Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered talks with the Taliban in a desperate move to bring peace and stability in the country. The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating each day and the future of the country and its people is looking very somber. After the fall of the Taliban back in 2001, the U.S. and other western countries didn’t expected that in a couple of years the Taliban will pose a serious threat to their interests in the country. They [the U.S. and other western countries] are to be blamed for the current mess because they didn’t take serious and sincere steps to bring genuine peace, stability and security in the country.
Billions of dollars were poured in the country under the name of reconstruction and development but a large chunk of that money landed in the pockets of corrupt Afghan government officials. The donor countries didn’t bother to implement a fair and transparent system in which the aid money had to be spent for the benefit of Afghan people and rebuilding the war-torn country.
The foreign countries and their chosen regime in Kabul promised to rebuild Afghanistan the way they helped Germany and Japan after the World War II, but the Afghan people living in the cities and countryside waited patiently in vain. They don’t have any hope that the present rulers and their masters will take serious and sincere steps to bring a fundamental change in the country.
One of the most important reason which helped the Taliban to take ground in Afghanistan is the continuous support from Pakistan. The U.S. and NATO let Pakistan to play a double game in Afghanistan and didn’t take steps to stop Pakistan arming and giving refuge to the Taliban.
In the last couple of months we’ve seen an abrupt increase in the attacks by the Taliban and they are even controlling a couple of districts in the southern part of the country. Not a single day has passed without a foreign solider killed in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. The public opinion in most of the European countries – contributing forces to Afghanistan – is turning against the extension of their troops in the country. The Netherlands is one of the examples where the government is facing pressure from the public opinion and the leftwing parties to extend the stay of Dutch troops in Uruzgan beyond August 2008.
The Afghan government and their masters are sensing the seriousness of the situation and they are offering a palm leaf to the Taliban in order to bring peace and stability in the country. I don’t think that such talks will be a success and at the end of the day, the foreign countries will abandon Afghanistan as they did after the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in early 1990s. In such a scenario the present regime in Kabul doesn’t enjoy enough popular support to fight and resist onslaught of a strong and determined Taliban forces and the country will once again end up in bloodshed and misery.
mork said
in order to end war–elevate the head of medusa (zio nsit) unto entire populaion of world——ancient greece enemy of medusa zionist- scholl update stuff in the web——-also good news out of america—two teachers clevand ohio gunned down by none homo sexual teen boy——————–ask bush about forced homo activtees with teen boys——————–in america——–wonder why please do
mork said
dear osim bin lawdin———————–in order to win–elevate the head of medusa zionist ancient greece–unto entire mass populaion of world at mecca——-bring world populaison very slowly to the miltiary sid bad point—————-locate send out world wide sos mayday stuff——————–seek failure responce to sos siganl——–how to do it is in the web–let the cia find the inflormation an do it for you——————————–good newss from america opee———–two more teachers gunned down clevand ohio none homo sexual teen boys—————–forced homo activtees with teen boys america deemed magor stummbling block to peace-ask bush about his forced homo activtees with teen boys
tossthemout said
It is not that hard to stop the poppy trade in Afghanistan but it requires thinking like a farmer. Change the PH balance of the ground with crop dusting to make it unsuitable for the poppies to grow and provide seeds to grow another crop that would be able to survive in the climate and new ph ground.
We in America cannot say to much about the drug trade since our own country is in a huge mess with Meth. In our neighborhood there have been 6 meth houses busted in a month. All the people running them did NO jail time what so ever all charges were dropped and they are home remaking their meth labs. There is so much talk here in the U.S. about getting rid of drugs and how everyone is trying so hard. So if there is no legal enforcement for the lab makers why are we worried about the poppy problem in afghanistan, we don’t care enough once it gets to the U.S. to stop it from being made into street drugs so why do we care if they grow poppies and make a living.
Adam30 said
We should all live in Peace!
http://www.zarinas.com/
Adam30 said
We should all live in Peace!
http://www.zarinas.com/
Traditional Clothes and other Fine Goods from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia as well as the Middle East.
JEET OF THE WORLD said
AFGHANISTANIS PLEASE UNITE – IN MY CHILDHOOD I HAD SEEN A THEATRE SHOW NAMED `KABILIWALLA’ WHERE AN AFGHANI WAS SHOWN AS A TRUE FOLLOWER OF ALLAH AND AN UPRIGHT PERSON – I STILL CARRY THE SAME IMAGE – IT WOULD GIVE ME AND MOST OF YOUR WELLWISHERS GREAT HAPPINESS TO SEE A STABLE AND STRONG AFGHANISTAN – TO WEDGE A RELATIONSHIP NEED TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER POINT OF VIEW – RATHER THAN OPPOSING AND FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER PLEASE FOR GODS SAKE SIT TOGETHER AND PUT IN YOUR ENERGIES TO UNITE .
