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Afghanistan at risk
Ariana carries this from a Sacramento Bee article. We were just talking about this the other day in comments, and I wrote something along the same lines. Extract...The persistence of armed attacks has also led U.S. commanders and foreign diplomats to conclude that terrorist groups continue to enjoy support from extremists in Pakistan border areas, and that elements of Pakistan's military intelligence service are probably involved. Some analysts even think that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who threw his support behind the U.S. anti-terrorist campaign after 9/11, may be playing a double game to keep rival factions at bay. Whoa! That could have been written by D.J. Wu! It's his prose style all over again... It may never be possible to learn the whole truth, but the United States needs to keep Musharraf as an ally who will do more than pay lip service to fighting pro-Taliban, anti-U.S. forces in border regions. But another troubling question is whether he has the power to do that. Pro-Taliban religious parties won power in two border provinces last year, reflecting popular sentiment against the U.S. presence. That means he had his chance to do that back when he was dictator instead of being His Excellency Mr. President-General. He blew it, and now he finds himself kow-towing to the fundos. The same phenomenon is evident in Afghanistan. Sporadic attacks against U.S. units continue; one powerful warlord seeks to overthrow the U.S.-backed government in Kabul led by Hamid Karzai; other ethnic-based factional rivalries fueled by arms and money from, among others, India and Russia, complicate matters further. "Russia and India have been maintaining their relations with the members of the former Northern Alliance, the Russians because they regard Afghanistan as being within their sphere of influence, the Indians because Pakistan regards it as being within hers."In short, the 9,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan may be facing much more than a mopping-up job there. And while U.S. commanders have begun to deploy troops beyond Kabul to strengthen security for projects to rebuild roads, hospitals and schools, the magnitude of the effort may be inadequate in the face of growing violence and popular discontent with the slow progress of a government that has yet to find its footing. The Bad Guys say the gummint isn't moving fast enough to rebuild the country, even while making sure it can't. Afghanistan will remain in danger as long as the border with Pakland is open. They won't be able to close it until they've built up their own national army, in considerably more strength than it's been gaining. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-02-15 |
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