Bush and the Republicans decided invading Iraq – the people who did NOT attack us – was more important than stabilizing Afghanistan – the people who DID attack us. So now the Taliban is returning to Afghanistan.
Disembowelled, then torn apart: The price of daring to teach girls
The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.
The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls.
Mr Halim was one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at Ghazni, a strategic point on the routes from Kabul to the south and east which has become the scene of fierce clashes between the Taliban and US and Afghan forces.
I doubt that the Taliban was ever really gone in the first place; the problem with such inside groups is that they just blend into the rest of the population, so we assumed we’d defeated them.
I was hearing from the beginning of our occupation of Afghanistan, from friends who have contacts in the area, the the US was only bothering to control a small area around the capitol and the rest was being left to the various warlords. It seems to have been much more important to this administration to attack Iraq than to do anything positive o stabilize Afghanistan. Or, for that matter, capturing Osama bin Laden, the reason we were there in the first place. Why haven’t we managed to dispose of him yet?
This is old news. The taliban were out of the picture for maybe 6 months.
Besides, the war in Afghanistan was never about attacking the people who attacked us (Dick Cheney hasn’t been attacked yet, as far as I know) it was about breaking the contract between the Taliban and the Bridas Corporation at the request of Unocal officials and establishing permanent military bases in the area to guard the planned pipeline.
but, don’t take my word on it, start here
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120406P.shtml