Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Violence spreads across Afghanistan

Chris Sands, whose dispatches from Afghanistan have been unmatched in their hard-hitting truths, writes in today's (tomorrow's!) Independent:

Bloodshed is spreading across Afghanistan, warn aid workers

Bloodshed is spreading to previously stable provinces of Afghanistan, threatening aid efforts as humanitarian workers contend with growing numbers of attacks from insurgents and criminals.

Sands report goes on to put the lie to Canadian government and military officials' pronouncements that the security situation is improving in Afghanistan:
Aid workers ... fear it is pushing disgruntled Afghans into the hands of the Taliban and adding fuel to a guerrilla war that now rages across much of the country.

A series of UN "security accessibility maps" obtained by The Independent paint the same picture, showing areas considered to be in the top danger category spreading across the country in the past year.
...almost all of Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan is regarded as an extreme risk/hostile environment... Meanwhile, two extreme-risk areas now sit on the fringes of Kabul province, and a high-risk area even exists inside its boundaries.

...Afghans throughout the country often complain they have not received the aid they expected after the US-led invasion. As a result, some say they will turn to crime or join the Taliban...

1 comment:

Al_Ar_Bee said...

The issue becomes: How do we penetrate the corporate mentality of our government in order to get them to understand that we don't want our military involved in this bloodletting?

Representative democracy assumes some level of responsiveness to the wishes of the citizenry. Those who stalk the corporate boardrooms on the other hand are expected to behave like autocrates who know better than their inferiors. The present government is characterized by their inability to distinguish the difference between running their corporations and running our country.

Being Prime Minister is not the same as being the boss for the PM's role is to "minister unto the needs of the people." Mr Harper should understand that he is the prime servant of the people not the prime person in the country.

So how do we make the Prime Minister and his disciplined gang understand that the people want OUT!