The drama that is Afghanistan.
Well it seems that the drama in Afghanistan is alive and well. The first part which is a recent attack that caused the death of fourteen civilians by theTaliban IED.
At least 14 people, including women and children, were killed in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on Sunday when the two vehicles they were riding in struck roadside bombs, police said.
The victims were riding in a tractor and truck when the bombs went off in Arghistan district Sunday morning, said Kandahar Police Chief Gen. Abdul Raziq. The blasts wounded three others, he said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Considering that the majority of forces that are fighting against NATO and Afghan forces used IEDs it is a safe assumption who planted the bomb. Also the same kind of weapon that recently killed at least six US Service members today.
This however is not deterring a unknown list of private citizens from the United States and Japan from donating at least sixteen billion in foreign aid. Considering the events of the past few years in Afghanistan the group has demanded that the funds come with several obligations and requirements.
The agreement, called the Tokyo Framework of Mutual Accountability, says that foreign governments will assure Afghanistan a steady stream of financing in exchange for stronger anticorruption measures and the establishment of the rule of law. Up to 20 percent of the money would depend on the government meeting governance standards, according to the document, which was released here on Sunday.
However the United Nations Chief as publicly stated that the group should withdraw the requirements being made by this private group and not hold the funds “hostage”.
“We must be fully conscious that Afghan institutions are still in their nascent stages,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told representatives of more than 80 nations and organizations attending an aid conference in Tokyo.
“The very programs which offer the best hope of sustainability of Afghan institutions should not be held hostage to complex preconditions.”
Well considering that the Taliban has publicly made a video of a twenty two year old woman being executed might have the donors unsure about the UN’s ability to protect and enforce any of it’s programs. Even some of ours.
Category: Terror War
What about Pakistan? Nothing gets “fixed” with Pakistan being a alleged sanctuary for terrorists and its sympathizers. It truly is frightening to think Pakistan has nuclear weapons, modern jet fighter planes, and is a major non-NATO “ally” on par with Australia & Japan. This country also has gumption to dictate cost and terms in use of supply routes into Afghanistan via Pakistan. We don’t have the courage to tell Pakistan that we could just cut off all military aid if they don’t get with the f’n program – instead we bow to them and ask what they desire…sad.
Also who the fork does Afghanistan think it is to demand “conditions” for all the billions in foreign aid it receives? Karzai and his dickhead gov’t really have some nerve. For all the aid it receives how about not torturing and mutilating women there for not adhering fully to Muslim “customs”. Yeah and like the men there don’t disrepect the Koran by scribbling notes on pages or tearing pages out to package their heroin, but that seems perfectly fine – what a joke.
More tossing good money that will end up making bad.
Devtun, it appears there is no Afghani word for hypocrisy, nor for Irony. We could have saved a ton of money with a small yield munition ten years ago, and it wouldn’t have changed the environment over here all that much either. Other Nations have forgotten the lesson of WWII, don’t F* with America. Now we are the step-parent with all of the money and none of the respect. No more money for Faghanistan, or Pakistan, no more food for N. Korea, and the UN can go F* themselves too. Money better spent at home fixing our great Nation. And lets mine the border with Mexico, just because.
That’s my two cents for the day. Hooah.
An interesting study in the duality of the COIN doctrine. Why is it that US troops are condemned by both Afghan and US forces when there is civilian death and destruction resulting from attacks against insurgents with the fear that we will turn the populace against us but the Taliban don’t have the same concerns when operating in their own AO? I’m guessing that they know a lot more about what motivates the locals than we do and are taking advantage of it.
There is no altering Afghanistan, they have been a sh1thole for a thousand years or more, it is a sh1thole now, and it will be more of a sh1thole when the troops all leave with the Taliban returning to power shortly afterwards…an ignorant population kept ignorant has no chance of advancing into a democratic republic of representative government.
Sometimes the lessons of the past are lost among the fantasies of the present. The fantasy that an ignorant stone age population can be brought into the 21st century and forget tribal hatred and centuries of feudal government tradition is tragically just that, a fantasy.
That’s part of it, Bobo. Another part IMO is the fact that, if the civilian casualties weren’t Pashtun, the Taliban likely doesn’t care. Best I can tell, the Taliban is essentially a Pashtun movement.
No. 6:
“. . . an ignorant population kept ignorant has no chance of advancing into . . .” —
Oh, I thought for a moment you were writing about the gov’t-funded schools and colleges of the USSA (United Socialist States of America) — yes, I changed the subject — probably improper of me .