[kvm_mkdb]

Taliban looks to reclaim control
By Kathy Gannon, AP

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan ? Before executing the International Red Cross worker, the Taliban gunmen made a satellite telephone call to their superior for instructions: Kill him?

Kill him, the order came back, and Ricardo Munguia, whose body was found with 20 bullet wounds last month, became the first foreign aid worker to die in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster from power 18 months ago.

The manner of his death suggests the Taliban is not only determined to remain a force in this country but also is reorganizing and reviving its command structure.

There is little to stop it. The soldiers and police who were supposed to be the bedrock of a stable postwar Afghanistan have gone unpaid for months and are drifting away.

At a time when the United States is promising a reconstructed, democratic postwar Iraq, many Afghans are remembering hearing similar promises not long ago.
Instead, what they see are thieving warlords, killings on the roads and a resurgence of Taliban vigilantism.

"It's like I am seeing the same movie twice, and no one is trying to fix the problem," said Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghanistan's president and his representative in southern Kandahar. "What was promised to Afghans with the collapse of the Taliban was a new life of hope and change. But what was delivered? Nothing. Everyone is back in business."

Mr. Karzai said reconstruction has been painfully slow - a canal repaired, a piece of city road paved, a small school rebuilt.
"There have been no significant changes for people," he said. "People are tired of seeing small, small projects. I don't know what to say to people anymore."

When the Taliban ruled, it forcibly conscripted young men.
"Today I can say, 'We don't take your sons away by force to fight at the front line,'_" Mr. Karzai said. "But that's about all I can say."

But progress also is a question of perspective. Capt. Trish Morris, spokeswoman for the Coalition Joint Civil-Military Operations Task Force, said civil affairs teams have spent up to $13 million on projects affecting the daily lives of Afghans.

"That may not sound like a lot of money, but that's hundreds of schools and clinics and bridges and wells all over Afghanistan," Capt. Morris said in Kabul.

"Some might say not a lot is being done," but the U.S. government, the United Nations and private aid agencies "are all working very hard," she said. "It's just going to take some time, because 23 years of war has destroyed a lot of things."

From safe havens in neighboring Pakistan, aided by militant Muslim groups there, the Taliban began its revival to coincide with the war in Iraq and capitalize on Muslim anger about the U.S. invasion, Afghan officials have said.

Mr. Karzai said the Taliban is allied with rebel commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, supported by Pakistan and financed by militant Arabs.

The attacks have targeted foreigners, and the threats have been directed toward Afghans working for international organizations.
Abdul Salam is a military commander for the government. Last month he was stopped at a Taliban checkpoint in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar and became a witness to the killing of Mr. Munguia, a 39-year-old water engineer from El Salvador.

After stopping Mr. Munguia and his three-vehicle convoy, gunmen made a phone call to Mullah Dadullah, a powerful former Taliban commander who has an artificial leg provided by the Red Cross.

Mimicking a telephone receiver by cupping a hand on his ear, Mr. Salam recalled a gunman's side of the conversation.
"I heard him say Mullah Dadullah," he said. "I heard him ask for instructions."

When the conversation ended, the Taliban gunmen moved quickly, Mr. Salam said. They shoved Mr. Munguia behind one of the vehicles, siphoned gasoline from the tanks and used it to set the vehicles on fire.
Mr. Munguia was standing nearby. One Taliban fighter raised his assault rifle and fired at him.

The Red Cross, with 150 foreign workers in Afghanistan, has suspended operations indefinitely.

http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030408-78759856.htm

[L'enfanTerrible]

Not a single reply. Doesn't surprise me.

Horrible stuff goes on in other parts of the world, and it doesn't even seem like reality to our desensitized minds.

[moki]

The nations who united to fight in Afghanistan are not about to let the Taliban regain control.

[BkueKanoodle]

Afghanistan is still a 3rd world country.

Its not like the US has left that country hanging. There are still quite of bit of US troops in Afghanistan. The US troops still face resistance, and will continue to. Nobody ever promised this would be quick. However, I am confident in their ability to handle the situation.

[thunderous_funker]

2 years and $40 Billion tax dollars later and Afghanistan is still a horrible, unsafe, brutal, impoverished and utterly un-Liberated place.

It's completely shocking to me that this doesn't make anyone very worried and skeptical about our adventure in Iraq.

The US still refuses to deploy peacekeepers outside of Kabul. Karzai is cringing in the capital and helpless.

Military operations continue in the mountains as a noble but futile gesture.

If more international agencies have to suspend operations, Afghanistan will be worse off than before the war. Compassionate Conservatism seems to have a ridiculously short attention span.

[BkueKanoodle]

Of course, keep in mind who is currently in charge of peacekeeping and reconstruction in Afghanistan. The UN.

[sarcasm] Geez, I guess they just can't do anything can they? [/sarcasm]

[thunderous_funker]

Originally posted by BkueKanoodle:
Of course, keep in mind who is currently in charge of peacekeeping and reconstruction in Afghanistan. The UN.

[sarcasm] Geez, I guess they just can't do anything can they? [/sarcasm]

And who is the UN made up of? Martians? Who pays the bills? Venutians?

You might be joking around but this seems to be a real American blindspot in recognizing that the UN is only what we make it.

The US has flat out refused to participate in peace-keeping outside of Kabul. The other UN members contributing to the effort are not enough to handle it.

Afghanistan has gone from Poster-Child of International Effort for Liberty and Justice to the red-headed step-child sleeping in a closet under the stairs and eating scraps from the table.

The US isn't doing what it promised to do. The UN isn't doing what it promised to do--partly because it lacks the resources and partly because many of the coalition partners have decided they can't afford to keep up with US "humanitarian" intervention wars around the globe.

As soon as it was clear that Iraq was gonna happen, the money for Afghanistan dried up out of fear of what would happen in Iraq.

The US is "liberating" countries faster than the people left with the job of nation building can keep up with.

It's a travesty and big ****ing black eye that seems to be conveniently absent from the "liberal" media.

[clarkgoble]

Just the obvious comment, but there have been US military actions going on in Afghanistan the past three weeks. While the Taliban have been (unsurprisingly) regrouping we also have been attacking them.

That Afghanistan is still dangerous seems undeniable. But then anyone who thought it become in less than a year akin to a 1st world nation must have been partaking too much of Afghanistan's main cash crop.

[thunderous_funker]

Originally posted by clarkgoble:
Just the obvious comment, but there have been US military actions going on in Afghanistan the past three weeks. While the Taliban have been (unsurprisingly) regrouping we also have been attacking them.

That Afghanistan is still dangerous seems undeniable. But then anyone who thought it become in less than a year akin to a 1st world nation must have been partaking too much of Afghanistan's main cash crop.

But the US military operations are not peace-keeping or nation building operations. They aren't even security operations.

They are continuing to pursue military target which is good, but the promises made to Afghans have been mostly unkept. Rather, we dumped money and weapons into the hands of ruthless mercinaries and warlords and have now given them run of the country while we chase bad guys somewhere else and don't want to get involved in "local disputes".

We're not talking about 1st world status, we're talking about it being worse than before the war by many standards. That's a pretty grim prospect to keep in mind before the Liberation Wagaon moves on to Syria or Iran.

What are we doing in Afghanistan if we aren't insuring that agencies like the Red Cross can carry out their mission?

[clarkgoble]

My comments were about the rise of the Taliban, not humanitarian missions.