Clinton Says U.S. Will Stand With Afghans

[Judi Lynn]

Nov 27, 3:44 AM EST

Clinton Says U.S. Will Stand With Afghans

By THOMAS WAGNER
Associated Press Writer


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday promised that America will stand with Afghanistan as it tries to rebuild after a quarter-century of conflict, and warned Taliban rebels that they "are fighting a losing battle."

The former first lady, who was in Afghanistan along with Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., on a whistlestop tour to spend Thanksgiving with U.S. troops, said her country is impressed by the course Afghan President Hamid Karzai is taking his country, and determined to stand with him.

"I am very impressed by the resolve of the Afghan government, President Karzai in particular," Clinton said after a meeting with Karzai at the presidential palace.

She spoke in a room at the palace still pocked by decades of conflict. Two windows behind Clinton had bullet holes in them.
(snip/...)

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AFGHAN_HILLARY_CLINTON?SITE=FLPAP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[jmcgowanjm]

1. When the War spreads to Pakistan

Anxiety remains in policymaking circles here
that the ISI is still backing what is left of the
Taliban and helping the fundamentalist militia
shelter in largely lawless regions of the Pakistan-
Afghanistan border.

US refuses comment on Taliban, ISI links

Concern surfaced in a meeting of the House
of Representatives International Relations
Committee when California Congressman Brad
Sherman asked: "Have the supporters of that
ideology in that intelligence service been removed
or converted?"

The top US policymaker for South Asia, Christina
Rocca answered that she was unable to
disclose the US view.

"There are a number of answers to that , some
of which I couldn't answer in this forum,"
said Rocca, assistant secretary of state for
South Asian affairs.
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/al/Qus-pakistan-afghanistan.R7Dn_DNJ.html


the words of Ray McGovern, a former CIA
analyst and friend of Bush's father: "Now we know
that no other president of the United States has
ever lied so baldly and so often and so demonstrably . . . The presumption now has to be that he's lying any time that he's saying anything." 

[IndianaGreen]

2. Hillary is making an ass out of herself, again!

I can't believe she is as stupid and ignorant as she sounds in this piece.

Karzai cannot even venture out of the palace without a heavy military escort, his "presidency" nothing more than window dressing, the real power being in the hands of the warlords.

Karzai is as representative of Afghanistan as Chalabi is of Iraq.

The Taliban are resurgent because the majority Pashtuns are tired of the lawlessness and abuses of the warlords. Given a choice between order and chaos, the people are choosing the order that the Taliban have promised.

Hillary has always made an ass out of herself everytime she travels overseas. She looked like an ass when she went to Israel last year, she looks like and ass now.

Looks like the American troops got their Thanksgiving turkey alright, her name was Hillary Clinton.

[leesa]

4. I'm glad she went to see the devestation and misery she voted to cause,

Hopefully she WILL see some of it. I think it's pretty clear that the US has no intention of fulfilling their obligations to rebuild Afghanistan.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Report Details Threats to Women's Rights, Freedom of Expression

"I am very impressed by the resolve of the Afghan government, President Karzai in particular," Clinton said after a meeting with Karzai at the presidential palace.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AFGHAN_HILLARY_CLINTON?SITE=FLPAP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Why doesn't Hillary go and see the country outside of Kabul before she makes such a pandering sweeping statement as the one she made above?

Perhaps Hillary would have done herself some good had she done her homework about Afghanistan first:

Afghanistan: Warlords Implicated in New Abuses
Report Details Threats to Women's Rights, Freedom of Expression

(New York, July 29, 2003) - Afghan warlords and political strongmen supported by the United States and other nations are engendering a climate of fear in Afghanistan that is threatening efforts to adopt a new constitution and could derail national elections scheduled for mid-2004, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

The report warns that violence, political intimidation, and attacks on women and girls are discouraging political participation and endangering gains made on women's rights in Afghanistan over the last year.

"Human rights abuses in Afghanistan are being committed by gunmen and warlords who were propelled into power by the United States and its coalition partners after the Taliban fell in 2001," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "These men and others have essentially hijacked the country outside of Kabul. With less than a year to go before national elections, Afghanistan's human rights situation appears to be worsening."

http://hrw.org/press/2003/07/afghan072903.htm

[realFedUp]

3. Many trained for Afghanistan's army have quit

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-army27nov27,1,5613451.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Losing Its Few Good Men
Many of those who signed up to be trained for Afghanistan's fledgling army have quit, saying the pay isn't worth the risk.
By Paul Watson
Times Staff Writer

November 27, 2003

GALA-I-FAIZ, Afghanistan — To serve his country in the new Afghan National Army, Saifullah Jan first had to find himself an assault rifle.

The weapon was required for admittance to the Kabul Military Training Center, where Americans and other Westerners have been struggling to build an army for a year and a half.

By accepting only those volunteers who were already armed, the U.S.-led coalition hoped to solve two problems at once: Each recruit would be another Afghan soldier in the fight against the Taliban, Al Qaeda and their allies, and each rifle delivered to Kabul would be one less gun in the service of warlords undermining the central government.

As often happens in Afghanistan, things haven't worked out quite as planned. Army recruits — including Jan — have quit by the hundreds, in many cases because they don't think the pay is worth the risk.

The large number of dropouts — and the griping soldiers who say they're going to follow them out the door — has slowed the effort to replace ethnically based militias with a cohesive force that answers to President Hamid Karzai.

The rifles many handed in were worthless, so the army eventually dropped the requirement. But it was still in effect in March when Jan left his village north of Kabul, the capital, and reported for training.
continued

[goforit]

6. Doing the dirty work for the WH, Clinton?

Why have a Congress at all if all they do is rubber stamp
Bush's insanity.