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H16839

Headlines : "War on Terror"

Summary:

Security in Afghanistan is deteriorating and President Hamid Karzai’s government controls less than a third of the country.

Not the usual lefty blog propaganda as you might think, but the view expressed to Congress yesterday by the United States Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.

All the evidence points to Helmand not being this year’s holiday destination of choice for the discerning, particularly if you like to get down with the locals at their sporting events. A suicide bomber recently killed 80 people at a dog fight, for example.

Now, there’s a culture we need to send our troops to die for.

[Posted By Watson]

By Declan Walsh and Richard Norton Taylor
Republished from The Guardian

Defending man’s inalienable right to watch dogs fight

After six years of US-led military support and billions of pounds in aid, security in Afghanistan is “deteriorating” and President Hamid Karzai’s government controls less than a third of the country, America’s top intelligence official has admitted.

Mike McConnell testified in Washington that Karzai controls about 30% of Afghanistan and the Taliban 10%, and the remainder is under tribal control.

The Afghan government angrily denied the US director of national intelligence’s assessment yesterday, insisting it controlled “over 360” of the country’s 365 districts. “This is far from the facts and we completely deny it,” said the defence ministry.

But the gloomy comments echoed even more strongly worded recent reports by thinktanks, including one headed by the former Nato commander General James Jones, which concluded that “urgent changes” were required now to “prevent Afghanistan becoming a failed state”.

Although Nato forces have killed thousands of insurgents, including several commanders, an unrelenting drip of violence has eroded Karzai’s grip in the provinces, providing fuel to critics who deride him as “the mayor of Kabul”.

[end excerpt]

Click here to read the rest of the article

Posted by Watson

H16839

Afghanistan mission close to failing

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