NATO issues stern warning to Afghanistan’s Taliban
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said an upsurge in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan was aimed at "testing" Western public opinion and warned the alliance would take tough action against anyone trying to derail Afghan reconstruction.
It’s a fact that during the last couple of months, Taliban have intensified their attacks not only against the U.S.-led coalition forces but also against the civilian targets. Yesterday they blown up a bus in southern city of Kandahar carrying Afghans working to nearby coalition military base. Such attacks indicate that Taliban have recently changed their tactics and they are carrying attacks similar to those conducted by insurgents in Iraq.
In coming months troops from various coalition countries including the Netherlands and Australia are moving to southern and eastern provinces where they’ll take the place of American troops. The recent bombing campaign by Taliban is also a clear warning to those nations which are coming to fight them under the banner of so-called Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). The pictures of Taliban attacking military and civilian targets are going around the world and “testing” the public opinion in those countries. The majority in those countries - contributing troops to Afghanistan - are against sending out troops but the ruling elite is going their own way in order to please their American friends in Washington. But I’m afraid that the public opinion will force them to change their minds if the casualty rate is high among their troops.
Sending more troops will not help to stabilise the situation but instead it will play as a catalyst which will result more bloodshed and miseries for Afghan people who are suffering enormous hardships and pain during the last couple of decades. The present setup in Afghanistan is a compromise of several world and regional powers who got their own interests in Afghanistan and the region as a whole. Instead of helping the real representative of Afghan people and progressive forces, the foreign powers have decided to support warlords, former Taliban elements and people who are equally responsible for the suffering of Afghan people. In present circumstances there is no light at the end of tunnel and in the coming weeks and months the situation on the ground will deteriorate very sharply.
Dr. Sc. Agra. Moohibullah Mukhles said,
July 5, 2006 @ 3:40 am
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer secratary of the NATO contact with very good facts about the current situation of Afghanistan. He said that sending the new military forces do not work there in south Afghanistan because such action make the people nervous and become angry. I think that the US and NATO and other power need to get information about the specific situation of Afghanistan. In such a serious circumstances the above power should send construction help organizations, to help with poor people in their skill building in different majors. They need to educate young boys and girls in various kind of institutions and schools. They need to increase the work places by building small factories. They need to turn the young forces of mobs from the use of drugs to the working industries to be effective productions power. I saw myself in June 2006, that many people turn back to Pakistan because of the lack of work and job. one of the most important point is to hire the proper and professional personnel for suitable work places if we want to change the environment. I hope by consideration of these few points we can help to improve the current situation of Afghanistan. Thank you very much.
CJ Stone said,
July 15, 2006 @ 9:21 am
There is a political phenomenon known as “blowback”. It represents the unintended consequences of foreign policy actions. For example, the United States and Great Britain overthrew a functioning democracy in Iran in 1953. Then, after years of extreme repression under the Western-backed Shah, the Iranian people finally rose up and installed an Islamic regime fundamentally hostile to the West.
We are living with the consequences to this day.
A similar process is going on in Afghanistan right now.
Afghanistan was always a wild and a lawless country, and there have been numerous attempts over the centuries to tame it. The British had a go in the 19th century. So did the Russians more recently.
In the years of the Russian occupation the West supported al-Qaeda and the narco-trafficking Afghan warlords. After the Soviet withdrawal we allowed that poor, dry, opium-ridden country to go back to its lawless ways.
The Afghans have been fighting each other for over thirty years. The irony here is that it was the Taliban who finally brought order and peace to the land in the mid nineties. It was the Taliban who stopped the heroin trade.
Now we are fighting the Taliban again, heroin is on the rise, and British troops are being killed in some obscure corner of the world that most of us never even knew existed. How many of you had heard of Helmand Province before the latest troop deployments?
It is worth asking who the Taliban are. On film they look like some ragged ghostly army haunting the dusty mountain wildernesses between Afghanistan and Pakistan, like vengeful warriors from a medieval past.
Well I can tell you EXACTLY who the they are. They are not ghosts. They have a history. They are the orphaned sons of thirty years of the Afghan wars, brought up in the madrassa schools of Pakistan, funded by our great “ally” Saudi Arabia.
The Taliban are oppressive to women because they have never known women. They have never known mothers or aunts or sisters. They have had a peculiar, violent, repressive form of Islam whipped into them for endless years. That’s how they grew up. In other words, this is an army made up almost entirely of abused children.
