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CBC Background on Afghanistan 2008
Robert Galbraith

August 20
(NYT Editorial) The more territory the Taliban controls, the more money it can raise from narcotics and black-market activities to mount an even fiercer challenge against the foundering civilian governments in Kabul and Islamabad. And the more territory the Taliban controls, the more freedom Al Qaeda will have to mount new terrorist operations against this country and others.
There is no more time to waste. Unless the United States, NATO and its central Asian allies move quickly, they could lose this war. The following steps need to be taken in the coming weeks.
Washington must finally make clear to Pakistan’s leaders the mortal threat they face. The Army must turn its attention from India to the fight against the Taliban. Civilian leaders must realize that there can be no separate peace with the extremists. Sending American troops or warplanes into Pakistani territory will only feed anti-American furies. That should be the job of Pakistan’s army, with intelligence help and carefully monitored financial support from the United States.
More American ground troops will have to be sent to Afghanistan …. NATO also needs to step up its military effort…. Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, must rein in his government’s rampant corruption ….
Taliban Escalate Afghan Fighting
By CARLOTTA GALL and SANGAR RAHIMI
Insurgents have taken advantage of a wavering NATO commitment, a flailing Afghan government and disarray in Pakistan.
Taliban Fill Power Void in Kabul?
Analysis by Anand Gopal
(IPS) KABUL - The ambush that killed 10 NATO soldiers outside of Kabul on Tuesday, the worst battlefield loss for western forces since the war began, was the capstone in a week of high-profile insurgent activities in Afghanistan.
Security Fears Paralyse Kabul
The state of high alert following a summer of rising insurgent activity is wearing on Kabul citizens, say observers and residents. Many blame the increased checkpoints and closed roads for falling business, yet at the same time some residents say that the heightened security does not make them feel safe.
August 19
After Canada, now it’s France’s turn to ask: What’s happening in Afghanistan?
(Reuters) Last week the Canadians were soul-searching about their presence in Afghanistan after three female aid workers, two of them Canadian, were killed in an ambush. ”(The) Canadian deaths in Afghanistan underscore the most troubling… Full Post
August 1
Afghanistan spiralling back to days of Taliban, say charities
Terror attacks spreading into areas that were previously thought safe.
(The Independent) Violence in Afghanistan has reached record highs, with unprecedented numbers of civilian casualties and terror attacks spreading into areas once thought safe, a coalition of charities warns. In a damning indictment of the international community’s effort to stabilise Afghanistan, more than 100 aid agencies claimed security is worse now than at any time in the past seven years.
July 30
Thomas Friedman in the NYT
The truth is that Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Pakistan are just different fronts in the same war. The core problem is that the Arab-Muslim world in too many places has been failing at modernity, and were it not for $120-a-barrel oil, that failure would be even more obvious. For far too long, this region has been dominated by authoritarian politics, massive youth unemployment, outdated education systems, a religious establishment resisting reform and now a death cult that glorifies young people committing suicide, often against other Muslims.
… The only way to address it is by changing the politics. Producing islands of decent and consensual government in Baghdad or Kabul or Islamabad would be a much more meaningful and lasting contribution to the war on terrorism than even killing bin Laden in his cave. But it needs local partners. (Complete column)
Afghan heroin producers seek top chemists
Agents from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said that Afghanistan, which currently produces poppies for 90% of the world’s heroin, are increasingly recruiting top international chemists to produce high-quality heroin, which is more profitable than selling raw opium. Heroin revenue is being used to finance terrorist camps in the wilds of Pakistan. Google/Associated Press (7/28), Bloomberg (7/29), Financial Times(7/28)
July 27
Is Afghanistan a Narco-State?
(NYT Magazine) An unlikely coalition of corrupt Afghan officials, timorous Europeans, blinkered Pentagon officers and the Taliban has made poppy cultivation stubbornly resistant to eradication.
