Afghanistan Update

AFGHANISTAN UPDATE….I know nobody cares, what with the global financial system collapsing around our ears, but things aren’t going too well in Afghanistan these days. Laura King reports:

A summer of heavy fighting during which Western military leaders had hoped to seize the initiative from Islamic militants has instead revealed an insurgency capable of employing complex new tactics and fighting across a broad swath of Afghanistan.

….”In all, we feel that things are going very, very well for us,” said a Taliban field commander in Kandahar province whose men fought hit-and-run battles with Canadian and British forces during the summer, the season when fighting is most intense. “And what is more, time is on our side.”

….In large swaths of the countryside, insurgents have been able to intimidate local officials into cooperating, in part because President Hamid Karzai’s government is perceived to be corrupt and inefficient. “Once, people would look to the government for justice,” said Abdul Qadoos, a businessman and tribal leader in Kandahar province. “Now they go to the Taliban.”

Read the whole thing for more. The Taliban originally took over Afghanistan in the mid-90s because the central government was widely perceived to be corrupt and inefficient. As long as that continues, the Taliban (or something Taliban-like enough for the difference not to matter) will remain a huge force there. As in Iraq, the key to stability is political reconciliation more than pure military victory.