On Wednesday, a suicide bomber hit an Aghan mosque holding a commemoration for a slain cleric who had opposed the Taliban. Over 30 were killed and scores injured.
“The reports out of Afghanistan are extremely worrying,” says Juan Cole. “It seems clear that the Taliban have learned from observing events in Iraq, and are developing a similar strategy of targetted bombings to destabilize the country and force US troops out.”
In switching his attention from Afghanistan to Iraq so abruptly in November, 2001, Bush opened a second front. Second fronts are always problematic, and sometimes they are fatal.
Stephen Biddle’s essay on the “Grand Strategy” of the Bush Administration is well worth downloading in pdf and reading carefully … [In] a blogging-style “shorter Biddle” … “Bush hasn’t said who the enemy is or how we could get at him without shooting ourselves in the foot big time.”
of Iraq be next? I wonder if the Iraqi climate will support poppy fields.
OMG…. great retort, Ed…. and it so happens I’ve been collecting info on the burgeoning drug trade in Iraq. Very serious, growing problem. Just haven’t had a chance to write it up. (If anyone else wants to do this story, let me know.)
I didn’t even know it was an actual problem in Iraq. Could it be the media’s reluctance to report it?
Nah.
by Jim Kouri, CPP
An independent United Nations body monitoring global drug proliferation today expressed concern that Iraq was emerging as a transit point for narcotics originating in Afghanistan and on their way to Asia and Europe.
Hamid Ghodse, President of the International Narcotics Control Board, said the pattern was similar to what the panel had observed in post-conflict situations elsewhere.
“Whether it is due to war or disaster, weakening of border controls and security infrastructure make countries into convenient logistic and transit points, not only for international terrorists and militants but also for drug traffickers,” Prof. Ghodse said at a press briefing in Vienna, where the Board is meeting for its eighty-third session. … more
In opening the second front, he was simply following the PNAC outline in “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” which states that America should:
I’m sure they also felt that one of the benefits of controlling both Iraq and Afghanistan would be that we would then have Iran surrounded. Of course, we have failed to “decisively win” anything, and failed to create any kind of “security environment” in either country.
Either way, to say that invading and controlling other countries is a defensive move is horrifyingly fascistic, IMHO.
Not to be totally in tin hat territory but, I wonder where the profits go? I have a hazy memory of the contra mess and the cia drug money/arms dealing mess so it would be really interesting to keep an eye on the money somehow.