NP but worth reading, re Afghanistan

[...] Removing the Taliban was not the primary purpose of the US air
strikes on Afghanistan last autumn. "Regime change" became a war aim
relatively late in the day. The main goals were to capture Osama bin Laden
and eliminate the danger of further al-Qaida attacks. But neither Bin Laden
nor his main lieutenants have been found. A new audio tape obtained by the
al-Jazeera TV station says they are alive and ready for more outrages. So
the hunt for al-Qaida inside Afghanistan has failed, as Britain's decision
to abandon its help for the United States and withdraw its marines next
month demonstrates.

And the Bush administration now admits the threat may be greater than it
was before it bombed Afghanistan. The New York Times last week reported
senior US government officials as saying that a group of mid-level
operatives have taken over from Bin Laden and have forged links with
extremists in several Islamic countries. "This new alliance of terrorists,
though loosely knit, is as fully capable of planning and carrying out
potent attacks on American targets as the more centralised network once led
by Osama bin Laden. Classified investigations of the Qaida threat now under
way at the FBI and CIA have concluded that the war in Afghanistan failed to
diminish the threat to the United States, the officials said. Instead, the
war might have complicated counterterrorism efforts by dispersing potential
attackers across a wider geographic area," the paper wrote.

By this analysis the internal politics of Afghanistan are the only area
where the United States can claim success from its decision to respond to
the September 11 attacks with military force. Forget, for a moment, the
hundreds of civilians killed by bombs and the thousands who died of hunger
during the disruption of aid supplies. Ignore the dangerous precedent of
accepting one nation's right to overthrow a foreign government, however
brutal, by bombing another country. The crude test of the operation depends
on whether the fall of the Taliban outweighs the high costs. In the
euphoria of last December many people felt it did. Can they feel so sure
six months down the line?

The Taliban's collapse created real opportunities for progress and Kabul
has become a vibrant city once again. Women are able to lead normal public
lives, and at the loya jirga, in spite of efforts at intimidation, many
spoke out against the warlords with more courage than the men. But signs of
regression are already emerging. Many delegates were concerned that when
they left the spotlight of publicity and returned to the provinces they
could be targeted. The fundamentalists are reasserting their authoritarian
rule. In spite of its loud promises the west has begun to "walk away".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,742750,00.html

Comment
The west is walking away from Afghanistan - again

The modernising forces are quickly losing ground to the warlords

Jonathan Steele
Monday June 24, 2002
The Guardian