BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Switchboard >

Welcome to Afghanistopia!

  
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
14:01 / 06.05.03
I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread devoted specifically to developments in and the general situation of post-war, post-Taliban Afghanistan. Since the mainstream news media (in the UK at least) seem to have already (!) begun to tire of covering Iraq - and the more triumphalist have basically decided that a happy ending is nigh now that Big Bad Saddam is, er, missing - I think it's doubly important to keep up to date with this stuff.

First up, an extract from this piece at MSN (who are hardly a bunch of loony liberal anti-Americans):

For those who need a refresher course on Afghanistan, it is once again the world’s leading exporter of poppy, which is refined into heroin. Despite the $1 billion a month the United States is spending to preserve a semblance of order in Afghanistan, outside the capital, Kabul, the country is back in the hands of warlords and a resurgent Taliban. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is belittled as the “mayor of Kabul” because he can’t go anywhere else without fear of assassination. Appearing with Rumsfeld at a news conference, Karzai said, “Can we provide the whole country with a strong administration? No.” Asked why, he cited the “severe lack of human resources,” to provide security.
 
 
grant
15:27 / 06.05.03
News reports from within the past 24 hours:

Taliban fighters are moving back in from Pakistan.


1,800 Canadian troops have been deployed as part of a NATO peacekeeping force. They'll make up about a third of the total number of NATO troops.

and

Rockets have been fired at US Special Forces.

This one's a short story from the Indian Sify newswire, so I'll quote the whole thing:

Monday, 05 May , 2003, 19:42

Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan: A US Special Forces patrol came under rocket attack in southeast Afghanistan but there were no casualties or damage, a US military spokesman said Monday.
The rockets landed about 800 metres (half a mile) from the troops, who were training near Gardez, capital of Paktia province, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Kabul, Colonel Roger King said.

A patrol from the 82nd Airborne Division was sent to investigate, he told reporters at Bagram Air Base 50 kilometres north of the Afghan capital.

Rockets - 107mm or 122mm - are the weapon of choice for Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists although their attacks seldom result in casualties or damage.

US troops and pro-government militias regularly come under attack from suspected Taliban remnants and their al-Qaeda allies in the south and east of the country.

In adjacent Paktika province two US servicemen were killed on April 25 in a firefight with a group of gunmen near the Pakistani border.

A US-led coalition of more than 10,000 troops is currently hunting down Taliban and al-Qaeda holdouts.
 
 
Salamander
20:18 / 06.05.03
I used to be in the USMC, I knew they wouldn't be able to hold it, so now we have another prolonged sensless war effort. Why won't people ever learn.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
15:50 / 07.05.03
Because the 'nurturing' and 'caring' aspect isn't part of the administration mentality. I really, really want to believe that it isn't about the oil, but the post-bombing attitude towards Afghanistan and what's been said about Iraq suggests that a pipeline across Afghanistan isn't being seen as that important compared to what will be available from Iraq once their infrastructure is restored.

Bush's God not big on compassion obviously.
 
 
Char Aina
19:40 / 07.05.03
well, he seems to have waived that 'thou shall not kill' thing for him, so maybe georgey-porgey has special dispensation. or a note from his dad.
 
 
grant
12:53 / 26.06.03
Just thought I'd do another news check.

As of 10:00 AM, 26 June 1003, nothing in this post is more than 12 hours old.

-------------

Well, Pakistan is less than pleased with the peacekeeping force, according to The Hindu...

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has called for quadrupling of foreign security forces in Afghanistan in order to control the warlords and extend the writ of the Kabul Government throughout the country.

Around 40,000-50,000 troops would be needed as Afghanistan slowly creates a police force and national army, Musharraf told The Washington Post in an interview.

-----------


But at least one business is flourishing, according to the Voice of America:

A new U.N. report on illegal drugs says worldwide cocaine production is down but manufacture of heroin is up, mainly because of renewed poppy farming in Afghanistan.

The U.N. Drug and Crime report, released Wednesday, says Afghanistan has replaced the so-called 'golden triangle' of Burma, Laos and Thailand as the major producer of opium, which is derived from the poppy and the main ingredient in heroin.

