It was the country we invaded before Iraq, but we've stopped caring about it because, frankly, Iraq is a lot easier to spell. But it turns out our policy of not really caring about Afghanistan may have a downside, according to an article in the New Yorker.
"A year and a half later, the Taliban are still a force in many parts of Afghanistan, and the country continues to provide safe haven for members of Al Qaeda. American troops, more than ten thousand of whom remain, are heavily deployed in the mountainous areas near Pakistan, still hunting for Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. Hamid Karzai, the U.S.-backed President, exercises little political control outside Kabul and is struggling to undercut the authority of local warlords, who effectively control the provinces. Heroin production is soaring, and, outside of Kabul and a few other cities, people are terrorized by violence and crime. A new report by the United Nations Development Program, made public on the eve of last week’s international conference, in Berlin, on aid to Afghanistan, stated that the nation is in danger of once again becoming a “terrorist breeding ground” unless there is a significant increase in development aid."
The article is about how the invasion of Afghanistan was compromised by the Bush Administrations determination to shift the focus over to Iraq, and makes several references to Richard Clark and his book. It's worth reading.
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