Communicating Arts - Main Web SiteThe title of this Al Jazeera piece released today: "Afghans react to news of U.S. 'surge'" (YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uetz17naVQ&feature=user.
By way of an alternative to the expansion of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, one speaker calls for the strengthening of Afghani forces, which I think not a bad idea. From either side, Afghani or Pakistani, militant violence would seem to spread where corrupt or weak government proves incapable of policing remote regions and borderlands.
Whatever the cause articulated, there's nothing administratively legitimate about the rounds of assassination and vendetta (plus the crude application of threat and violence intended to intimidate traditional village social structures) meant to secure the institution of Taliban "shadow governments".
"After a couple of hours, we resumed our journey, traveling down a mostly empty road. And that is when it struck me: there was no evidence, anywhere, of the military operation that had made the news. There were no Pakistani soldiers, no trucks, no tanks. Nothing."
Journalist Dexter Filkins' note on driving into a "controlled area" in Pakistan, under the cover of traditional garb and over the course of many hours, and finding no evidence of a military presence should ring clear.
1. Khodr, Zeina. "Afghans react to news of U.S. 'surge'". Al Jazeera English, September 10, 2008.
2. Filkens, Dexter. "Right at the Edge." The New York Times Magazine, September 5, 2008.
Correspondence: James S. Oppenheim
Comments