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| Afghanistan |
| Kabul again linked with Kandahar |
| 2003-12-16 |
| Quagmire. The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is today due to reopen a renovated key highway linking the capital, Kabul, with Kandahar in the south. Built in the early 1960’s with US funding, the highway was left a dusty potholed track after decades of conflict. It had to be cleared of more than 1,000 mines and pieces of unexploded ordnance before work could start. Reconstruction of the highway has been hampered by attacks on deminers and road workers by suspected Taliban remnants. Some 1,000 policemen have been been deployed by the interior ministry to patrol the highway. President Karzai will be joined at the official reopening by the US ambassador and Japan’s envoy whose governments financed the renovation of the 480 kilometre road. Nice work. Hope the road gets used more by the civilians than the mafiosi. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #3 should help with economic development, also make it easier for govt troops to move through southeast Afghan. Will give them an advantage in speed over the baddies, even without using choppers. Also ties in Kandahar into the center, increasing reach of Kabul govt. This is part of the old "ring road" around afghanistan, built by the Soviets BEFORE they went in, as a foreign aid project to the old Afghan monarchy, which they were courting in the '50's and '60s, in part as a counter to pro-US Pakistan and Iran. It was trashed during Soviet occupation, and in the subsequent civil war. Reconstructing it is one of the lead reconstruction projects now. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-12-16 1:15:02 PM |
| #2 More 'Flypaper' dorf |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-12-16 7:46:10 AM |
| #1 I hope they have some quick-response bomb/road repair crews ready. The Turbans are going to go after that road for certain. |
| Posted by: Tokyo Taro 2003-12-16 12:50:01 AM |