AFGHANISTAN SPIRALS
Summary here.
Slow-motion quagmire.
…”Now the ground has been lost and all we’re doing in places like Sangin is surviving,” said Docherty. “It’s completely barking mad.”
[snip]
Development and rights groups have for long been critical of an exclusively military intervention. They have warned also that military action of this kind appears to local Afghans as part of a larger Western assault on the Muslim world.
“There were windows of opportunity for collaboration five years ago between the West and Muslim countries, but the window of opportunity is closed now, that is for sure,” said Emmanuel Reinert, head of the Senlis Council, an independent group studying the effects of drug policies in Afghanistan.
“We can still reopen it, but we need to show that we are going to change our ways,” he said. “There has to be a clear change in our approach, a change of management.”
[snip]
The Senlis Council has reported starvation conditions in several parts of southern Afghanistan. And this is only increasing support for the Taliban, and potentially for terrorism, too. Article
Related: Senlis Council report here.
