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| Afghanistan |
| Al-Qaeda, Taliban defeated in Afghanistan |
| 2005-12-09 |
| The Al Qaeda terror group has been defeated in Afghanistan and the Taliban has been destroyed, according to an American general who commanded the joint allied forces in the country. But Osama bin Laden is still around and had not been killed in the devastating October earthquake that is estimated to have taken 70,000 lives in Pakistan, the general noted. Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commanding general of the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, declared Thursday that after four years of operations in the war-torn country, "although the fighting continues, Al Qaeda has been ejected from Afghanistan, and the Taliban has been toppled". "We have no reason to believe that in the earthquake - that Osama bin Laden was killed by that," Eikenberry asserted at a defence department briefing. He refused to commit to whether the Saudi leader of the terror group was in Pakistan. "Our working assumption is...that he (bin Laden) is alive today. I will not speculate on his location. "What I would say - that it's important for the American people and it's important for the international community and it's important for Afghanistan in terms of bringing that man to justice. And our forces will not rest until he is either found and captured, or killed," the general maintained. Eikenberry counted the successes in Afghanistan as including the formalizing of a political process, a constitution, elections, a national army, a police force, roads, schools and clinics. But the threat from the Al Qaeda still remained, he conceded. And while there was an army and police force, these needed strengthening. National governance also had to be improved. "We're emphasizing quality over quantity. We're working to develop leadership and the organizations necessary for the Afghans to sustain their army and police forces," Eikenberrry said. Apart from building infrastructure, the production and trafficking of narcotics remains and was of "significant concern," he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #11 Pollyanna's Picnic is rained out. So sorry. And what are those large nasty-tasting lumps in the potato salad? Pfeh. Simple-minded pooftas. Where is that damned MaGiK Wand when you want it? |
| Posted by: .Capn Bringdown 2005-12-09 19:49 |
| #10 Hell, I'm with wonderer. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-12-09 19:28 |
| #9 India, China and everyone else are buying the oil out of necessity and if we go that way they might follow. It will also require mass production of plug-in hybrids or hydrogen cars (enorgy to produce the hydrogen will come from nuclear plants of course). Decoupling ourselves from oil will allow us to use the full spectrum of strategic options in the world dealings. Today despite of our economic and military might we are very limited in our ability to act be it Venesuela, Iran or Saudis. Producing nuclear energy will increase the U.S. employment, reduce trade deficit, deprive our enimies of revenue, will continie our technological advances in nuclear energy field, will reduce terrorism financing, will save american lives and all of it without tarnishing our image. It's win-win-win-win-win proposition. |
| Posted by: wonderer 2005-12-09 17:57 |
| #8 It does very little good if we stop buying oil, unless we can get China, India, and everyone else to do so, also. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-12-09 17:38 |
| #7 And the best way to stop the money from flowing is to stop buying the oil. And to stop buying the oil we have to have an alternative energy source. Ahem. There are other ways. We at Rantburg have discussed this before. It involves a 50 km wide strip of land ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-12-09 17:03 |
| #6 And the best way to stop the money from flowing is to stop buying the oil. And to stop buying the oil we have to have an alternative energy source. At this point there is only one that is readily available and chipper than oil and that's nuclear power. I just wonder why our government fails to see it and does not show much needed leadership in building more nuclear plants. |
| Posted by: wonderer 2005-12-09 13:08 |
| #5 I don't get it. Means one can't do a slap-dash, half-assed job in Afghanistan. It will take time, a long-term view, patience. The latter two which seem to be in very short supply. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-12-09 11:10 |
| #4 Right on, .com. It's the money that runs the show. We have to stop the flow of funding, and the money trail leads back to Saudi Arabia for the most part. If we do not deal with the funding situation, then we are dealing with the problem symptomatically and are basically fighting the enemy that is financed by our own oil money. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-12-09 11:07 |
| #3 Topographical map of Afghanistan (note passes into Pakistan) : http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/afghanistan_topo86.jpg Ethnographic map: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/afghanistan_ethnoling_97.jpg |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-12-09 10:07 |
| #2 Until the funding is cut off, there will still be madrassahs and imams cranking out deluded dimwit bottom-feeders. When the cash stops, so will most of this pipeline. I believe the True Believers running the show represent less than 10% - and their recruiting pool, full of hormone-crazed dingbats, is also mebbe 10% True Believers. The romantic BS of being a warrior against the infidels, flitting about the globe in 1st class, yadda³, goes *poof* when the cash dries up. The ideological implacability becomes irrelevant when they're stuck in goatfuckland, unarmed, unfeted, untrained, and unloved. Then I think they just explode, lol. My quickie 2¢ take, anyway. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-12-09 08:40 |
| #1 I don't get it. Al Q and the Taliban are down but not out. The CFCommand still must remain. The only thing different from a year ago or two years ago is the govt. is stronger but not strong enough for us to reduce forces. Also, the progressives among the Afghans are a relatively thin layer. Yes the population is well off compared to the Taliban years but typical Islamic bigotry, anti-women culture, etc. still dominates in the rural areas and small towns. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-12-09 06:30 |