Frontline Afghanistan

there are simply not enough NATO boots on the ground to dominate and until there are, NATO cannot shape the battlefield that is Afghanistan in its favour. The Afghans see this all the time, when our forces are in their village one day promising them the earth, while the next day it’s the Taliban giving them a gypsies’ warning as to the consequences of cooperating with the infidel.

How can you possibly have workers trying to build new schools and hospitals when they are being either murdered or intimidated on a daily basis because there is no guaranteed regular protection for them – either from foreigners or their fellow countrymen in the Afghan Police and Army

The buzz word at this present time in Afghanistan is reconstruction – via our PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams). All very laudable, but how can our military support local civilians in their efforts to stop growing opium poppy when it pays so well compared to what we have

CIA was asked recently to comment upon Ahmed Karzai’s activities with them he said ‘Virtually every significant Afghan figure has had brushes with the drug trade … If you are looking for Mother Teresa she doesn’t live in Afghanistan.

Ahmed Karzai has been on the payroll of the CIA’s SOG (Special Operations Group) for some eight years – giving him a lifetime get-out-of-jail card for services rendered. His role apparently has been to recruit a paramilitary force that operates in conjunction with the CIA in and around the Kandahar area. Known as the Kandahar Strike Force, this unit ironically operates out of the former home of the Taliban’s founder, Mohammed Omar – which really must wind up the local branch of the Taliban. Maybe

President Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, whose name has constantly been linked to drug trafficking. And yet the President and his western backers seemingly do nothing to address the problem