- Dear Mr. Rense,
-
- It is interesting that the cabal in Washington DC says
that Afghanistan would be the model for Iraq. The only response I could
give to such deception would be an outrage on my part, read the following
article and see how "liberation" in Afghanistan has succeeded--anarchy
and chaos, hunger, disease, homelessness. The tragedy is that people do
not wish to inform themselves, otherwise articles such as the following
exposes a great deal about the tragedy brought on by the US's falsehood
in Sweet Afghanistan.
-
- Sincerely,
-
- Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD
-
-
- From: http://www.sabawoon.com/news.asp?view=all
-
- Afghanistan Drifts Aimlessly In A Sea Of Chaos
-
- By Marc Kaufman
-
- KABUL, Afghanistan (Washington Post) -- Sixteen months
after the ruling Taliban fell and Hamid Karzai took over as president,
Afghanistan is still struggling to establish the basics of a working government.
-
- As Karzai and his U.S. and international supporters have
found, virtually every significant system in the country is broken.
-
- The military is splintered by factionalism, the police
force is untrained, the justice system is dominated by religious conservatives
who have more in common with the Taliban than with Karzai, and tax collection
is ineffective. Even driving rules are in disarray: Afghans drive on the
right side of the road, but during the past chaotic decade, most of the
cars brought into the country were designed for left-side driving -- a
situation that leads to many accidents but is beyond the government's ability
to fix.
-
- As a result, when U.S. policymakers discuss rebuilding
Afghanistan, they no longer talk exclusively about new schools, roads and
services for needy people. Now they talk just as much about establishing
functioning government agencies and about spreading the authority of the
central government beyond Kabul.
-
- Initially opposed to the idea of "nation-building,"
the Bush administration has found that it is the key to Afghanistan's future.
-
- "That opposition to nation-building is a fig leaf
that dropped a while ago," said the U.S. Embassy spokesman here, Alberto
Fernandez. "We're up to our ears in nation-building."
-
- A look at the pace and nature of reconstruction in Afghanistan
over the past three months shows that the United States is often acting
with a sense of urgency and that U.S. rebuilding efforts reach into almost
every aspect of Afghan life. U.S. officials say the total budget for Afghan
aid this year -- excluding the cost of maintaining 8,000 U.S. troops here
-- will probably match last year's $935 million.
-
- But the needs of the continuing U.S.-led war effort are
frequently at odds with the needs of Afghan nation-building, and the nation-building
often suffers as a result, a dynamic that limits the credibility of Karzai
and ministers in his government, top Afghan officials and foreign officials
in Kabul say.
-
- For instance, while spending millions to help train a
Afghan national army that will become the muscle for the central government,
the United States is still funding local militias and warlords that its
military believes it needs in the war against Muslim extremists. Those
provincial leaders are often at odds with the central government and sometimes
defy its orders.
-
- U.S. troops also continue to capture and hold without
charges Afghans suspected of involvement with terrorists. The practice
regularly brings hundreds of aggrieved Afghans to Kabul to argue for the
release of their relatives or tribesmen -- most notably in the case of
Naeem Koochi, a tribal leader with a large and loyal following. Karzai
has said for months that Koochi should be released, but instead he was
recently moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
-
- Still, the United States is trying to build up the Karzai
government in other ways. In addition to training and equipping much of
the new army, U.S. intelligence officers are advising the Afghan National
Security Directorate, a U.S. company is rebuilding the main road from Kabul
to Kandahar, valuable vegetable oil from the United States is going to
families that send their young daughters to school and U.S. officials helped
send 26,000 Afghans on the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. U.S. funds
are also helping to train Afghans to become better tax and duty collectors.
-
- To spread assistance and security outside the capital,
the U.S. military is setting up 40- to 60-member provincial reconstruction
teams in several provincial capitals this year.
-
- "The Americans, and the international community,
are engaged in state-building, not really nation-building," said Lakhdar
Brahimi, the special U.N. envoy to Afghanistan. "That is very much
of a change from the initial attitude that the American goal was running
out the bad guys and, like everyone else, participating in providing some
humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. ... What they need is a state that keeps
peace and order and the rule of law."
-
- Last year, the United States devoted the largest share
of its Afghan spending on humanitarian aid. But this year, the United States
will spend more on building up the army, which has 3,000 members but is
scheduled to reach 70,000. This kind of U.S. and other international aid,
in addition to the relative security being provided by U.S. and other troops,
has encouraged millions of Afghan refugees to come home and has led to
mini-building booms in Kabul and other cities. While many Afghans appreciate
the improved security, they are increasingly critical of the reconstruction
help they are receiving. They often speak harshly about the many luxury
cars in Kabul that ferry United Nations and aid officials to meetings,
while few visible improvements have been made in the lives of Afghans.
-
- With that criticism in mind, the United States and other
donors have acceded to Afghan requests that the Karzai government play
a larger role in deciding how and where aid money is spent. "The Afghan
government is taking real control of aid dollars in an unprecedented way,"
said William Taylor, special representative for donor assistance at the
U.S. Embassy. "They are deciding what needs to be done."
-
- In addition, the security situation remains precarious
enough that Karzai, who narrowly escaped assassination in September, seldom
leaves the presidential compound, and when he does, a crew of largely American
bodyguards accompanies him.
-
- At a recent graduation outside Kabul for Afghans being
trained as bodyguards for top officials, several dozen Afghan men in new
suits lined up in military fashion and showed off their new skills and
discipline. The men said they were eager to take over as Karzai's bodyguards.
-
- But when one of the U.S. trainers, Hank Poff, was asked
if the men were ready, he demurred. "Would I want to depend on them
to protect the president or other leaders now? No," he said. "They're
eager, but most don't have the skills yet. It's still too early in the
game."
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