While it is true that Karzai’s Taliban enemies finance themselves from the drug trade, so do many of his supporters. At the same time, some of our NATO allies have resisted the anti-opium offensive, as has our own Defense Department, which tends to see counternarcotics as other people’s business to be settled once the war-fighting is over. The trouble is that the fighting is unlikely to end as long as the Taliban can finance themselves through drugs — and as long as the Kabul government is dependent on opium to sustain its own hold on power.
July 24
Afghanistan losing the battle against drugs
Efforts to address Afghanistan’s massive poppy cultivation have been hampered by a lack of political will, widespread corruption at all levels of the Afghan power structure and the absence of alternatives for local farmers, Thomas Schweich, a former U.S. counternarcotics official, writes in The New York Times. A multi-pronged strategy including pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to cease protection of drug lords, more drug treatment centers and developmental rewards to provinces that become poppy free is needed. The New York Times (7/27)
July 17
Road to Afghan success requires change of direction
Success in Afghanistan is not a matter of sending in more troops and money, writes Rory Stewart, founder of the NGO Turquoise Mountain, but rather of providing more effective aid and allowing Afghans a bigger say in development priorities. Inefficient aid and increased troops will only deepen Afghans’ disappointment with foreign influence and inflame nationalism, Stewart posits. TIME (7/17)
July 16
The Forgotten War
(Foreign Affairs) On July 13, the Taliban attacked a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan, killing nine Americans — the deadliest attack in three years. As violence escalates, both the Secretary of Defense and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have discussed the need for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan. In his January/February 2007 Foreign Affairs essay “Saving Afghanistan,” Barnett R. Rubin warned that Afghanistan was at risk of collapsing into chaos and urged Washington to rethink its strategy and increase its commitment to the country. Full text of original essay (January/February 2007)
July 15
Now for the Hard Part: From Iraq to Afghanistan
(Stratfor) The United States … has another major war under way in Afghanistan, and it is not winning there. It remains unclear if the United States can win that war, with the Taliban operating widely in Afghanistan and controlling a great deal of the countryside. The Taliban are increasingly aggressive against a NATO force substantially smaller than the conceivable minimum needed to pacify Afghanistan. We know the Soviets couldn’t do it with nearly 120,000 troops. And we know the United States and NATO don’t have as many troops to deploy in Afghanistan as the Soviets did. It is also clear that, at the moment, there is no exit strategy. Forces in Iraq must be transferred to Afghanistan to stabilize the U.S. position while the new head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus — the architect of the political and military strategy in Iraq — figures out what, if anything, is going to change.
Interestingly, the Iranians want the Americans in Afghanistan. They supported the invasion in 2001 for the simple reason that they do not want to see an Afghanistan united under the Taliban. The Iranians almost went to war with Afghanistan in 1998 and were delighted to see the United States force the Taliban from the cities. The specter of a Taliban victory in Afghanistan unnerves the Iranians. Rhetoric aside, a drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq and a transfer to Afghanistan is what the Iranians would like to see.
(RCI) The federal government has issued a tender for the repair of the second-biggest dam in Afghanistan. The poorly maintained Dahla dam on the Arghandab River in northern Kandahar is a major source of irrigation for farmers. The government sees its upgrade as a way to wean farmers away from the cultivation of poppies. Canada will spend up to $50 million and has other partners in the project, including USAID. However, several experts have told the Canadian Press that the dam would be a target for insurgents. The Dahla project is one of three development projects for Afghanistan announced by Ottawa last month. There are plans to build, to renovate or to expand 50 schools in Kandahar province and to immunize seven million children across the country against polio.
July 9
Deadly Precedents in Kabul
(Stratfor) A July 7 attack on the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul that killed two high-level diplomats has all the signs of a targeted assassination versus a strike aimed at the building itself with the goal of incurring a high body count.
June 20
Karzai’s Threat Of War Triggers Outrage in Pakistan
Ashfaq Yusufzai
(IPS) PESHAWAR - Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s threat to send troops across the border to crush pro-Taliban forces, which sparked angry protests in Pakistan’s border areas this week, has led to calls for restraint from moderate politicians in the North West Frontier Province.
