Pay attention to Afghanistan
We should seriously take note if the Bush administration is finally concerned about Afghanistan.
To appreciate how bad the situation is, think about where things have to get for this administration to review policy.
Deeply concerned about the prospect of failure in Afghanistan, the Bush administration and NATO have begun three top-to-bottom reviews of the entire mission...
Taken together, these efforts reflect a growing apprehension that one of the administration’s most important legacies — the routing of Taliban and Qaeda forces in Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — may slip away, according to senior administration officials....
Publicly, administration officials have expressed optimism that the war in Afghanistan can be won, but Mr. Gates told Congress this week that his optimism was “tempered by caution.”
To appreciate how bad the situation is, think about where things have to get for this administration to review policy.
posted by mikevotes at
8:40 AM
5 Comments:
The Afghan situation is really bad.
The Karzai government is not only impotent, it is completely corrupt. I heard a correspondent describe the number of bribes that had to be paid to government functionaries to get even the smallest things done. For example, to pay your electric bill one has to visit seven different offices and pay seven separate bribes in order to even speak to a clerk. Afghan police and soldiers routinely shake down pedestrians and motorists for money for "passage". Over half of the reconstruction money goes to paying the obscene salaries of the administrators, and most of the rest goes into kickbacks, bribes, and graft for projects that are ultimately abandoned because they were unsuitable and unsound to begin with.
You don't win people over this way.
You don't make democracy look like a good alternative by running a glorified protection racket. Bush has, once again, bungled an effort that actually had a chance of success. Now we are reduced to shifting Taliban from one area to another (like in Iraq) and perpetually re-taking areas that we once controlled.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 10:47 AM
With respect todd Afghanistan was always run that way. They don't even see it as bribery. The folly is in thinking they will ever change.
By
Anonymous, at 12:28 PM
Responding to both,
With Afghanistan's history, we are truly trying to nation build. As bad as Iraq is, at least the people of Iraq have some history of being a functioning nation and have some concept of rule of law.
The whole reason the Taleban could take over in the first place was that Afghanistan has never really been a functioning state. The Taleban gained support primarily because they were able to enforce law and push back the warlords.
That should tell you how bad it was, that the Taleban's rule was preferrable.
Karzai's government has the support of no one in the country except a few businessmen who think they can profit from it and US support.
It's an open wound on the side of south Asia as it has been for generations.
By
mikevotes, at 3:13 PM
Open wound? One of the things I've always found quite endearing about Pashtuns is their ferocious independence. Invaders don't fare well there. I think it will be a long time before they sit sedated in front of TVs after a hard days shopping at Walmart.
By
Anonymous, at 3:43 PM
Agreed. I meant that statement within a geopolitical sense. Admittedly the neighbors Pakistan, China, Iran, etc aren't all clean, but from a governmental standpoint, they're all quite secure and relatively stable.
Even the coups in Pakistan and Iran have involved the transfer of one fairly strong government to another while Afghanistan has been substantially "looser" through the modern era.
By
mikevotes, at 4:43 PM
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