This is what I mean by “blowback”. The Taliban are the unintended result of Western foreign policy, the creation of those two Islamic allies in the war on terror, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and of years of shameful neglect. We allowed them to fight our wars for us during the Cold War era, taking on the might of the Soviet Empire, and then left them to rot.
Tell me: why should we expect them to be grateful now?
http://tenthousanddays.blogspot.com/
Paul said,
August 7, 2006 @ 7:47 pm
I am just a bit confused about what your point was CJ. You ended the sermon by asking, “why should we expect them to be grateful now?” Who are the them that you are refering to? The Taliban? Of course they are not going to be grateful. Who ever wanted the Taliban to be grateful to us? You are just another one of these flighty author/journalist/idiots that write these blogs about how bad the West is. But you are here almost justifying the Taliban over the West? Are you insane. The only benefit you mentioned of the Taliban was that they stopped the drug trade. I think you should be lucky that hippies like you don’t recieve the same treatment in the West.
Oh, and why would you make a post supporting the Taliban on a site like this? This very site is something the Taliban would have prohibited. Why don’t you go to Afghanistan and see what it is actually like, before you write such insane post.
Abdullah said,
August 16, 2006 @ 3:38 pm
This is typical western stereo-type, before they really analyze a problem they first find someone to blame. As here is the case with Paul. You should weigh the pros and cons of taliban regime. During taliban regime opium production was in its lowest than ever and so was criminal activities. Being grateful to western. This must be the joke of the 21st century. Here is a small comparison between the era of Russian, taliban, and American. Russian came to Afghanistan with 150000 fully equipped force. but they could not control Afghanistan except the cities and they killed 2.5 million afghans under the name of democracy and justice. Now is the same thing happening with Americans and its allies they are even worst the Russian. They are unable even to control the cities. They just control their bases from which they operating and from which they drive with light speed to another location when they need to that causes numerous accident and civilian death. They bomb civilians and displace almost 1.5 million people by now. But in taliban regime they controlled 95% of Afghanistan without being fired a bullet in their controlled territory and they did not need to drive with light speed through the afghan streets. This comparison is to show you the will of people. We have saying in Afghanistan that says ” people’s power is god’s power”. So taliban have had people’s support as they do until now. America and its allies just brought some criminals and bandits to power to accomplish their own agenda. but this will be a bitter end for invader as it always been.
God keep afghan resistance firm and glorious. The day will come soon when American and its allies will run away from Afghanistan with their tale between their legs and will blame their failure to others. This time most probably to afghan puppet government.
Paul said,
August 20, 2006 @ 4:35 am
Well, for one Abdullah. The Russian were definately not doing anything under the name of democracy. They were Communist. If your Taliban idols would allow any education outside of the Qur’an, you may have learned that. Also, just becuase drug production was halted by the Taliban, does not mean it did any good for Afghans. Most of the farmers had no way of generating income which meant their families starved. The Taliban did absolutely nothing for them. Also, you are not fooling any one when you say the Taliban did not fire one bullet.
Its a bit ironic that you would use something the Taliban banned, the Internet, to defend them.
azizi said,
January 25, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
First of all i want to ask who is Taliban? who is Alqaida?
sending more troops or not is not the solution,
Todays everyone knows about Taliban and etc.
Poilitics are based on lie,
Every afghan is a Talib, but the question is who is real talib(terrorist)
concerning to the Drugs matter, may i ask Mr Paul why Afghan GOVMT and US forces are not able to Vanish the poppies ? this is clear that drugs actually produces MONEY and MONY is power and who want power? i hope everyone’s question would be answerd by this comments.
if the US governmet really want to finish the products of poppies in afghanistan then why they do not want to provide the waterwells and other facilities to those poor farmers to devolope thier aggriculture to produce the other things not the poppies.But actually this is not so easy to do.
AFGHAN POWER said,
August 18, 2007 @ 9:28 pm
paul u r doing good ,,,,in both iraq and afghanistan…bombing the vilages -
killing children….arresting innocent people and send them to abu ghuraib. guantanamo etc…hve sex with them. leave dogs for them and h about those rapes in iraq…………………….
Adam30 said,
November 25, 2007 @ 6:17 am
We should all live in Peace!
http://www.zarinas.com/