Afghan Warlords, Formerly Backed By the CIA, Now Turn Their Guns On U.S. Troops

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A previous comment raised an interesting point about how the Afghan poppy production exploded after the coalition ivasion, and how the Taliban had slowed it down to a trickle. I saw a UK Guardian article which showed that the British army was buying poppies from the farmers themselves.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/27/afghanistan.declanwalsh
This article here says the only Taliban fighters out there are the ones airlifted out of Afghanistan. Says some more interesting things, including some stuff about how the reports a month back about Taliban infiltrating villages are unfounded, according to the Afghan police.
http://warofillusions.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/new-blood-for-afghanistan-a-second-chapter/

S., of NY 7:58AM July 15, 2008

They always backed up the groups that could probide them with benefits without thinking of probable results, bad or good. It is possible that one day Japan will be the next instance like Taliban. It is very normal.

Yingtong Zhong 3:49AM July 15, 2008

there are many of us here in the USA who believe that, sooner than you think, the good, decent, honest, Christian people of the USA will have to fight "our own military"...
It's good to study the successes of these people in Afghanistan and Iraq...their determination and self-sacrifice seem to be holding ground in the face of overwhelming TECHNOLOGY in the hands of soldiers whose heart just isn't in the fight...

my name yeah right of AL 5:37PM July 14, 2008

The head of the Mehsud tribe in NWFP, Abdullah Mehsud was captured by the Northern Alliance and transferred to Guantanamo bay. During that war, as the Northern Alliance gained ground, the former Taliban turned in Pakistani visitors (who share the culture) as terrorists. Abdullah Mehsud was tortured, mistreated before being released because there was absolutely no evidence linking him to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. After being released however, Abdullah Mehsud vowed to fight the American military and the Afghan national army, which he did till his death. The Mehsud tribe is amongst the most powerful tribe, which turned against the Coalition. Over 1200 Pakistani soldiers have died fighting the Mehsuds. The Coalition, the Afghan national army, and the Pakistani army have suffered major loses because of the mistreatment of one guy who had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda or Taliban.
Finally, I'm glad that there is one news sources that does not refer to all Anti-Coalition forces in Pakistan/Afghanistan as Taliban. It is way, way more complicated. It is important to remember that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar fought the Taliban between the withdrawl of the Soviet Union and 2001.

Kaffee of NY 1:17PM July 14, 2008

one might consider that in that one year that there was a reduction in the production of opium was because there had been a bumper crop the year before; thus leading to an oversupply. (law of supply and demand; the same thing happend in the "golden triangle" in the aftermath of the precipitate withdrawl of u.s. troops in 1972. all of a sudden to much stuff available, icluding some 4,000 kilos of #1 double uoglobe heroin on the shelves; heroin does not have a long shelf life. oh, and i wonder where the acetic anhydride comes from - if indeed, heroin is manufactured IN afghanistan. can the taliban, et all of the other pathan (i prefer the old spelling al la rudyard k.) referred to above pay their new recruit upwards of three times as much as the kabul regime?

wmackem of VA 11:28AM July 14, 2008

I agree with Andy. I also spent over a year in the NWF in the mid-60's. Underestimating the the determination and passion of the Pashtuns and others in the area was a serious mistake by the administration. The Iraq diversion was dangerously foolish and we are now paying the price.

Norm of TX 9:23AM July 14, 2008

The Afghans have kicked out every foreign invader for the past 2000 years. The U.S. "coalition" is just the next in a long line.
Having lived in the NWF for over a year back in the 60's, I cringed when the Bushies added Iraq to their invasion list. They already had their hands more than full by entering Afghanistan. The total ignorance of the "intelligentsia" around Bush is frightening...as we have seen for the past 8 years!!

Andy of FL 6:41AM July 14, 2008

"Indeed, along with a smattering of Afghan tribal groups, Pakistani extremists, and drug kingpins, two of the most dangerous players are violent Afghan Islamists named Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, according to U.S. officials."
One sentence, so many lies and errors.
Pakistanis are extremists because they don't trust their new friend, the US, not to stab them in the back. The US has threatened to bomb its new pal.
The Taliban had reduced drugs to a trickle, but the US invasion led to "drug kingpins" again. Somehow, when the US butts in, drugs increase.
"violent Afghan Islamists" What's not to like about that? Were they violent before those "violent American Christists" invaded their country and violently killed so many children?
And why are those violent Americans in Afghanistan?

Yrjo Hakonen of AL 9:02PM July 13, 2008

February 22nd 2007
One of the most ridiculous aspects of corporate media propaganda and imperialism’s politicians and Military men’s argument is that they start from the present situation or from the middle of an event or a process. For instance, Iraq’s is that we have to secure this country before we leave it. But, they do not say why this country became insecure in the first place; what happened in the beginning and why are they presently stuck there? Who installed Saddam and empowered his regime?
In the case of Afghanistan, they argue: we went there to help those people to have a peaceful and better life. But, they would never tell you what had happened in the beginning, at the time when the same powers did everything to destroy a progressive government which for the first time in the history of a backwarded country – with no history of any kind of election – did good things for the people. A government which was attacked by imperialist and reactionary forces six months before the Soviets were invited in 1979 to assist them. A government which resisted all out assault and the tricks of the American imperialism and other reactionary forces, for more than 2 years after the departure of the Soviet forces in 1989.
By this kind of argument these institutions underestimate the intelligence and memory of the society and hence insult the people.
From:http://democracyandsocialism.com/InBrief.html

harry of NY 5:47PM July 13, 2008

The Bush administration and the Republican Party are hell bent on forcing their conservative morals on everyone they can. They preach about "right to life" but they engage the American people in murdering hundreds of thousands of people, including Americans, and support capital punishment. They preach about a smaller government but they expand the buracacy of our mismanaged government in the name of protecting America. They tell you they want to lower our taxes. But they don't tell you that the lost revenue will create an unmanagable deficit which is ruining the value of the American currency and our debt to other countries. They tell us we are not in a recession but the dollar has less than half the buying power it had six years ago. Americans should declare the Republican Party an enemy of the US because of the destruction it's causing. The Republicans spend trillions of dollars supporting their evil foreign policies of corruption around the world when they should spend those trillions of dollars creating alternative energy sources so we could stop funding the oil rich militant countries that want to harm Americans, socialized medicine to shop runaway medical costs and welfare for Americans who worked their whole life only to retire into poverty because of inflation, not taxes. We need a political party that will run America not like a business or a war machine but more like a family where we all help each other to create a better life for everyone.

Laura N of FL 11:01AM July 13, 2008