Afghans say they are feeling uneasy about the future.


Tomas Munita/Associated Press
An American soldier and an Afghan translator interrogated an Afghan on Sunday in Zabul Province. Reflecting a shift in popular mood, President Hamid Karzai has begun to criticize the behavior of American troops.

Violence has increased sharply in recent months, with a resurgent Taliban movement mounting daily attacks in southern Afghanistan, gangs kidnapping foreigners here in the capital and radical Islamists orchestrating violent demonstrations against the government and foreign-financed organizations.

The steady stream of violence has dealt a new blow to this still traumatized nation of 25 million. In dozens of interviews conducted in recent weeks around the country, Afghans voiced concern that things were not improving, and that the Taliban and other dangerous players were gaining strength.

-snip-
"Three years on, the people are still hoping that things are going to work out, but they have become suspicious about why the Americans came, and why the Americans are treating the local people badly," said Jandad Spinghar, leader of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Nangarhar Province in the east, just across the Khyber Pass from Pakistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/30/international/asia/30afghanistan.html?hp&ex=1120104000&en=d4210eae4607580e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[burrowowl]

1. Ah, the Khyber Pass!

Has some history, I think.

[JoFerret]

2. Anxious - putting it mildly

...poverty and child malnutrition up, opium production up, vioence up, security down. How's the pipe line doing?
Khyber Pass is where they have been screwed.