Has anyone heard anything recent about Afghanistan?

How come Afghanistan droped off the radar for everyone? Is it because Haliburton is building that gigantic natural gas pipeline through the whole country or is it because everyone is so focused on Iraq? I just wonder if there isnt something else going on like there realy not looking for Osama Bin Laden at all and just working on getting that natural gas revinue going?

well
i heard that there is a lot more opium coming out of afghanistan than there used to be
hell, more opium is coming out of afghanistan than any other country in the world now

Afghanistan seems to have very little newsworthy action lately.
You can see the daily action at NATO's website if you wish.

Speculation has it that since Pakistan gave the Taliban/al qaeda fighters a free home base via their internal agreement with the northern territories, ( The Waziristan Accord ), the taliban/al qaeda fighters have received orders from their commanders (Iran?) over the last few months to leave Afghanistan, and travel to other locations to fight.

Thus the upswing in violence in Iraq, Lebannon, Palastine, etc. recently, and the downswing in Afghanistan.



[edit on 11/25/06 by makeitso]

Here is a link to the most recent in-depth report on the rising predominance of the opium trade in Afghanistan, from last week:



www.pbs.org...



The opium trade is now completely out in the open. It's not taking over the economy... it IS the economy.

Are you guys all Americans? If you are, that doesn't say alot about your news services or their opinion of your allies.

We're losing men every week in Afghanistan and the fighting there has been described as the fiercest since the Korean War.

I suggest going to the BBC. You'll find that Afghanistan is far from over, even if your US outlets and Administration have lost interest. It just so happens that the UK, Aus and others are doing the fighting now.

No that says a lot about the media in this country. Thanks for the update. I was wondering if we had just forgotten about that place or simply could care less.

I saw this morning a news piece about Afghanistan, where they said that NATO needs more troops, at least 2500, to fight the Taliban.

Around 32,000 NATO troops have been fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan for four years. According to the top commander, another 2,500 are needed. As well as more men, commanders are also asking for more equipment. But with resources needed in other global conflicts, that may have to wait.

A NATO summit in the Latvian capital Riga next week will raise the issue, although many diplomats such as Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi say that sending more troops is not the answer. For him, he says, the solution is political. So far this year more than 150 foreign troops have died, most of them American, British and Canadian.

Source

PS: I don't know if that article is going to be available in the future, that site does not have an archive of older news.

Originally posted by makeitso
Afghanistan seems to have very little newsworthy action lately.
You can see the daily action at NATO's website if you wish.

Speculation has it that since Pakistan gave the Taliban/al qaeda fighters a free home base via their internal agreement with the northern territories, ( The Waziristan Accord ), the taliban/al qaeda fighters have received orders from their commanders (Iran?) over the last few months to leave Afghanistan, and travel to other locations to fight.

Thus the upswing in violence in Iraq, Lebannon, Palastine, etc. recently, and the downswing in Afghanistan.


[edit on 11/25/06 by makeitso]

al-qaeda and the taliban are two different factions. and the taliban isnt leaving afghanistan...violence still rampages the country, its just countries such as canada, uk, australia, etc, are doing most of the fighting.

and the taliban is not responsible for violence in iraq, lebanon, or palestine. violence in iraq is from rival sectarian groups shooting each other and american troops. violence in lebanon is from the iran sponsered hezbollah and violence in palestine is from palestinians and the israelis.




[edit on 25-11-2006 by ben420]

Afghanistan, like Iraq, is getting much more violent. Its just not as bad as Iraq (yet).

www.paktribune.com...

UNSC mission to Afghanistan paints grim picture

UNITED NATIONS: A UN Security Council Mission to Afghanistan has warned that the strife-torn country risked becoming a failed State unless the international community fully backed its recovery effort.

Briefing the Council on its mission, Japanese UN Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, who led the 10-member team, painted a grim picture of the situation prevailing in the country with increased Taliban violence, growing illegal drug production and fragile State institutions.

The rise of Taliban-led insurgency this year along with other social ills, including upsurge of illegal drug production and trafficking, present a "worrying development" when seen in the backdrop of still too weak fragile State and provincial institution with accompanying endemic corruption and impunity, he said.

im american, and they do report on whats going on in afghanistan you just have to scroll all the way to the bottom of whatever webpage your looking at to see any stories of it. its sad but true.

britain is doing alot of fighting there, as is canada. countries like germany and spain have different rules of engagement and are not in active combat. but nato is losing quite a few troops there and does almost everyday. the us presence there has been drawn down quite a bit.

Yes I here reports of Canadian and British losses. It's a total mess. The aliban are back and we can't get rid of them. They're getting a lot of foriegn investment to buy supporters. We will almost certainly 'lose' in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Total frigging disaster. What were they thinking? It's not like this is a surprise to anyone.

Originally posted by whatukno
How come Afghanistan droped off the radar for everyone?

Er, it hasn't.

I just wonder if there isnt something else going on like there realy not looking for Osama Bin Laden

THey're not. They disbanded the unit that was tasked with hunting bin ladin.

The Taliban appear to be resurgent; not only that, but the various local militias (who were armed by the coalition to fight the Taliban) appear to be getting unhappy with the army of occupation. Result: everyone wants to take a pop at the occupying forces. The British are taking fire every single day.

And yes, opium is back. I just wish I could find a link to two stories which came out in Autumn 2001. One was a survey from the UN which said that the Taliban had all but eliminated opium production in Afghanistan; the other was a report by the US government (at the time prepared to say anything to justify their upcoming invasion) that accused the Taliban of drug-running. I remember reading both reports and thinking, hmm, I know which one I think is lying.

Sure enough, the US propaganda BS was forgotten quickly enough once the invasion and "hunt" for Bin Laden was under way, and the media went back to saying how, after years of Taliban repression, Afghans were free. And then there would be a bit of a gap, and an entirely unrelated story would demonstrate that the Afghans were indeed free... to go back to growing their favourite cash crop.

Now I'm cynical and I'm afraid that I do believe all that hideous slander about the US financing its black ops by running drugs. It's something they've been doing since the CIA was first formed, it was known to be going on in Vietnam, the Nugan Hand and BCCI banks were heavily implicated in laundering CIA drug money, and I actually wonder to what extent getting Afghanistan back into production might have been a factor in overthrowing the Taliban. So I just waited for the first stories to emerge here in the UK about the influx of cheap heroin, and of course they came. What I didn't bank on was the fact that it was the US ambassador warning us about this... too blatant, frankly. It made me wonder, which US air base the stuff was coming into?