Afghanistan SITREP

Captain's Quarters has an interesting take on what's going on in AFG.

He's linking from here.

My take: its been all but a given in the media and the liberal blogosphere that the Taliban and AQ have been making some kind of comeback. When I google " resurgent Taliban" I get 6,030 hits. I haven't been buying this at all. We've beaten AQ and the TB.

Personally, I think the tipping point was Summer 2003 when the TB murdered a bunch of clerics in Kandahar (the spiritual center of gravity for the TB) who had issued fatwah's supporting the Karzai gov't. One cleric's family ended up getting brutally murdered. After that point, I think many Afghanis had enough with the TB. (I'll search for some links on this later.) I think the final nail in the coffin was the recent elections in AFG.

The liberal blogosphere ought to be paying more attention to what's really happening in AFG. They've been blinded by their dislike for Bush, and have gotten in the business of wishing for bad results. However, I think we're doing well.

We've still got a long way to go. Opium, warlords, infrastructure, and many other problems still remain. But, the Afghanis are better off than they were on Sept 10, 2001.

I've been thinking about posting of the AFG opium problem. More to follow.

***Note: And by liberal blogosphere, I mean myself as well. My politics are more or less left of center, and I don't really believe in the "liberal media". I believe in the lazy media. AFG just isn't sexy enough to cover so its easier to repeat "resurgent taliban" over and over again than to do some real reporting. The Christian Science Monitor does some good reporting from South Asia. Worth a look.