Afghanistan now makes up 76 percent of the world market, compared to 12 percent before the fall of the Taleban government in late 2001.

The study also finds the increase in Afghanistan's opium market has led to increased intravenous heroin abuse in Russia and Europe and the "alarming" spread of the AIDS virus.


-----------------

At least they've stopped fighting.

Well, OK, not really, according to the PakTribune...

In this incident, which took place in Konduz Province on Saturday, there were three explosions, the first at the residence of the provincial governor and the other two near a building housing coalition forces, an unnamed coalition officer in the capital, Kabul, confirmed to IRIN.

"In the overall security context, it is a worrying development and we have made our opinion clear regarding the deteriorating security situation," Barbara Stapleton, the advocacy coordinator for the Kabul-based Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), told IRIN in Kabul. "It indicates that those with an extremist agenda are widely dispersed throughout the country and are capable of launching attacks wherever they choose to."

NGOS say this incident is part of the ongoing downward spiral of security in the country and demonstrative of the low level of security faced by ordinary Afghans in daily life, as well as the failure to protect them.

 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
15:02 / 09.07.03
Reposted here after I started a new thread to share the joy:

Project Afghanistan from the Canada-based Uranium Medical Research Center.

Pilger talks about Afghanistan and Iraq.

US Pledges to rebuild Afghanistan.

"There is no reliable scientific or medical evidence to link DU with the ill health of either Gulf or Balkans veterans or people living in these regions." (MoD's Facts about DU page)

BAE and DU.
 
 
grant
15:33 / 09.07.03
So they're still fighting, and the ground is poisonous now.
 
 
grant
17:40 / 27.08.03
Reuters Asia, 26 August:

Afghan Taliban a Growing Menace to Stability
Tue August 26, 2003 06:52 AM ET
By Mike Collett-White
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Operating in growing numbers, the Taliban and their allies have succeeded in destabilizing large parts of Afghanistan and creating conditions that could undermine the U.S. military and central government.

Aid and reconstruction is suspended across swathes of territory in the center, south and southeast, giving Afghans the impression the international community has abandoned them now the Taliban has been formally ousted.

"Once people are discouraged, that is the point of success for them, as no one will collaborate (with the authorities)," said Khalid Pashtun, director of foreign affairs in the south of the country.

Local power brokers are also behind lawlessness in southern and central provinces, further tarnishing the image of U.S. forces in the people's already skeptical eyes.

The United States recruited warlords to help it topple the Taliban in 2001 and still works with some of them in pursuit of the hard-line militia and the al Qaeda network it sheltered.

Officials and aid workers say that most Afghans, including Pashtuns in the conservative south, oppose the ousted Taliban regime, which has stepped up attacks on government forces and is moving in groups as large as 600 fighters.

...The Taliban's switch this year from attacks on foreign soldiers to "softer" targets like aid workers and Afghan forces reflects what has happened in Iraq following the deadly attack last week on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

Red "high risk" areas have spread across U.N. security maps of the country in the past month. A sharp drop in aid workers helps strengthen the impression the West is pulling out.

The international staff count at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kandahar province is down to two from 10 since the murder in March of an El Salvadoran official, and those who remain are restricted to the provincial capital.

...The New York Times has reported that U.S. aid to Afghanistan could double to $1.8 billion a year. It quoted aid groups as saying President Bush was looking to present an Afghan success story in his bid for re-election in 2004.

But analysts question whether this aid boost will be enough....
 
 
unheimlich manoeuvre
21:28 / 27.08.03
are the taliban becoming more "assertive" or are these random/localised attacks by tribal warlords?

22 die in Taliban attack on police station

Rory McCarthy in Islamabad
Monday August 18, 2003
The Guardian

...

At least 400 heavily armed gunmen poured into Barmal, 125 miles south-east of Kabul, late on Saturday in a convoy of trucks. Mohammed Ali Jalali, the governor of Paktika province, said they had come across the Pakistani border, five miles away.
 
  
Add Your Reply