Time For Afghanistan To Institute A Draft
Apparently we can kill the so-called "top leaders" of the Taliban in Afghanistan and it doesn’t matter.
According to Michael McConnell, the U.S. National Intelligence Director, the death or capture of three senior Taliban leaders last year does not yet appear to have significantly disrupted Taliban operations.
Ironically, according to the Americans, the Taliban seem to be minority players in the country. Mr.McConnell told the U.S. Congress yesterday, that the central government of Hamid Karzai government has control over only about 30 percent of the country, while the Taliban controls about 10 percent of the country.
And here’s the kicker to this story: The rest of the country is controlled by Tribal Chieftains, independent warlords, and regional factions with their own private militias. Obviously there are thousands of armed men around the country; these men ought to be drafted into the Afghan army and police. It’s wrong for international forces including Canada, to be doing dirty work and losing lives when thousands of men controlled by warlords and militias lounge around in safety.
McConnell told the U.S. Senate yesterday, that international forces and the Afghan National Army continue to score tactical victories over the Taliban – but despite the killing or arrest of "top leaders", the security situation has deteriorated. He said this was especially true in some parts of the south during the past year. He added that Taliban forces have been expanding their operations into previously peaceful areas of western Afghanistan and near Kabul.
McConnell’s testimony concluded that Kabul must work closely with the Afghan parliament — as well as provincial and tribal leaders — to establish and extend the capacity of the central government. He also says that although the buildup of the Afghan National Police and the judicial system has improved in the past year, "the police and court system remains constrained in its ability to deploy programs at the provincial and local levels".
Mr. McConnell says Afghanistan faces a chronic shortage of resources and of qualified and motivated government officials at both the national and local level.
Nevertheless, it also suggests that Afghanistan has the manpower to combat the Taliban on its own and that Canada has no real reason to be carrying out "search and destroy" operations, with the consequent loss of Canadian lives.
We must urge Afghanistan to institute a draft.
Goodmorning Mr. Reed
from Lima Ohio… another of my once in a lifetime pass-through visits. So many of these wee towns would be nice to hang in for a while, explore.. but not this time of year!
Should be through Windsor tomorrow…. back to the shenanigans of our mini White House…
What’s all this white stuff on the ground? It started in Kentucky.
See that coloured map on the Weather Channel? See on the west end of the Gulf its ALWAYS red?
That’s because its ALWAYS warm. My kinda setting.
Haven’t seen your thoughts on Obama yet. It’s important, because everything is going to change after 09 but McCain won’t be its architect.
This septuagenarian waterboy, this jowly Ganymede will shortly slip into well-deserved obscurity.
I hasten to add, this is not an ageist slam but a sad reflection that a US leadership contender can think of nothing better to uphold than the Bush record.
And it is delightful to watch the icons of the far-right US media soiling themselves at the prospect of President Barack Obama, bottom-feeders like that Scummingham guy (hey, I’m just playin’ around with names, he likes that)who publicly deserted McCain yesterday is the tip of the iceberg. They’ll be turning on him like rats in heat before long… they see him as a LIBERAL!
Funny old world.
I think you’ll be back just in time for spring…nice going. I envy your southern sojourn, not so much because of the weather, but because of the window into America that it has given you.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to Obama…who certainly looks like the next inhabitant of The White House (Republicans are now spreading the rumour that he may want to change the name).
Hillary is tanking because of Bill’s interference and McCain is no threat because of his weird views and his suggestion that the U.S. may be in Iraq for a hundred years.
Doris Lessing thinks that if Obama makes it, they’ll kill him like they did Kennedy. Maybe so…you seen how many weirdo’s there are down there. Unfortunately our own crop of same is maturing fast.
Funny Old World, Indeed.
Be safe
P.S.
You may want to junk your hard drive before passing customs…heheh.
A long way to go before that, Jim.
For all its mysteries, I think USA is still a much freer society than ours.
Bill Maher repeated calls President Bush “a lying sack of shit” on network television.
Meannwhile we currently have a proposal to have a politically-corrected “panel” decide which artists will get Canada Council grants depending on the title and content of their presentations.
(Hey, maybe I’ll be a factor in the demise of The Reedificator…)
Perhaps if we were to examine how we are being shackled and gagged at home we be less inclines to bomb Afghanistan into democracy like that snotty little wanker you just skewered.
Scary times L.A.
But…while we can still breathe, we will defend our right to call a “lying sack of shit” just that. Bravo to Mr. Maher.
As my old idol, I.F. Stone used to teach his students: “All governments lie”.
My comment on THAT is – that we get the governments we deserve.
My sincere hope is that we will eventually get proportional representation.
My fear is that as in the present circumstance in Canada, the elites will band together to form meaningless and undemocratic coalitions.
There could be other explanations than hating us. He might have some really important goal in mind, a goal that’s a lot more important than the fate of the United States a goal so obviously more important that we’d cheer on our own destruction if we only understood. Or maybe Iraq is part of a subtle yet reasonable plan that just can’t be explained in public. I mean, if everyone knew that we were searching for that buried spaceship and/ or time machine in Ur of the Chaldees, if everyone knew we had fought our…