Afghanistan close to anarchy, warns general

[Spazito]

· Nato commmander's views in stark contrast to ministers'
· Forces short of equipment and 'running out of time'

The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan today described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.
The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato's international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that western forces there were short of equipment and were "running out of time" if they were going to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.

The assumption within Nato countries had been that the environment in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban in 2002 would be benign, Gen Richards said. "That is clearly not the case," he said today. He referred to disputes between tribes crossing the border with Pakistan, and divisions between religious and secular factions cynically manipulated by "anarcho-warlords".

Corrupt local officials were fuelling the problem and Nato's provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan were sending out conflicting signals, Gen Richards told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute in London. "The situation is close to anarchy," he said, referring in particular to what he called "the lack of unity between different agencies".

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1826303,00.html?gusrc=rss

(Damn, Stevie, guess this means even more of your precious time will be spent on pesky foreign affairs or you could just ignore it like you did the death and wounding of Canadians in Lebanon, bet you choose the latter)