June 19
Afghan, NATO forces rout Taliban: officials
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan and NATO-led forces killed or wounded hundreds of Taliban on Thursday in an offensive to clear the militants from the outskirts of Kandahar city, the provincial governor said.
NATO confirmed in a statement issued in Kabul that Taliban fighters, including many believed to have escaped during a mass jail break last week, had been routed from positions among the orchards and farms of Arghandab district, northwest of Kandahar.
June 18
The Destruction of Sarposa
(Stratfor Analysis) Many observers have expressed shock over the storming of Sarposa prison. But the attack — and its success — is not at all surprising when viewed in the context of historical operations undertaken to free jihadist prisoners in Afghanistan and elsewhere and given conditions on the ground in the Kandahar area, the general preparedness of Afghan security elements and the construction and location of this particular prison.
June 15
Karzai Threatens to Send Forces Into Pakistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened Sunday to send Afghan troops across the border to fight militants in Pakistan, a forceful warning to insurgents and the Pakistani government that his country is fed up with cross-border attacks.
Karzai said Afghanistan has the right to self defense, and because militants cross over from Pakistan ”to come and kill Afghan and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to do the same.”
June 14
Insurgent attack frees hundreds from Kandahar prison
A Taliban spokesman said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked the prison. Qari Yousef Ahmadi also claimed that hundreds of Taliban prisoners were freed in the assault.
The prison, the largest detention facility in Kandahar province, housed both common criminals and captured Taliban militants who had been fighting NATO troops and the Afghan government.
May 30
NATO Chief in Afghanistan Says Pakistan’s Tack on Militants Is Not as Expected
KABUL, Afghanistan — The departing American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan K. McNeill, raised concerns on Thursday that Pakistan had not followed through on promises to tackle militancy on its side of the border, and in recent months had even stopped its cooperation with NATO and Afghan counterparts on border issues.
May 24
KEY CHANGES IN AFGHANISTAN MISSION SAID UNMADE
(RCI) The head of an independent panel of experts that advised the Canadian government on the future of the mission in Afghanistan says that recommended changes haven’t been acted upon. John Manley, a former Liberal Party cabinet minister, says he worries that information about the mission is still not getting out to the population. Mr. Manley told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that the problem is due in part to the tight control over information striven for by the Prime Minister’s Office and that departments or agencies such as foreign affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency are similarly chary about releasing information. However, CBC quotes government sources as saying that those departments are preparing to disclose encouraging signs of progress in Afghanistan.
May 22, 2008
How the “good war” could fail
America needs to lean much harder on Afghanistan’s President Karzai
IN CONVENTIONAL wisdom it is the “good war” that was neglected to wage the bad one in Iraq. Afghanistan’s Taliban regime had provided al-Qaeda with a haven and refused after the attacks of September 11th to give its leaders up. When America invaded there was no twisting of intelligence, as in Iraq, and no great rift at the United Nations. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both say that one reason to pull American forces smartly out of Iraq is to reinforce a war that is not only more justified but also—given enough troops—more winnable.
The conventional view contains some truth. But whatever the respective merits of Iraq and Afghanistan, it needs adjusting in one vital respect. The NATO forces in Afghanistan are too small, but that is not the chief threat to the West’s purposes there. The weakness and corruption of Afghanistan’s elected government matter more. This weakness, moreover, is not the inevitable product of Afghanistan’s poverty and backwardness, even though these things play a part. It is the result of a failure of political will in Kabul and in Washington. Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai is not doing as much as he should to build an effective administration. And George Bush is not doing as much as he could to twist Mr Karzai’s arm.
A war of money as well as bullets
The Americans are learning the tricks of the Great Game quicker than the British, who invented it. But a weak and corrupt Afghan government is hobbling them
… in a counter-insurgency strategy that is summed up by the catchphrase “clear-hold-build”, Afghan security forces, backed up by American power, are showing that they can hold areas cleared by the Americans. In a war that has often gone from bad to worse, this is good news for NATO.
