[Middle East Times, Egypt]

Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, France

Nations With Troops in Afghanistan

'Strive to Ignore Reality'

"The situation on the ground bears an odd resemblance to the situation in 1980. Just like the Red Army back then, NATO is beginning to get bogged down …"

By Jean-Claude Kiefer

Translated By Sandrine Ageorges

August 8, 2007

France - Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace - Home Page (French)

The nations that have dispatched soldiers to Afghanistan strive to ignore reality. Nevertheless, the situation worsens day after day in this nation which has officially been renamed an "Islamic" republic. The Afghan expedition under NATO command, which was originally supposed to be a peacekeeping operation as defined by the Bonn Agreement  in December 2001, has now become a true guerilla war.

Three years ago with strong air support, a small number of elite troops - mostly American - stalked al-Qaeda Jihadists in the mountains, while troops of the assistance force [International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF] patrolled cities, opened health clinics, swept mines from the few roads that existed or worked on thousands of engineering tasks. Today, insecurity is everywhere. Attacks and skirmishes are daily occurrences and one hostage-taking follows another. And overall, NATO takes part in military operations and issues reports heavy with discussion on dozens of Taliban dead; and sometimes - more and more often - of innocent civilian deaths in terms of "collateral damage."

Besides, what can 35,000 men do - even backed by 40,000 Afghan soldiers - when confronted with a reconstituted rebellion consisting of "old" and "new" Taliban? And furthermore, most of the Westerners are not soldiers. Confronted by a reluctant public - as is the case in Germany - governments have stationed their troops inside secure camps. Not without displeasure, Russian newspapers have noted that the situation on the ground bears an odd resemblance to the situation in 1980. Just like the Red Army did back then, NATO is beginning to get bogged down …

Is the United-States aware of the problem? It's true that Afghanistan, long overshadowed by Iraq, has made a mild comeback on the American political scene. But is a new direction in the offing?

Last weekend, George W. Bush essentially scolded the unfortunate Hamid Karzai, whose authority hardly goes beyond the walls of the Presidential Palace in Kabul. Washington knows that committing itself further in Afghanistan is unrealistic. The entire region is in turmoil. Confronted by Islamism, Musharraf’s Pakistan is careful not to intervene in the tribal areas - the rear-guard bases of the Taliban - while from time to time pledging to cooperate with anti-terror operations. Iran, Afghanistan's other neighbor, is ambiguous.

As for the European troops, they still have plenty of time to wonder what they're doing in this mess. And to contemplate the vast opium field, the destruction of which NATO has forbidden to avoid inciting the peasants to rejoin the rebellion. The harvest in 2007, says one, will beat all previous records …

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