Mac at pesky'apostrophe reviews some of the bad news out of Afghanistan, especially the resurgence of the Taliban and the horrific repression of women, and writes:
Earlier this month Condoleeza Rice said the world must not abandon Afghanistan. I’d settle for America not abandoning Afghanistan, although it seems clear that it’s no longer politically expedient for the Bush administration to give a crap about the country. Apparently, President Bush’s declaration that he would put a plan in place to rebuild Afghanistan and ensure long-lasting peace was just more lip service.
To which I replied:
Worse, now it may be politically expedient for him to covertly support the Taliban, at least outside of Kabul. The Taliban are enemies of Iran, and right now Iran is kicking Bush’s ass. Bush might want the Taliban re-established in the provinces bordering Iran (like Helmand, mentioned in the story) so the Iranians have to devote resources to fighting them again.
Is this tinfoil hat territory? I think it's plausible because: 1. Bush has very few options left with regard to Iran. 2. There are only 22,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, in the eastern provinces around Kabul, suggesting the U.S. strategic objective is only to secure the capital. 3. The "Freedom Agenda" was always just window dressing, so abandoning some provinces to the Taliban's tender mercies is of no concern to Bush.
Canada has 2,000+ troops in the hard parts of Afghanistan and we're getting duped by the US who promised in 2004 that they would be there with us. The US at present is only protecting Karzai, and has little regard for the rest of the NATO troops fighting a war that the US invited them into. We even get BS from Bush when he invites us to a war.
Posted by: Airshow | October 18, 2006 at 10:21 PM