The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan yesterday described the situation in the country as “close to anarchy” with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.
The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato’s international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that western forces there were short of equipment and were “running out of time” if they were going to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.
The assumption within Nato countries had been that the environment in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban in 2002 would be benign, Gen Richards said. “That is clearly not the case,” he said yesterday.
Sound familiar?
Gen Richards will also take command of the 4,500-strong British brigade in Helmand province at the heart of the hostile, poppy-growing south of the country when it comes under Nato’s overall authority. He said yesterday that Nato “could not afford not to succeed” in its attempt to bring long-term stability to Afghanistan and build up the country’s national army and security forces. He described the mission as a watershed for Nato, taking on “land combat operations for the first time in its history”.
The picture Gen Richards painted yesterday contrasted markedly with optimistic comments by ministers when they agreed earlier this month to send reinforcements to southern Afghanistan at the request of British commanders there. Many of those will be engineers with the task of appealing to Afghan “hearts and minds” by repairing the infrastructure, including irrigation systems.
Gen Richards said yesterday that was a priority. How to eradicate opium poppies – an issue repeatedly highlighted by ministers – was a problem that could only be tackled later.
The “Coalition of the Willing” already reneged on promises to fund sustainable, non-drug agriculture in Afghanistan. Now, politicians on both sides of the pond want to focus on the sort of military campaign that offers up populist sound bites and photo ops. Opium crops destroyed will supposedly equate with Taliban defeats.
… taking on “land combat operations for the first time in its history”.
Funny to think of that, after all these years of watching the parade of weapons development…
this is another country like the former Yugoslavia. It has been the scene of conflict and strife since time immemorial. To think that we or any outside force can control events or people there is just stupid.
Trouble is the farmers can’t afford not to grow opium. They’re poor enough as is, and carrots don’t pay nearly as well as drugs.
Clasic case of not finishing the job.
Hey Bush and you neocons – “Mission Accomplished!”.
Agreed on all counts.
We asked them to fight Russia for 10 years, with a promise to Fix their country AFTER it was over.
Bush Sr, declined, saying..”there aint no more russia, so why should we?”
the fight started THERE.
after some minor hits in the US, 10 years later, the Towers fell.
And his Son, is standing in the same place, as his father.
We invade, and Probably missed killing him. Fighing on foriegn soil that has been in Gorilla warfare for over 10 years??
then 90% of our soldiers LEFT to fight Iraq.
And we are doing MORE for/in Iraq, then we ever did in Afghanistan.
I think it would have been CHEAPER to fix Afghanistan in 1990-91.
PS, I will give you 1 guess WHOM trained and supplied him, during the 10 year war..
who’s *him* ECA?
Where did this story come from? Am I just missing the link on this one?
Sorry about that DogWings. Brain fart.
Link is up to whole article, now.
Him=bin laden..
You need to go future back into history to understand Afghanistan. You could also read Kipling. The British Empire sowed the seeds of discontent starting 170 years ago. As with all colonial possessions they used the method of puppet rulers/dictators to maintain control. This resulted in several wars and a cultural mistrust of the native people of anything Western.
That’s the problem. Our President doesn’t read, so he never learned enough history to avoid repeating it. He’s already committed just about every classic mistake in the book. He couldn’t have done more damage to this country if he had planned it that way.
There are times when I feel like writing a special piece on being a “cynical optimist”.
Optimist — because a half-century of activism, home and abroad, have shown me tons of changes. Cripes, watching “Kinsey”, last night, reminded me how backwards our culture really used to be — from racism to sexism, to every issue of civil rights and civil liberties.
The scientific premise that we are a self-perfecting species is true.
Cynic — because we ain’t gonna see enough of it in my lifetime.
This is not a defense of Bush….got that?
But people like Smartalix and Moss and others are in for a lifetime of disappoinment if they are waiting for a President that can be all that they think one should be.
Even the most well meaning of Presidents have made horrendous mistakes. It’s what we humans do, none of us have the gift of seeing the future and most Presidents make decisions based on what they HOPE will be the outcome. Yes….I know, they all have the ability to have those around them that supposedly will know all the answers. Well, we know thats not reality. Those advisors are also human and prone to the same foibles as the rest of us.
Bush blew it. His party pretty much knows it and are already looking foreward to the chance to get someone who can do it right. And until the Democrats finally get their collective heads out of their asses we had better hope the Republicans find the right guy.
Maybe we need to rethink the Presidency idea. Maybe this country and the world is not a one man show anymore.
We are just the latest in a long line of countries that have attempted to *clean up* Afganistan over the last 200 years and lost our butts.
12,
yep..Agreed..
1 teacher called me an Optimistic realist.
I belieave in the best, and know Im going to get it in the end(backside).
I try to belieave that humans are decent people, but there are many that just LOVE to mess things up, or just SCREW others. And Im abit tired of KNOWING that Im being screwed.
Joshua,
Once upon a time if a public official did this much wrong, he would resign.
#13: I feel that as a country we’ve grown far too large and unwieldy for a central government; perhaps we should begin by returning most of the power and money to the states. But we must beware of strongman rulers; Germany thought they had the perfect leader, and they reaped ruin and devastation at his hands.