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| India-Pakistan |
| Afghan revolt becoming 'liberation war': Uruk Hai |
| 2007-02-17 |
| Afghanistan for a struggle that is taking on the character of a “liberation war” against foreign troops, NWFP Governor Ali Mohammed Jan Orakzai said on Friday. He said cross-border attacks accounted for only a fraction of the insurgency in Afghanistan. The main reason for the Taliban’s return was the frustration of ethnic Pashtuns seeking more political say in Kabul and resentment of ongoing military operations and the lack of economic aid in the south and east of Afghanistan, he said. “Today, they’ve reached the stage that a lot of the local population has started supporting the militant operations and it is developing into some sort of a nationalist movement, a resistance movement, sort of a liberation war against coalition forces,” Orakzai told a news conference. Orakzai defended a September peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan. Pakistan-based militants may cause, at most, “20 percent of the problem in Afghanistan,” he said. He forecast that militants would take years to defeat and the Kabul government and its foreign backers would one day have to negotiate with the Taliban. Orakzai said coalition forces in Afghanistan must match Pakistan’s commitment to preventing the cross-border infiltration. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 I have more sympathy for the Afghans. They have a level of poverty that is just astounding. Plus they have a return of millions of refugees. Add that to the fact that their standard of living is rock bottom, so a tiny wage by our standards is worth a fortune there. And that they have a good track record of building small business with just the smallest assistance. One of the biggest companies in Afghanistan is a woman's piecemeal consignment company, that exports weaving that women make in their homes that locally is worth little, but internationally is worth a lot. Single handedly, it has created several boom towns, that from there move into micro banking, which gets lots of other businesses started. They are an industrious people, if given the chance. And left to their own devices, over time they would build up their economy considerably. However, what I propose would accelerate the process, hopefully. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-02-17 13:24 |
| #3 Notice that the slime declaring the Afghan war a "war of liberation" is doing so from Pakistan. His precious butt isn't on the firing lines. As for trying to build infrastructure, I do believe that's being done - on a broad scale. Unfortunately, the talibunnies do their best to try to destroy everything we do as soon as we do it. Keep whacking talibunnies until there aren't any left. Then when we build infrastructure, it will last longer than a few months. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-02-17 13:23 |
| #2 A: He may have a point. If we were to use a fraction of our Afghan budget as a public works program, with the idea of just employing huge numbers of Afghans for pennies; having them do improvements that would create more jobs in the future, it would really put the blocks to the bad guyz, who thrive off of poverty. There are billions of poor people in the world. 99% don't end up being terrorists. These people don't want work. They want to rule. They want to be a part of the leisure class that will run things after a Taliban victory. This is why they're risking life and limb, not because they want jobs laying pipes or building roads. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-02-17 11:50 |
| #1 He may have a point. If we were to use a fraction of our Afghan budget as a public works program, with the idea of just employing huge numbers of Afghans for pennies; having them do improvements that would create more jobs in the future, it would really put the blocks to the bad guyz, who thrive off of poverty. Not just "make work", but making the infrastructure for small business around the country. On the heels of their activity, set up micro banks to act like the US Small Business Administration. This has been done successfully elsewhere in the region, particularly India, and it is simple enough to both make sense, and be managed by uneducated peasants. It can quintuple the wealth of a village in a few months. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-02-17 10:07 |