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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan Governors Criticize NATO Fight Against Taliban Militants |
| 2008-05-07 |
| NATO isn't battling Taliban militants in Afghanistan as aggressively as U.S. forces did after the 2001 invasion and toppling of the Islamist regime, according to two provincial governors from the country's mountainous east. Hampered by self-imposed restrictions, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been slower to coordinate a response to the Taliban, Lutfallah Mashal, governor of Laghman province, told reporters today in Berlin. ``The U.S. forces who took over after the Taliban started to be very aggressive against the Taliban, and were very close to the communities,'' Mashal said. ``But NATO is not doing as aggressive a job as the Americans used to do.'' NATO has struggled to turn back a guerrilla war by Taliban- led insurgents targeting foreign troops and the government of President Hamid Karzai. Crossing the mountains from Pakistan, militants have stepped up attacks on civilians and police in the south and eastern regions along the border. NATO leaders should coordinate their strategy better, said Gul Aghan Sherzai, governor of Nangarhar on the Pakistani border, where a suicide bomber killed seven civilians and 11 police officers on April 29. Alliance troops should be in every province, he said. With a third governor, Abdul Jabar Haqbeen of Baghlan, the Afghan regional leaders demanded more troops and development aid. They laid blame on Pakistan for allowing Taliban militants to cross the border and carry out attacks. The three had delivered a proposal to the German government on expanding police training beyond the capital, Kabul, which Berlin is coordinating. Police academies should be located in regional centers such as Kandahar, Jalalabad and Herat instead of only northern Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul, Mashal said. NATO members must loosen their restrictions, or so-called caveats, and move troops out of confined areas, Mashal said. Without explicitly asking Germany to send troops south from positions in the relatively peaceful north, Mashal pointed to its confinement of soldiers to Kunduz province. ``If they go to Kandahar, that would send a strong blow to the Taliban -- the enemies are also thinking that `some countries are friendly toward us and some countries are very aggressive toward us','' Mashal said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Mebbe Karzai has been bought off by the drug cartels. Just like Mexicans. He does have to buy those fancy capes, you know. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 2008-05-07 10:15 |
| #1 Every piece of captured land that NATO turned over to the Karzai circus, was handed back to the Taleban. Opium tapping ends this week in Afghanistan. Generally, Taliban recruits from the tappers at this time, in preparation for the Summer offensive. If the NY Times is right in claiming that Taliban is taking 20% of the billion dollar heroin industry, the jihadis will be loaded. There could be some surprises this Summer, if we continue to let Karzai interfere with operations against his fellow Pashto druggies. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-05-07 08:46 |