Speaking of Success...
Never admit defeat. Failure is a thing of the mind. Say it and it becomes reality. Defer reality by proclaiming victory. Sometimes it works, more often it does not. And at this moment, Afghanistan's leading election contender to Afghan President Hamid Karzai is pointing out that whoops, the emperor has no clothes. Standing there nakedly, the truth is that the much-heralded success of tamping down the Taliban in Afghanistan has been a dismal failure.They just refuse to go away, to shrivel up and pass into history. A new troop surge, with an additional 4,000 U.S. marines pulled out of Iraq and installed into Afghanistan, the new front line between the world of rationality and reason and that of fanatical Islam. Only it isn't working as it is supposed to. Perhaps the Taliban aren't listening? Seven Americans killed on Monday, six British servicemen and four Canadian soldiers in the last week alone.
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, formerly the country's foreign affairs minister, points out that despite thousands of British troops having patrolled Helmand province next to Kandahar where the Canadian and Dutch troops are located, the insurgency has not been controlled, it has increased. Every time the Taliban have been fought and declared beaten, they have simply returned.
It is the government of Afghanistan, claims Dr. Abdullah that is responsible. The international coalition still has its place in Afghanistan, is needed to keep the Taliban at bay. But it is the incompetence of the Afghan government, its failure to control corruption, the injustices done at its behest because of the criminality of the police leading to public resentment and grievances that has set the country back.
"Eight years down the line, we need more troops? This is a failure", proclaimed the independent candidate. "A national government fails and you think you can bring more troops and you can substitute that for failure?" The perception of the people of Afghanistan is that they have been abandoned by their government, their needs neither recognized nor met. People in the cities are complacent; in rural areas they are desperate.
"The fact that this insurgency is becoming stronger, that's the failure of the administration to deliver to the people. Thousands of people are with the insurgency" because of government failure. "In an insurgency, if you lose the people, you lose the war. Strengthening Afghan institutions is critical."
Labels: Human Relations, Political Realities, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 10, 2009
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