Rumsfeld Was Just The First Crack In The Wall

U.S. surprised by strength of Taliban fightback

By Terry Friel

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have fought back against Afghan government and Western forces with surprising intensity this year, strengthened by drug money and the ability to shelter in Pakistan, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.

Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said efforts to extend the rule of President Hamid Karzai's government deeper into the provinces had run into tougher-than-expected resistance.

"As this extension of government goes out, we are challenging those people and they are challenging us back," he told reporters at the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Kabul.

"I think we have all been surprised by the intensity of the violence this year. It has a number of factors: part of it is drug money linking up with the insurgency. Part of it these people have the ability to operate in and out of Pakistan.

"But we need to deal with it."

OK, so how's this for a "deal," Mr. Boucher?

Ask President Bush for all those troops that are doing nothing but inciting violence in Iraq, and assisting in the fomentation of civil war. Find the Taliban, and while you guys are at it, Osama bin Laden.

And kill them.

Think of it this way: the troops will still be in the region in the event that something really awful happens once we've left-- which I doubt, since the Iraqi constitution pretty much lays the groundwork for a permanent solution to the crisis, IF WE WOULD ONLY GET THE FUCK OUT THE WAY!-- and we'd be focusing on the war nearly all Americans can support. Fight the guys who killed our citizens, and I can pretty much promise you that Bush's ratings will skyrocket.

It's a win-win proposition and shuts the Democrats up on one major sticking point the administration has yet to acknowledge: Iraq is a miserable failure and we shouldn't be there, because we caused it.

Iraq is already in chaos. Afghanistan is nearly there, but for the stronghold around Kabul which provides a very good platform to launch attacks deep into warlord territory, and is the current goal of the skeletal forces stationed there anyway. We have a slim chance of securing Afghanistan. We have zero chance of securing Iraq (although Iraqis themselves could do that, right now).

Bush
Iraq
Afghanistan