Didn't Bush Say He Won Afghanistan?

[kpete]

Didn't Bush Say He Won Afghanistan?

by Steve Soto
The Taliban, you remember them, right? The folks that Bush left intact in the mountains of southern Afghanistan when he allowed Rummy to redirect $700 million to Iraq war planning without congressional authorization. You remember them, don’t you?

They’re back. And they’re back with their buds.

Building on a winter campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations and the knowledge that American troops are leaving, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men.

Each spring with the arrival of warmer weather, the fighting season here starts up, but the scale of the militants' presence and their sheer brazenness have alarmed Afghans and foreign officials far more than in previous years.

"The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere," a shopkeeper, Haji Saifullah, told the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, as the general strolled through the bazaar of this town to talk to people. "It is all right in the city, but if you go outside the city, they are everywhere, and the people have to support them. They have no choice."

The fact that American troops are pulling out of southern Afghanistan in the coming months, and handing matters over to NATO peacekeepers, who have repeatedly stated that they are not going to fight terrorists, has given a lift to the insurgents, and increased the fears of Afghans.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?th&emc=th
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/007556.php

[bluerum]

1. Isn't that how democracy works now? At the end of a rifle barrel?

[Oversea Visitor]

2. The only thing he win

is the hatred of the world. Period.

There be an accounting one day
There is no avoiding it
Sleep now all you want
But reality wait
You got to wake up one day
And you got to look at all the horror done in your name
And when that day finally come
What is all going to say?

Blame who?
Blame what?

Day will come....... just like sun will rise

[shain from kane]

3. That's why he is called the Mayor of Kabul.

>>>>>"It is all right in the city, but if you go outside the city, they are everywhere, and the people have to support them. They have no choice."<<<<<

[sharp_stick]

7. Exactly

Nobody leaves the city without an armed convoy. The taliban is in control of vast rural areas and the number one crop is once again opium.

Yup, we did a bang up job there, no wonder he wanted to do the same thing in Iraq.

I hate bush so much I can't even describe it anymore.

[Oversea Visitor]

9. Sounds like

the Russian scenarios
Hmmmm
They control Kabul but nothing else

[libodem]

4. oh hell , yeah

the women are free now to be educated, have medical care by male doctors, not be beaten by their husbands, go outside with out veils, wear anything they want, the whole country has been beautifully rebuilt and now looks like small town America, in every corner. There are no piles of rubble from bombed out buildings. Everyone is free. Hell yeah, we won this thing fair and square. We are heroes.

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. It's Bush's exit strategy for Iraq.

Redeploy to Afghanistan.

[leftchick]

6. bush Jan. 23, 2006: "The Taliban is ROUTED"!!!

this transcript is an excellent example of all of the LIES...

<snip>

So in other words, the enemy was able to burrow in, and felt safe and confident and secure. And I understood in this different kind of war that we had to make it clear to any country that if they harbored a terrorist, they would be held to account. And when the American President speaks, it's really important for those words to mean something. And so when I said to the Taliban, get rid of al Qaeda, and they didn't, I made the difficult decision to commit our troops, to uphold the doctrine that if you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the terrorist. And our kids went in, men and women alike, and liberated a country from the clutches of the barbaric regime, the Taliban.

And today, today in Afghanistan, think about what has happened in a brief period of time -- today in Afghanistan there is a fledgling democracy. Al Qaeda no longer has run of the country; the Taliban is routed; there's an elected parliament and a president dedicated to democratic institutions. (Applause.)

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/iraq293.html

[shain from kane]

8. Yipppeeeeeeee! Let freedom reign. n/t