Afghan Post: US Strategy, Taliban and Beheadings

Beheadings Raise Doubts That Taliban Have Changed

KABUL, Afghanistan (NY Times) Feb. 23, 2012 — The Taliban took the four men to the main bazaar in a southern Afghanistan district at evening prayer, regional government officials said, denounced them as government spies because they were carrying satellite phones, then beheaded them in front of local residents who had been summoned to watch.

Counting the Dead in Afghanistan

KABUL (The Nation) — Amid the latest news from the war in Afghanistan–battles over Koran burnings, with members of the Afghan parliament calling for “jihad” against Americans and convoluted talks about talks between the United States, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Taliban–it’s important to remember that the war has caused untold casualties among civilians and the innocent, including children. In the last few weeks, there have been important reminders: a brilliant New York Times series of the deaths of dozens of children in a frozen refugee camp near Kabul, a devastating air strike by NATO that slaughtered eight children, and a terrific article in the Washington Post on the somber business of identifying, hauling and burying Afghanistan’s often anonymous civilian victims.

On February 3, the Times began what turned out to be an investigative series by Rod Nordland that depicted horrific conditions at a refugee camp for Afghans driven out of the areas where the war is most intense. The article began:

The following children froze to death in Kabul over the past three weeks after their families had fled war zones in Afghanistan for refugee camps here.

In all, it said, at least twenty-two children died in January and early February alone, and it asked:

After 10 years of a large international presence, comprising about 2,000 aid groups, at least $3.5 billion of humanitarian aid and $58 billion of development assistance, how could children be dying of something as predictable–and manageable–as the cold?

Driven Away by a War, Now Stalked by Winter’s Cold

Capital corruption and luxury in Kabul …

Five star rule-of-law in Afghanistan

KABUL (McClatchy) – Kabul’s luxury Serena Hotel is one of the more swanky sanctuaries in the Afghan capital.

The “Mind, Body and Spirit Spa” offers massages, a heated pool, gym and beauty salon frequented by expats and wealthy Afghans looking for a temporary refuge from the smoggy, traffic-clogged, checkpoint-filled Kabul chaos.

For five months last year, the Serena also served as the headquarters for an American contracting company with no previous experience in Afghanistan that is being paid $15 million by USAID to revamp Afghanistan’s archaic judicial system and convince Afghans that they can trust their government.

The Tetra Tech DPK consultants burned through $300,000 for five months of housing at the Serena Hotel while they waited for their permanent compound to be done.

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Mahmoud Karzai National Bank Corruption and villas in Palm Jumeira, Dubai

Afghans say 41 child suicide bombers rescued

PESHAWAR (AFP/PakTribune) – The Afghan police had rescued 41 children from becoming suicide bombers as they were about to be smuggled across the mountains into Pakistan. Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told a news conference that the children aged six to 11 had been released on February 15 from the clutches of four insurgents in eastern Kunar province.

He told AFP their families “were fooled by terrorists”, who promised to send them to seminaries in Pakistan where they would be “brainwashed” and “prepared for suicide bombings against Afghan and international troops in Afghanistan”.

Taliban buying children for suicide bombers (2009)