I don't think things are getting any better.
Maliki is hardly hiding his disdain for the Americans, and has threatened to join the Taliban himself.
Pakistan's main spy agency is supporting the Afghan Taliban. These are, like, our allies.
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s main spy agency continues to arm and train the Taliban and is even represented on the group’s leadership council despite US pressure to sever ties and billions in aid to combat the militants, said a research report released yesterday.
The findings could heighten tension between the two countries and raise further questions about US success in Afghanistan because Pakistani cooperation is seen as key to defeating the Taliban, which seized power in Kabul in the 1990s with Islamabad’s support.
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“Pakistan’s apparent involvement in a double-game of this scale could have major geopolitical implications and could even provoke US countermeasures,’’ said the report, which was based on interviews with Taliban commanders, former Taliban officials, Western diplomats, and many others.
“Without a change in Pakistani behavior it will be difficult, if not impossible, for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency,’’ said the report, written by Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Well, maybe this is a good thing, right?:
Vast deposits of mineral wealth found in Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the US officials believe.
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While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing jobs that could distract from generations of war.
Maybe not. Maybe it's just something new to fight over.
nstead of bringing peace, the mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country.
The corruption that is already rampant in the Karzai government could also be amplified, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources.
Endless fights could erupt between the central government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in mineral-rich districts.
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Another complication is the environment. Because Afghanistan has never had much heavy industry, it has little history of environmental protection.
Well, at least we've got 30,000 more troops there to kick butts and take names, right?
Well, about that....
n the months leading up to June, as tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers landed in Afghanistan, all the talk was about Kandahar. It’s a big city (there are about a million people in and around it), and the plan was to win it back from the brutish, nasty, and resurgent Taliban. As we’ve said before, the stakes are as high as ever for President Obama, who’s made the campaign for Afghanistan all his. As we wrote last week, the battle for Kandahar would be the turning point of the war.
Except that now, umm, there is no war in Kandahar. Commanders and officials from the U.S., NATO, and the Afghan military are playing down any notion that they were taking on the Taliban in the south of the country with guns a-blazing. “It’s not going to be an aggressive military campaign,” an American official told The New York Times. “They’ve looked at it and realized it wouldn’t work.” Others say that there was never an “offensive” in the plans. (But there was certainly an offensive in the neighboring hamlet of Marja.) Instead, winning back the opium-filled south now depends on a “civilian surge” of aid, agricultural, and diplomatic experts. The tens of thousands of troops who are armed to the gills will, as the reporting goes, now play second fiddle, supporting them.
Yeah, that's going to go well....
Seriously, what exactly is our objective there? The government that we're backing is openly corrupt and uncooperative. Our erstwhile allies are arming our enemies. All parties seem to be biding their time until the Americans pack up and go home as early as next year, according to our president.
I still don't know what "winning" would entail, but I don't think we have much chance of doing it.