You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Afghanistan
Karzai: Fight the Talibs or you're fired
2003-04-13
President Hamid Karzai threatened on Saturday to fire provincial officials who failed to act against remnants of the Taliban regime blamed for a series of recent attacks around the country. Karzai told a gathering of provincial governors they had a duty to provide security and defense for the people. "From now on I want the governors, especially those in the border areas, to resist strongly those Afghans and foreigners who come to Afghanistan and harm the country," he said. "And I shall not show any leniency or consideration to anyone in government responsible for defense of the country who does not carry out his responsibility. He will be dismissed, he will be punished."
Not an awful lot of lines to read between there...
The past three weeks have seen a spate of attacks in southern provinces blamed on remnants of the Taliban regime ousted in late 2001. Government officials say the attacks appear to have been orchestrated by from Pakistan. The attacks have included the killing of soldiers near the Pakistani border, the burning of several schools, rocket attacks and the killings of a Red Cross worker and two U.S. soldiers. "This soil is Afghanistan's soil," Karzai said. "Safeguarding Afghanistan's frontiers is the duty of the Afghan nation. If we can't defend it from a few terrorists or foreigners, then we should go. There were hundreds of thousands of Taliban; they went to their homes. We need the ones who cause problems in Afghanistan under the guise of the Taliban. We need the big Taliban, those guilty of oppression." Karzai said these included top commanders Mullah Akhtar Usmani and Mullah Dadullah, who recently announced that the Taliban was regrouping to regain power.
The Afghans were helped out of their mess by the Americans, but it's fair to expect them to clean up the remnants. They've been hindered in part because fo their peculiar internal balance of power. But a lot more of the hindrance has come from the Paks, continuing their Great Game whether anybody else wants to play or not.
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#1  As well as tightening the screws on the govenors,Karzi needs to send Mushariff a backdoor message"Clean-out the NWFP or we will do it for you".With Allied military and inteligence support of course.After all since these a-holes are recieving covert/overt help from the Pak Government then these attacks are an act of war.
Posted by: raptor   2003-04-14 06:29:11  

00:00