Afghan town's despair as Nato eyes endgame

[MDresden]

Just outside Kabul, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville finds Afghans living under the shadow of Taliban guns, and looking far from ready to manage without foreign help.

It is only an hour's drive from Kabul, but the town of Charikar feels like another world.

People can easily go about their everyday business. The bazaar is busy and there's plenty to buy.

Here they can walk the streets without too much trouble.
Nato-trained Afghan police are on patrol, and the hope is that in this and a few other provinces, they'll soon be able to stand alone. But in the mountains outside the town, it's another matter. A 10-minute drive from the bazaar and it soon becomes too dangerous to go any further.


'Not ready'

On the other side of the hillside lies the Ghorband Valley, and there the insurgents are in control.
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There were no drugs during the mujahideen - from the day Karzai took over, there are drugs in Afghanistan”

Mohammed Akbar Charikar resident

Despite a police escort - they are armed to the teeth - this is the end of the road. "From the security point of view this location is problematic but there is more danger further down," said Haji Rohuall, a member of the provincial council. He's sceptical about the handover of security from Nato-led troops to Afghan forces. "The police don't have enough resources," he said. "Transferring power to Afghans in six years will be difficult, never mind six months, because our forces are not ready.

[faye]

if afghanistan had not been invaded the scene in afghanistan would be completely different.
if the people were not happy with being ruled by taliban they may have gotten rid of them by their own free will. now the country is riddled with depleted uranium (genocide), graves of innocent people and an abundance of weapons.
this is some of what you will be leaving behind, dresden.

[MDresden]

I'm also learning that when we leave, if the Afghans don't protect their own and let Taliban rule them, the Taliban will be surgically removed.

[MDresden]

Killed.

[MDresden]

I'm sure we gotta give the Afghans a fighting chance before we come in with covert ops. [Just a guess.]

[MDresden]

It's my idea to believe, that like the Native Americans (we actually have a lot of politics mirrored on their beliefs) the stronger your enemy appears the stronger you are. And if you take a second to understand that...things begin to unravel.

[MDresden]

Do you even know what your talking about?

I've got a clue yes...but of course I'm not one that makes policies...just a soldier.

[Pashtun_Ultranationalist]

Dresden, the Pakis are playing you for a fool. I think you should send your Special OPs to GHQ in Rawalpindi not Afghanistan.

[faye]

don't you think they are already in pakistan?

[MDresden]

Faye, that's the other side of the issue in my mind. Taliban is a target. We drone attack parts of Pakistan after finding Taliban in Pakistan.

The idea that the Taliban is a target makes sense. However, the length of time doesn't. I believe that maybe we are hoping over time the Taliban and its future members will think things out and see how easily it is for us to wipe them out and re-consider.

So, with that in mind we do have their lifes in mind...but...once they make the descision to be Taliban...I think that's the time where they are marked or need an intervention.

[faye]

it's none of your effing business, what people do in afghanistan. your government was offered bin laden if they produced proof of obls guilt. they still haven't produced it!!! the western countries all have a history of oppression and stealing of others countries. it is not that long ago that the native people and women got full rights for voting and equality in usa and australia. other countries need to work their own stuff out like we did. don't you get that, the hypocrisy of thinking it is ok, as a country that believes in democracy to poison a country with toxic pollution and kill people in their own land to force them to become democratic????????
you are just infested and brainwashed with a killer mentality, mdresden.

[MDresden]

What you don't understand is...that was probably a ploy by Pakistan to undercover it's own operatives that are probably within Taliban to secure Taliban's future after OBL's gone.


Notice how we finally just went in ourselves.

If we or they divulged information, it would remove the covert-ness of it all.

[faye]

apparently mossad xe/blackwater, raw and cia are all operating in pakistan to destabilise it. now, how would they do that? perhaps bomb attacks against shias, then bomb attacks against sunnis, pretend taliban attacks, find osama bin laden there and invade. i don't know, you're the expert, you tell me what you would do to destabilise pakistan and maybe keep afghanistan destabilised at the same time so there are excuses to stay there?? your multinationals still have to pillage the goodies from the soil in afghanistan. you can't leave yet.
i don't think pakistan is just an innocent bystander, by the way but i think american manipulators want to control it.

[MDresden]

I don't think we ever want to destabilize a region. Destabilizing allows for a lot of wild cards and hence no "control."

As far as rooting out Taliban in Pakistan...that's either drone attacks or I'm guessing some kind of covert mission.

[faye]

duuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!