Failure in Afghanistan risks rise in terror, say generals

[cal04]

Source: Observer

Military chiefs warn No.10 that defeat could lead to change of regime in Pakistan

Britain's most senior generals have issued a blunt warning to Downing Street that the military campaign in Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic failure, a development that could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in neighbouring Pakistan.

Amid fears that London and Washington are taking their eye off Afghanistan as they grapple with Iraq, the generals have told Number 10 that the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, headed by Hamid Karzai, would present a grave threat to the security of Britain.

Lord Inge, the former chief of the defence staff, highlighted their fears in public last week when he warned of a 'strategic failure' in Afghanistan. The Observer understands that Inge was speaking with the direct authority of the general staff when he made an intervention in a House of Lords debate.

'The situation in Afghanistan is much worse than many people recognise,' Inge told peers. 'We need to face up to that issue, the consequence of strategic failure in Afghanistan and what that would mean for Nato... We need to recognise that the situation - in my view, and I have recently been in Afghanistan - is much, much more serious than people want to recognise.'

Read more: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2126817,00.html

[jody]

1. Islamist government in Pakistan with nuclear weapons. That's cause for U.S./Israel alarm. n/t

[MaineDem]

2. This should come as no surprise

We pulled out of Afghanistan to a great extent way too early, as I'm sure everyone agrees, to go into Iraq. George and his people didn't seem to understand the importance. He had support for the fight in Afghanistan and didn't follow through. One of the biggest blunders of his administration.

[SKKY]

3. Actually, you couldn't be more wrong on this one...

...Leaving Afghanistan is THE biggest blunder of his administration. Everything else is just a consequence of that.

[ohio2007]

4. Schoolgirls in the gunsights of the Taliban

WITH their teacher absent, 10 students were allowed to leave school early. These were the girls the gunmen saw first, 10 easy targets walking hand-in-hand through the blue metal gate and on to the winding dirt road.

A 13-year-old named Shukria was shot in the arm and the back, and teetered into an adjacent wheat field. Zarmina, her 12-year-old sister, ran to her side, listening to the wounded girl's precious breath and trying to help her stand. But Shukria was too heavy to lift and the two gunmen, sitting astride a single motorbike, sped closer.

snip

The Qalai Sayedan School, considered among the best in the central Afghan province of Logar, reopened only last weekend, but even with Kalashnikov-toting guards at the gate only a quarter of the 1,600 students dared to return. Shootings, beheadings, burnings and bombings are all tools of intimidation used by the Taliban and others to shut down hundreds of schools. To take aim at education is to make war on the government. Parents find themselves with terrible choices.


snip


http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1103532007

[salin]

5. Gee, some of us have been saying this since before

jr took us to Iraq. That perhaps it was folly to remove military, financial and intelligence resources from Afghanistan in order to go after Saddam Hussein who was not involved in 911.