U.S. Officials Offer Dismal Review of War in Afghanistan

[Coventina]

Source: Washington Post

MUNICH, Feb. 8 -- President Obama's national security team gave a dire assessment Sunday of the war in Afghanistan, with one member calling it a challenge "much tougher than Iraq" and others hinting that it could take years to turn around.

U.S. officials said more troops were urgently needed, both from the United States and its NATO allies, to counter the increasing strength of the Taliban and other warlords opposed to the central government in Kabul. But they also said new approaches were needed to untangle an inefficient and conflicting array of civilian-aid programs that have wasted billions of dollars.

"NATO's future is on the line here," Richard Holbrooke, the State Department's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told an international security conference here. "It's going to be a long, difficult struggle. In my view, it's going to be much tougher than Iraq."

Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, said the war in Afghanistan "has deteriorated markedly in the past two years" and warned of a "downward spiral of security."



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/08/AR2009020800695.html?hpid=topnews

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Thanks Bushco.

:mad:

[jwirr]

1. Another fine mess you've gotten us into georgie. Law enforcement

would have been a much better alternative to war in fighting terrorism.

[jkappy]

7. can't blame George right now--it's in Dem hands

and they can end it in a matter of weeks.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Afghanistan has been known over the years as the graveyard of empires

"Afghanistan has been known over the years as the graveyard of empires, We cannot take that history lightly."

- Petraeus

[MrSlayer]

3. Hi. We were on the WINNING side the last time there. We set them up.

We already know there is no way to "win" there short of nuking them. I wouldn't be surprised if we were still arming them. These wars are nothing more than a continuing cash cow for a very small percentage of people. We should just get the hell out of there.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. The Soviets took 10 years to figure it out.

The Republicans were inherently incapable to taking the logical leap.

I wonder just how long the Democrats will take before reading a history book.

[Solly Mack]

5. Let's surge, set benchmarks, engage private sector investments,

build schools,drop paraquat...

Sorry. I'm just beyond sick and tired

[ronnie624]

6. We should leave Afghanistan now.

The Afghan Quagmire

The economy is obviously issue No. 1 as Barack Obama prepares to take over the presidency. He’s charged with no less a task than pulling the country out of a brutal recession. If the worst-case scenarios materialize, his job will be to stave off a depression.

That’s enough to keep any president pretty well occupied. What Mr. Obama doesn’t need, and what the U.S. cannot under any circumstances afford, is any more unnecessary warfare. And yet, while we haven’t even figured out how to extricate ourselves from the disaster in Iraq, Mr. Obama is planning to commit thousands of additional American troops to the war in Afghanistan, which is already more than seven years old and which long ago turned into a quagmire.

The government we are supporting in Afghanistan is a fetid hothouse of corruption, a government of gangsters and weasels whose customary salute is the upturned palm. Listen to this devastating assessment by Dexter Filkins of The Times:

“Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more than the enrichment of those who run it.”

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/opinion/06herbert.html>


Neither the US nor Jehadies and Taliban,
Long Live the Struggle of Independent and Democratic Forces of Afghanistan!

The insignificance of our people’s freedom desires and the actual aim of the US and its allies has reached to such an extent that a very bright example is when the Britain government announces shamelessly that Afghanistan needs a dictator! Taking into account their contacts with the Taliban terrorists, the most suitable dictator in their opinion must be Mr. Mullah Omar. The US and its allies might control the strings of the dirty puppet show in Afghanistan by their powerful war machines with Mullah Omar, Rabbani, Mohaqiq, Sayyaf, Dr. Abdullah or the trained secret agents like Ali Ahmed Jalalis, but they should be sure that this treacherous spitting on democracy in Afghanistan and insulting the will and anger of our people on ignorance, medieval misogynists and Talibi and Jehadi fascism will be rubbed back on their faces by our people.

It seems that if the invaders stop pretending and the dictator according to them should be Mullah Omar or some other suit-clad Bache Saqao then they should cancel or postpone the ridiculous hard work of elections.

RAWA strongly believes that there should be no expectation of either the US or any other country to present us with democracy, peace and prosperity. Our freedom is only achievable at the hands of our people. It is the duty of all the intellectuals, all the democratic forces and progressive and independence-seeking people to rise in a constant and decisive struggle for independence and democracy by taking the support of our wounded people as the independent force, against the presence of the US and its allies and the domination of Jehadi and Taliban criminals. Combating against the armed and alien forces in the country without being loud-mouthed against the Talibi and Jehadi enemies would mean welcoming the misfortunes of fascism and religious mafia. Also, struggling against this enemy without fighting the military presence of the US, its allies and its puppet government would mean falling before foreign agents. The path of the freedom-fighters of our country without doubt, will be very complex, difficult and bloody; but if our demand is to be freed from the chains of the slavery of foreigners and their Talib and Jehadi lackeys, we should not fear trial or death to become triumphant.

<http://www.rawa.org/events/sevenyear_e.htm>