AP: Rumsfeld Cites Progress in Afghanistan

[Eugene]

Rumsfeld Cites Progress in Afghanistan

The Associated Press
Saturday, October 7, 2006; 5:01 AM

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that despite
Afghanistan's rising opium production and violence in the south, "the
trajectory is a hopeful and promising one" five years after the Taliban's
fall.

Rumsfeld, in an opinion piece in Saturday's edition of The Washington Post,
said Afghanistan's economy has tripled in five years, its forces have grown
by 1,000 soldiers a month, the number of students in school has grown
fivefold and 80 percent of the population has access to basic health care,
up from 8 percent.

-snip-

"Building a new nation is never a straight, steady climb upward," he wrote.
"Today can sometimes look worse than yesterday _ or even two months ago.
What matters is the overall trajectory."

-snip-

But the defense secretary glossed over other dangers: The Taliban has
taken control large parts of the countryside, more than 3,000 people have
been killed in rising violence this year, and militants have been assassinating
political figures, burning down schools and creating havoc with roadside bombs.

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100700148.html

Rumsfeld's Op-Ed: Afghanistan: Five Years Later - Washington Post

[jannyk]

1. Do you all remember when we

used to laugh and ridicule 'Baghdad Bob'. Do, you remember one of his last broadcasts it was a split screen of US Troops at the Airport and 'Bob' stating nope, no troops here, uh uh, definately not.

Well, I guess we all know who he's working for now :crazy:

[luckyleftyme2]

2. whatsTHE REAL STORY?

What I see is grief for thounsands of american families whose children will be hooked on drugs!
Plus thousands more whose children will die in conflict!

[ps1074]

3. Any word about how are things going in IRAQ?

:eyes:

[Boston Critic]

4. Uh Oh

Guess the one thing we can count is that things AREN'T improving in Afghanistan.

Sometimes you go to war with the administration you have...

[SpiralHawk]

5. NeoCon Progress: Profits are way up for republicon oil cronies

And -- bonus -- for republicon munitions cronies !!!

http://www.isn.net/pjohnburden/cartoons%20+%20issues%2001/war-profits.jpg

[bowens43]

6. The Taliban and the drug lords have made progress...nt

[Eugene]

7. AP: Taliban Revived in Southern Afghanistan

Taliban Revived in Southern Afghanistan

By JIM KRANE
The Associated Press
Saturday, October 7, 2006; 7:16 AM

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A sweating man wanders into a crowd and
blows himself up, leaving a dozen bodies lifeless on the street.
A few blocks away, a car bomb pulverizes an armored Humvee,
killing two U.S. soldiers and 14 civilians. The kind of anonymous
insurgent violence that is convulsing Iraq has migrated 1,500 miles
east to plague Afghanistan five years after the U.S.-led invasion
that toppled the Taliban regime.

The prospect of a second downward spiral _ though so far Afghanistan
isn't nearly as violent as Iraq _ has experts worried that Western
militaries don't have an effective strategy for these irregular wars.

-snip-

The reborn Taliban acknowledges that it has adopted the suicide
bombings, beheadings and remote-controlled bombs of the Iraqi
insurgent movement. Nearly 200 civilians have been killed in suicide
attacks this year that look all too much like the wave of bombings
sweeping Iraq.

-snip-

Right now, it's too early to tell the result of major U.S. and NATO
offensives aimed at crushing the Taliban.

"In three to six months you'll see a noticeable effect," said NATO
spokesman Maj. Luke Knittig. "But you're talking two to five years
before seeing a defeat of the insurgency" in southern Afghanistan.

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100700155.html

[kurth]

8. Generalfeldmarschall Delusional Asshole speaks

Last days in the bunker.

[Toots]

9. How much of that heroin ends up in America's inner cities?

When a person is down and out without a lot of hope drugs are a God send. A little relief from a nightmare of a world. I don't care if a person wants to use drugs. It is their issue as long as they don't hurt others to get their next fix. Drugs do make people less likely to vote or do much of anything though and that does not help America and actually enriches the Republicans. It is very much to the Republican's advantage to insure the inner cities have their drugs. It helps insure that a large portion of Americans (usually black Americans) are arrested for a felony charge and have their right to vote forever stripped away from them. Drugs keep people docile and inert and besides think of all the money involved for GOP causes. Drugs are a win win situation for Republicans so it is no wonder at all that opium production has soared under the Bush* Administration.