Date: June 29, 2006 1:15:30 AM PDT
Subject: [ctrl] UK's Afghan mission is failing
29 June 2006 03:13
Home > News > World > Asia
UK's Afghan mission is failing, says drugs body
By Kim Sengupta and Gustavo Montes
Published: 29 June 2006
The UK mission in Afghanistan is in danger of failing because of
"misguided" support for American military and drug-eradication policies,
an international think-tank has claimed.
Instead of taking part in the reconstruction of the country shattered by
decades of war, British forces find themselves "at war" with a resurgent
Taliban and alienated from an increasingly hostile population.
The report came as Tony Blair led tributes in the Commons to the two
special forces soldiers killed in Helmand on Tuesday. He said: "They were
fighting the Taliban. They were brave and committed soldiers. This
country can be very proud of the work they were doing."
The study by the Senlis Council, a drug policy think-tank, predicts that
the violence in the south will escalate. The Taliban and their allies
have been exploiting the anger felt by farmers at the destruction of
opium crops and by civilians who have suffered in US-led operations.
Lt-Gen David Richards, the British officer who is due to take over all
Nato operations in Afghanistan with US troops under his command, warned
the crop eradication programme was driving farmers into the hands of the
Taliban and the Western forces are creating new enemies.
Last week Hamid Karzai, the President, levelled unprecedented criticism
at the US-led coalition'stactics, deploring the deaths of hundreds of his
countrymen and women while the Taliban grows in strength. About 600
people have been killedthis year.
UK and other Nato forces in Afghanistan are supposedly on a different
mission from the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom, which is engaging in
war-fighting operations against Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters. The
Senlis Council says villagers cannot differentiate between foreign
troops. One researcher said that when she tried to explain the difference
at a village shura (council) in Helmand, one elder said: "You cannot tell
the difference between our tribes, so how can you expect us to tell the
difference between yours. As far as we are concerned, they are all
foreign soldiers who are Christians and they are in our country."
The Taliban and their Islamist allies have forced more than 200 schools
and colleges to close. The campaign is aimed, say educationalists and
human rights groups, to terrorise families into keeping children
uneducated, unemployable, and to become a recruiting pool for the
Islamists.
Jamilai Nassi, the headmistress of a girls' school in Lashkar Gar, the
capital of Helmand province, received letters warning her to shut down
the school. One read: "In this school they are teaching infidel books to
girls and we don't want these girls to become infidels...
"I don't want you or the students to die at this young age. This is the
last warning. If you are tired of life then come and your blood will be
on your hands." Armed men also visited Ms Nassi's home at night. When an
international organisation reported what was happening to the British
base at Lashkar Gar, an officer said that it was a matter for the Afghan
authorities.
The Senlis report stated "the unbalanced approach of the international
community, which has mainly been directed towards counter-narcotics and
counter-insurgency, has not only been ineffective and indirectly
responsible for the growing state of war, it has also ignored the ...
needs of the Afghan people."
Emmanuel Reinert, the council's executive director, said: "There is no
peace to keep, there is no peace at all. It is a war mission, but it is
not a mission that can be won with a military approach or otherwise you
will be seen as invaders."
Alamaine, IVe
Grand Forks, ND, US of A
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a
philosopher." - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
Don't ask about caste or riches but instead ask about conduct. Look
at the flames of a fire. Where do they come from? From a piece of
wood"and it doesn't matter what wood. In the same way, a wise
person can come from wood of any sort. It is through firmness and
restraint and a sense of truth that one becomes noble, not through
caste. -Sutta Nipata
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