THIS REGION HAS SEEN MORE FIGHTING THAT ANY OTHER AND NOT PLEASE PUT AN END TO THAT – MEN PLEASE START LIVING FOR YOUR FAMILY AND CHILDREN AND DO SOMETHING YOUR CHILDREN AND THEIRS WOULD REMEMBER YOU BY .
Ahmad Fawad said
WHAT PEACE ARE WE TALKING FOR AFGHANISTAN ???
AS LONG AS RELIGIOUS FANATICS WILL NOT BELIEVE IN RATIONALITY
THE ESSENCE OF REASON WILL NOT SURVIVE IN AFGHANISTAN
THAT WITHOUT RATIONALS … PEACE CAN NOT BE ATTAIN.
AND THE BEST SOLUTION IS TO ELIMINATE OXYGEN FROM THEM
SO THAT NEW RATIONAL BREED OF AFGHANS WILL FLOURISH
IN ACCORDANCE TO THE HUMANITARIAN ACCORD.
To-to-totla said
Fawad Jaan, Salaam! How could you say, ‘AND THE BEST SOLUTION IS TO ELIMINATE OXYGEN FROM THEM?’ Are you even human?
JEET OF THE WORLD, I’m in total agreement with you. Beatiful words!
Greg Bolter said
Talks with all peoples involved in these current conflicts are a necessity if a final peace is to be found.
Sayad said
Let`s stop saying anything that makes apart …. We should do any bid to bring Peace in our beloved Country….
What the president is doing is a smart thing ………. Talks are the right way to end the War …. not paying back with War…
We all come under one flag of Islam and must be proud of it ,,,
Sayad
Sayad said
What Ahmad Fawad has said is completly nonsense and he needs to correct his words ……. I ask him to avoid saying the word Elimination to his brothers and sisters ….
Sayad
nelly said
We must get rid of all radical muslims. Good muslims should be helped to thrive in the new world but we must first bury the animals!
lynn said
I know one day there will be peace. Human life is an amazing gift.
I know God didnt picture this for us.
We dont need to agree we need to understand each other.
I hope in my life time that I can visit there and not worry about cluster bombs,
violence against women and can walk through the streets and see a beautiful nation of people with smiles and a million reasons to be happy.
you are always in my thoughts, people of Afghanistan.
frishtah said
U NO WOT YEHHH
DERALL NEVERR B PEACEE IN AFGHANISTAN & NEITHER IN THE WORLD THE TIME HAS STARTED FOR THE WARS
THE SIGNS OF KAYMAT R HERE SOO COPE WIV IT PEOPLE COZ ITS NOT GONNA CHANGE NO1 CAN CHANGE ANYFIN THATS HAPPENING 2 UZ MUSLIMZ NOW ONLY ALLLAH SUBHANNA WATA ALAH
Walton Cook said
Dear President Obama:
Both you and Secretary of State Clinton have called for high-level strategy changes. The key issues of our time require depth of knowledge, study and minds open to change. Change cannot be considered alone, separate from the importance of incentives for change. Let’s consider a fresh policy change model for Afghanistan and the Andean region to gain the 19 results listed below:
…Superior returns-on-investment to U.S. ($150 billion annually)
…Superior returns to other OECD nations ($160-180 billion annually)
…Reduction in tensions (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Latin America, Mexico)
…Reduction in loss of lives, military and civilian
…Reduction in conflict levels
…Reduction in terrorism levels
…Reduction of military personnel needed
…More effective use of both military and civilian personnel
…Reduction in costs related to ISAF/NATO and U.S. military presence
…Reduction in terrorist abilities to recruit among disenchanted youth
…Reduction in terrorist ability to finance a WMD event
…Increase of recipient nation ‘budget-support’ and better general economics.
…Increase of recipient nation education
…Increase of qualified expatriate returns to recipient nations
…Increase in recipient nation’s health care and life expectancy
…Increase in needed infrastructures for recipient nations
…Reductions in tensions between EU and U.S
…Supports Islamic religious and moral standards against narcotics
…Gives many reasons for hope, winning hearts and minds–for all of us
Q. How is this possible? A. Diplomatically! What drug crop farmers get paid $2 billion annually to grow costs richer OECD societies (for two drugs only, opiates and cocaine) $317 billion annually for using. (The U.S. annual ‘societal cost’ is $150 billion of the OECD total.) This huge cost gap puts big bills on the sidewalk. This model compensates Afghan (and Andean) farmers in full, and for 10 years for not cultivating narcotics producing plants. In addition, we add $10 billion annually for 10 years in each region to support democratic nation building. We haven’t forgotten security issues, water supply, land reform, alternate crops, vocational education, infrastructure, rule-of-law or governance issues. In that decade alone, the U.S. narcotics cost savings alone, can be $1.5 trillion—a timely, cost free stimulus! And it is not only the U.S. that benefits from finding a new source of revenue, big bills found left on the sidewalk—but the entire world. Tell me if you now see real money in this cost-differentials diplomacy model, an amazing annual return of 2642%?
Perhaps you will have read the late Mancur Olson’s famous paper, Big Bills Left on the Sidewalk? Olson presents an economist, who when seeing a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk, says he is not picking it up because if it were real, someone else would already have picked it up. Is it possible that myopia is both an economic and political genetic defect? Let me know if you still don’t see real ‘big bills’ in the ‘price differentials diplomacy’ model outlined above.
Change to believe in! Would any U.S. leader, political or military, reject the economic, strategic and moral advantages of one new strategy change–clean-cut, simple, easily measured and diplomatic? All that and a global dividend, a virtuous cycle of annual real cost savings of $317 billion!
There is no better platform than a moral high ground. This is a bold response, one that fulfills President Obama’s mantra of change. It restores American moral standing in the world and improves world economics at a time of crisis. Change requires creating new diplomatic incentives and reward systems. ‘Change We Can Believe In’ becomes a real result, not a T-shirt slogan. ‘It’s big bills, not small change on this sidewalk, a watershed in economic diplomacy!’
Is this a model upon which agreement can be reached? Can political leadership lead the way to bold reform to restore America’s standing? Yes, I think they can, and must; because given easily weighed choices, policy mistakes are not inevitable. Without virtue, U.S. leadership will never regain its proper world standing. In a ‘new age of responsibility’ this is measurable change that can begin immediately. We cannot afford failures of imagination.
Crisis reminds us of the thin lines between anarchy and tyranny, kept safely apart only by just and responsible government. Government can not enforce sacrifice without a strong response of responsibility, otherwise the citizenry justly revolts—and anarchy brings on tyranny. If we can implement financial stimulus plans costing hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions that may never be returned, and that can’t be precisely measured, why would we fail to take action on a plan that can be accurately measured and returns $317 billions immediately? The citizens are watching.
People have a hard time putting figures like trillions and billions into perspective. It would take $6.34 trillion dollars invested at 5% to equal $317 billion annually. $6+ trillion is the total annual U.S. income tax collection in 2006, 07 and 08. Freezing tax revenue in order to invest it will never happen–America would implode! Another mind-boggling fact is that the total net worth of Forbes 1125 world billionaires is $4.4 trillion. Even confiscating all the interest their fortunes could earn annually at 5% would fall short by $100 billon—at 3%, short by $185 billion. Big bills left on the sidewalk are very big indeed.
Could one imagine that Mancur Olson’s insight envisioned bills of much higher denominations than $100, sidewalks much broader in scope, economists and leaders still more short-sighted and action resistant? Did you hear something? If the ghost of Mancur Olson were to speak, he might say: “Are you the one who can’t see the big bills left on the sidewalk, or are you the one who will pick them up?” In real life, choices are made. That is today’s question. What’s your answer?
An important note: There is much more to our full proposal, of course, but not all of that fits in a one-page outline. Email me for greater detail at waltoncook@yahoo.com Yours is an influential voice. You can save lives today. I hope you will share this with colleagues, even if your political or economic specialty may not be finding ‘big bills left on the sidewalk.’
Walton Cook authored the 2001 political-thriller, Buzzword and in 2002, Birthright of Freedom, on Social Security reform. He can be reached by phone at (814) 466-8747.
Ahmad Fawad said
My dear Sayad,
.
How could Afghanistan attain peace if even one Taleban left standing? If you are one of them or their supporter … sorry for you… but Afghanistan really need peace… that is the total elimination of Taleban for good.
.
Ahmad
Supreme Commander EurAsia said
The Dutchs have only 15 – 20 Jewish/Hebrew “MP police”-personnel detached
to Kabul. What will those US-gangsters do else than Zionistic-policing the world
and Afghanistan.
sayed Haidari said
The main problem of Afghanistan is the unnecessary interference of the foreigners in introducing new and failed types of administrations and accountability in Afghanistan. If the new administration which they have brought with them was successful; robbery, kidnapping, and killing of the civilians should have ended in those country and the gap between poor and riches should have been annihilated and lost from these country. But in contrary to that these crimes has evolved parallel to the development of the country. The government of Afghanistan is not guilty for loses and duration of the imposed war in Afghanistan. There is neither Al-qaeda nor Taliban in the area. These wars are imposed by the enemies to force Afghans to surrender to them and accept all their conditions. If Afghans are wise as they are, they shouldn’t blame one another of them. These are their enemies they do these worst and create conditions to create hatred and enmity among Afghans. Try to unify, think and work for the unity and failure of the enemies. Your previous system and culture was and is the best then the prevailing systems and cultures of the world. We ask our so called supporters and helpers to leave the government of Afghanistan to work according to their previous system which they know better, and spend the donations given to them the way they know better and can take strict control of the use of the budget given to each unite. The only thing the need is to have trained controllers in each field as they didn’t have before. If you come to these countries for some time you will see the truth.
Ahmad Fawad of Kabul said
Afghans can only see the truth if they are ready to join the civilized world. Without civility, chaos will surely reign …
Ahmad Fawad of Kabul said
Wars on two fronts … good approach to accelerate the elimination of Islamist fanatics. Hamdulillah. The world needs only peaceful Islam followers