Losing Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan ...welcome to reality based world

[RedEarth]

During the recent meeting of the Afghani legislature, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured the country making upbeat assessments about Afghanistan's transformation into a peaceful and stable democracy.

But during a recent Amnesty International mission in which I interviewed scores of Afghans—including prisoners released from U.S. detention centers —I discovered the reality is considerably more complicated and claims of success are greatly exaggerated.

While many people voiced appreciation for coalition efforts to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban, they stressed the need for continued U.S. assistance. The most elementary forms of security remain elusive for ordinary Afghans. Attacks and threats by Taliban or Al-Qaida sympathizers are a daily occurrence. And many believe that tactics developed by the Iraqi insurgency are finding their way into Afghanistan. In fact, 2005 was the most lethal year since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001. More than 1,500 people killed in fighting between anti-government forces and the U.S.-led Coalition and Afghanistan National Army. Government authority hardly extends beyond Kabul, and what little had been established is quickly eroding. Many believe the Taliban are clearly on the ascendancy and that some territories are again reverting to its control.

Yet the patience of many Afghans with the U.S. presence is wearing thin. We heard repeated accounts of aggressive tactics during raids on homes or shops, particularly by U.S. troops in the southern and eastern provinces, and of torture and ill-treatment in U.S. custody. The complaints included beatings, sleep deprivation, hooding, and being stripped naked. Some of the most serious allegations concerned treatment in detention cells at U.S. Forward Operating Bases, where detainees are initially held after arrest before transfer to Bagram, the U.S. airbase where at least eight Afghans have died in U.S. custody.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0208-24.htm

[LynnTheDem]

1. The Forgotten War...some actual reality news most USers will never see...

The past 2 days alone;

02/08/06 DoD: Identifies Navy Casualty
Petty Officer 3rd Class John T. Fralish, 30, of New Kingstown, Pa., died Feb. 6, when enemy forces opened fire on a U.S. patrol northwest of Methar Lam in Laghman Province, Afghanistan.

02/08/06 Durant Democrat: Two Dead in Afghan Protests Over Drawings
three protesters were shot and killed by Afghan and Norwegian forces and that 22 others were wounded. However, NATO said it only fired live ammunition into the air and rubber bullets. Five Norwegian peacekeepers suffered minor injuries.

02/08/06 Outlook Publishing: Indian national killed in Afghanistan identified
The Indian national killed in a bomb attack by Taliban in Afghanistan's western province of Farah yesterday has been identified as Bharat Kumar, an engineer working with a Turkish company.

02/08/06 DPA: Two engineers, two Afghans killed in western Afghanistan
An Indian and a Turkish engineer, their Afghan driver and an Afghan soldier were killed when a remote-controlled device exploded near their vehicle in the western province of Farah, the provincial governor said on Wednesday.

02/07/06 The Local: Swedish soldiers attacked in Afghanistan
Soldiers in the Nordic peacekeeping force based in Meymaneh in Afghanistan have been attacked by hundreds of demonstrators armed with guns and hand grenades.

02/07/06 newsreview: State Guardsmen off on biggest deployment since WWII
About 900 soldiers from the Oregon Army National Guard will go to Afghanistan in early June after three months of training at Camp Shelby, Miss.

02/07/06 Scotsman: UK troops help quell Afghan riot
Armed protesters attacked the main Nato base in the remote northern town, burning an armoured vehicle, a UN car and guard posts--two Norwegian soldiers injured, one by a splinter from a grenade and the other by flying rock.

02/07/06 Reuters: Tribal militants blow up Pakistani gas pipeline
Tribal militants blew up several gas pipelines in Pakistan's troubled southwest on Tuesday and cut off supplies to a U.S.- and British-owned power plant for the fourth time in a month, a local government official said.

02/07/06 newkerala: Man killed as Afghan crowd attacks Norwegian base
Afghan police opened fire on a mob trying to storm a NATO peacekeeping base housing Norwegian troops today as protests over cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammad flared again.

02/07/06 Guardian: 12 killed in Afghanistan bombing
A suicide bomber blew up a guard post outside a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan today, killing 12 people. The blast, in Kandahar--Most of the dead were policemen, and at least 11 people were injured.

02/06/06 CENTCOM: U.S. SERVICE MEMBER KILLED IN EASTERN AFGHANISTAN
One U.S. service member was killed today when enemy forces northwest of Methar Lam in Laghman Province opened fire on a U.S. patrol.

02/06/06 Globemedia: Series of attacks rocks Afghanistan
Islamist insurgents launched co-ordinated attacks on coalition and government forces across southern Afghanistan on the weekend, sparking the fiercest firefights here since August.

02/06/06 Xinhuanet: Militants attack on Indian company wounds 3 Afghans
Gunmen's attack on the employees of an Indian company in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province Sunday night wounded three Afghans, a local official said Monday.

02/06/06 UPI: Three killed in Afghan cartoon protest
Three people were killed Monday in eastern Afghanistan at a rally protesting the publication in Europe of cartoons satirizing Mohammed. Police fired on demonstrators after a police station came under attack in Mihtarlam, capital of Laghman province

02/06/06 Reuters: U.S. soldier killed in Afghan attack
A U.S. soldier was killed in Afghanistan on Monday when militants opened fire on a patrol, the U.S. military said.

02/05/06 AP: Land Mine Kills Six Afghan Police Officers
A land mine ripped through a police vehicle, killing six officers and wounding four in the latest of a wave of attacks that have rocked southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

02/04/06 Reuters: Afghans flee scene of biggest battle in months
Hundreds of Afghan villagers have fled their homes after the biggest battle in months between Taliban insurgents and U.S. and Afghan government forces, provincial officials said on Saturday.

02/04/06 AP: Roadside Bomb Kills 3 Pakistan Forces Near Afghan Border
A roadside bomb exploded by an army vehicle in a northwestern tribal region of Pakistan near the Afghan border, killing three security personnel, an official said Saturday.

02/04/06 AP: Fierce Fighting Kills 37 in Afghanistan
Fighting raged across southern Afghanistan on Saturday with attacks on government offices and a police convoy killing a district chief and 15 others _ raising the death toll from two days of battles to 37, officials said.

02/03/06 agencies: Afghan militants getting sophisticated arms
Al Qaeda and Taliban militants are coordinating attacks on Afghan government troops and foreign forces and using increasingly sophisticated, and deadly, weapons, Afghanistan ‘s defense minister said on Friday.

02/03/06 AP: Troops battle insurgents in Afghanistan, at least 9 dead
Fierce fighting involving U.S. warplanes and Afghan troops in southern Afghanistan left at least six Taliban rebels and three police dead, officials said Friday.

02/03/06 Aljareera: Taliban attack police convoys
Taliban fighters have launched four attacks on police convoys, killing at least three policemen in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.

More REALITY at;
http://www.icasualties.org/oef/news.aspx

Not that many in America cares...

[katty]

2. they still have patience w/U.S.?!as dicky&dummy tour poppy fields