Afghanistan Now

President Bush touts how Iraq is the center of terrorism. He did manage to briefly mention Afghanistan during his speech to the Military Officers Association of America.


"Under the rule of the Taliban and Al Qaida, Afghanistan was a totalitarian nightmare, a land where women were imprisoned in their homes, men were beaten for missing prayer meetings, girls could not go to school, and children were forbidden the smallest pleasures, like flying kites."

The reality is quite different than Bush's latest tales of spin. Afghanistan produces most of the opium poppies in the world. This plant is used to create heroin. Afghan villagers have tried to fight drug dealers and suffered dearly. In 2002, Colin Powell and the Afghan government asked for more peacekeepers. Donald Rumsfeld nixed the idea. Rumsfeld only gave 8,000 American troops. The fact that Afghanistan served as the base of operations for Osama bin Laden was not important. Former administration terrorism advisor Richard Clarke paints a more chilling picture.

"Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq," Clarke told 60 Minutes. "And we all said ... no, no. Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan. We need to bomb Afghanistan. And Rumsfeld said there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan. And there are lots of good targets in Iraq. I said, 'Well, there are lots of good targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with it.

The beatings that by virtue police that Bush spoke of was performed by members of the Vice and Virtue Ministry. President Hamid Karzai plans to make the ministry operational again.

Taliban forces are now moving back over from the Pakistan border. The administration's blind eye towards Pakistan's nuclear program has giving them nothing in return. Bush's response to the increase Islamic fundamentalism and violence to give up on the Southern region of Afaghanistan.

A report by Emmanuel Reinert found that the United States and U.K. have not done enough to deal with poverty in Afghanistan.

``The Taliban has de facto military control of half of Afghanistan, as well as strong psychological control,'' Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of the council, told reporters in London. ``Because the Taliban is helping ordinary people, support for them is growing.''

Reinert states that children are starving because of the level of poverty. He fears that the Afghan people will support the Taliban because of money to be made working the poppy fields. (The country produces 92% of all opium.) Which in turn will make the Taliban richer and more powerful. Afghanistan will be like it was before September 11th if there isn't a radical change in U.S. policy.