The Bush Administration's Afghan Spring

[pritchke]

So have we heard any news on Afghanistan lately.

Interesting article and all to true. I sure have not thought much about Afghanistan lately.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=2303



[ 04-05-2005, 02:04 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[shamrock_uk]

Nice article! Sobering stuff, although I already new Afghanistan was a mess outside the capital. At least the Taliban actually made some serious inroads into stamping out the poppy trade - it's mushroomed under the American's. Will have to read the Guardian article later, but the notion of a network of detention facilities is an intriguing one.

Edit: Grab it here, it makes shocking reading.

[ 04-05-2005, 02:59 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[Timber Loftis]

Gotta love misinformation, innuendo and speculation.

If you *really* care to know what *actually* has been going on in Afghanistan, I posted several update articles over at Oasis. I took the text of letters sent by a partner at my firm who was working to help build a rule of law over there. He was there for a year, and recently returned home.

Read up. Please.

http://www.theoasisforums.com/yabbse...p?topic=2593.0

http://www.theoasisforums.com/yabbse...p?topic=2510.0

http://www.theoasisforums.com/yabbse...p?topic=2143.0

[pritchke]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Gotta love misinformation, innuendo and speculation. If you *really* care to know what *actually* has been going on in Afghanistan, I posted several update articles over at Oasis. I took the text of letters sent by a partner at my firm who was working to help build a rule of law over there. He was there for a year, and recently returned home. Read up. Please. http://www.theoasisforums.com/yabbse...p?topic=2593.0 http://www.theoasisforums.com/yabbse...p?topic=2510.0 http://www.theoasisforums.com/yabbse...p?topic=2143.0

All very positive nice articles, but arn't they all out of Kabul? Which doesn't prove anything is amiss in the other article as the other article stated there was nothing wrong in Kabul and similar cities.

[ 04-05-2005, 04:07 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[shamrock_uk]

Agreed. No-one denies that great progress has been made in the two or three major cities (and those posts were interesting reading, thanks!) - the issue is the rest of the country where everybody else has to live.

[Morgeruat]

Originally posted by shamrock_uk: ~snip~At least the Taliban actually made some serious inroads into stamping out the poppy trade - ~snip~

Minor quibble, they stamped out the poppy trade that they didn't control. (or that which was controlled by Al Qaeda)

[shamrock_uk]

Quibble noted. I would applaud equally if the US got it under control though, regardless of where their interests lie too [img]smile.gif[/img] Don't care about motives - there's no denying that a huge proportion of the stuff on European streets comes from here: the sooner it's gone the better.

[Morgeruat]

Agreed, a huge portion of it is here in the US as well, It really pisses me off that in the years prior to 9/11/01 the DEA (I believe) subsidized poppy farmers to keep them from growing the plants. I'm sorry I would pocket the money, grow the plants and still make out several times better than if I grew silly things like food. A better use of taxpayer money would have been to subsidize famers in the US, help keep farms from going under, and warn afgani farmers that if we see poppies, they will be torched by aircraft. Give them a real reason not to grow poison other than "we'll give you money if you say you won't grow poppies."

[ 04-05-2005, 11:30 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Timber Loftis]

Regarding the Kabul-centricism of my information, I do note that (1) the guy I know travelled and worked elsewhere - some of the time, and (2) the model for change targets the large urban centers first, but is having effect elsewhere, and (3) the author (of the letters I linked) is working on defining the rule of law (a difficult thing, considering that tribal law, common law, and civil law systems must all be reconciled) in Afghanistan, including the establishment of the High Court, all of which will, over time, affect all of Afghanistan.