Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Withdrawal from Afghanistan: Another way out of the mire


The international community is attempting to shore up an inherently defective government while trying to fight an increasingly effective enemy. The military tactic has failed

Editorial
The Guardian, Wednesday 18 November 2009

(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)

"The case for continuing the war effort in Afghanistan is buttressed by negatives: the west can not afford to cede al-Qaida the space to regroup; there will be a civil war if foreign troops leave; Pakistan's fight against the Taliban would be undermined; Afghanistan would be abandoned for the second time in eight years. We can say what our forces are fighting against, but not what they are fighting for. Is it a second term of Hamid Karzai, whose inauguration tomorrow the west will endorse? The most devastating description of his government was provided by a former US marine captain, Matthew Hoh, who resigned as a US foreign serviceman in Zabul province. He described the government's failing as legion and metastatic: glaring corruption; a president whose confidants comprise drug lords and war criminals; provincial and district leaders who live off US handouts ; an election dominated by fraud and discredited by low voter turnout....."

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