It looks grim in Afghanistan. Bush and NATO have underestimated the Taliban. They are not only tough as nails, but obsessed with religious fervour. Unfortunately, they will not give up and are willing to die for their obsession.
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To actually win and create a democracy there, we would have to kill them all. That is a large number of 'holy warriers'.
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That Westerners cheat and fill their pockets in that country does not help our cause at all.
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Over Half of Afghanistan under Taliban Control
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Six years ago coalition forces headed into Afghanistan to eradicate the Taliban. Now an international think tank says more than half of the country is under the Taliban's thumb. Meanwhile, an Oxfam report sharply criticized US-led development efforts in the region.
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In war-torn Afghanistan, the Taliban is gaining ground again as it continues its insurgency. A report released Wednesday by the Senlis Council, an international security and development policy think tank, concludes that more than half the entire country is now under Taliban control.
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The report was released on the same day as an Oxfam assessment critical of the spending efforts inside Afghanistan by Western powers. "As in Iraq," the report claims, "too much aid is absorbed by profits of companies and subcontractors, on non-Afghan resources and on high expatriate salaries and living costs."
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Both reports are grim. Oxfam notes that "the absence of community participation, or association with the military, has led to projects which are unsuitable, unused or targeted by militants." And the Senlis report concludes that "it is a sad indictment of the current state of Afghanistan that the question now appears to be not if the Taliban will return to Kabul, but when this will happen and in what form."
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,518937,00.html
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senlis_Council