A record number of Western soldiers—232—died in Afghanistan last year, and 2008 is unlikely to be better. Some 8,000 Afghans were killed in 2007, more than 1,500 of them civilians, according to United Nations estimates. Much of the Pushtun belt in the south and east, where the insurgency is most intense, is deemed too dangerous for humanitarian workers. NATO says the Taliban’s increasing resort to suicide-bombs is a sign that they are weakening. Equally, it could be a sign that the insurgents are getting cleverer.
May 15
Pakistan Truce Talks May Boost Afghanistan Attacks, NATO Says
(Bloomberg) — Truce talks between Pakistan’s government and militants in the tribal region may be causing a rise in terrorist attacks in neighboring Afghanistan, NATO said.
The level of extremist violence in eastern Afghanistan last month was 50 percent higher than the same period last year and approached the peak seen during fighting in August 2007, spokesman James Appathurai said yesterday.
“The concern is that deals being struck between the Pakistani government and extremist groups in the tribal areas may be allowing them, the extremists, to have safe havens, rest, reconstitute and then move across the border,” Appathurai told reporters in Brussels.
May 6
NATO in Afghanistan: A Test of the Transatlantic Alliance
April 30
Kabul Attack: Afghani Security Woes or Taliban Incompetence?
(Stratfor) In retrospect however, perhaps the most interesting facet of this attack was not how it drew attention to security problems in Afghanistan, that it happened at a high-profile event, or even that the attack was launched in Kabul. Like the suicide bombing at Bagram Air Base during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s February 2007 visit, those things have all happened before.
Rather, the truly interesting factor in this case, and one that has received little focus from most observers, is that the Taliban proved incapable of capitalizing on a golden opportunity to stage a dramatic and effective operation even though they were given many weeks to prepare for the attack.
April 22
Afghanistan mission ’stumbling toward failure’
NATO and coalition forces are “stumbling toward failure” in Afghanistan and no amount of military success against the Taliban will bring an end to the war without a fundamental change in political policy, a provocative article written by a serving U.S. army officer says.
Bernier needs to control his blunt candour
By all accounts, Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid is ill-suited to the job. As the regional political authority in the Afghan province where Canadian soldiers are fighting, he appears to be more part of the problem than part of the solution, having been linked to - though not formally tried and convicted of - both torture of prisoners and corruption on a considerable scale. The first of these led to an embarrassment for Canadian military and civil authorities - we’re fighting for this? - and the second is the sort of problem that, though endemic and so not often reported upon, can cripple effective nation-building.
27 February
FRANCE WEIGHS AFGHAN REDEPLOYMENT
Le Monde newspaper reports that the French military is considering repositioning its troops in Afghanistan but not to Kandahar, where Canada is hoping for 1,000 NATO reinforcements.
VILNIUS: CANADA GIVES NATO CONDITIONS FOR LONGER AFGHANISTAN MISSION
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay has informed his 25 NATO counterparts of Canada’s [non-negotiable] conditions for prolonging its military deployment in Afghanistan beyond February 2009. The minister told an informal ministerial meeting in Lithuania that the 2,500 Canadian troops deployed in the southern province of Kandahar need 1,000 reinforcements, in addition to helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft. Earlier in the week, opposition Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion said he had been told by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that a vote at the end of March in the House of Commons on extension of the Afghanistan mission would be a question of confidence for his minority government.
February 6
Afghanistan strains NATO ties
(CSM) London - Three major studies published last week concluded that economic and military initiatives to date lack the coherent strategy needed to block the return of the Taliban and Al Qaeda – or stop the burgeoning opium economy. … Many analysts say this year will test whether NATO and its Afghan partners can secure the country and build a functioning state. But the ties that bind NATO are fraying badly – and publicly – over just how much each member state wants to commit to turning Afghanistan around.
February 4
Afghanistan and NATO: Why They Both Matter
Kurt Volker, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs
Remarks to the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung