| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
05 Sep 2006 10:18:22 AM |
| Object: |
Republican failure in Afghanistan is almost total |
From The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1865302,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704
Opium war 'making enemies of Afghans'
James Sturcke
Tuesday September 5, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
British and US efforts to decimate the opium industry in Afghanistan
have "hijacked" nation-building attempts in the country, and are
driving support for the Taliban, a report said today.
The highly critical study of the five years since the US-led invasion
found that Afghans are starving to death despite international donor
pledges and that the foreign military presence was "fuelling
resentment and fear" among the local population.
The report, by the Senlis Council, an international policy thinktank,
said that the US-led international community had "failed to achieve
stability and security" in the war-torn country and that attacks were
perpetuated on a daily basis.
"Prioritising military-based security, the United States' and United
Kingdom's focus on counter terrorism initiatives and militaristic
responses to Afghanistan's opium crisis has undermined the local and
international development community's ability to respond to
Afghanistan's many poverty-related challenges," the report said.
""By focusing aid funds away from development and poverty relief,
failed counter-narcotics policies have hijacked the international
community's nation-building efforts and undermined Afghanistan's
democratically elected government. Poppy cultivation is a food
survival strategy for millions of Afghans, and the United States' and
the United Kingdom's poppy eradication policies are fuelling violence
and insecurity."
The report concluded that poverty was driving people to support the
Taliban which now had a "strong psychological and de facto military
control" over half of Afghanistan.
It also found that the international military coalitions in
Afghanistan - the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom and the Nato-led
International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) - were fuelling
resentment and fear.
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Sounds like another typically Republican mission "accomplished"
Where's Osama?
Harry
.
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