| To 'beat' the Taliban would require a major military occupation of the country, at great cost to the Occupiers. Most Afghans will resent that, and popular resistance can be expected to rise- such as incidents of this nature. Meanwhile, the Karzai government we are propping up is a corrupt crock of shit, with no legitimacy. All infrastructural and aid projects in Ghan are accompanied by bribe money paid to the Taliban anyway- amazingly, 'We' are one of the main sources of funding for the Taliban. It also turns out a CIA study has shown that a lower portion of funding for the Tali comes from drug cultivation & smuggling than was previously thought- but Karzai's brother (on the CIA's payroll) is one of the biggest drug Warlords of all.
The current tack sounds like a no win situation to me.
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Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. |