Saigon 2002
Afghan President Escapes Bullets; 25 Killed by Car Bomb in Kabul
Afghanistan’s halting progress toward stability under its American-backed government was jolted severely today when a uniformed gunman on the streets of Kandahar narrowly failed in an assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and a huge car bomb in the heart of Kabul killed at least 25 people and critically wounded dozens of others.
Hamid Karzai is a dead man walking. Sooner or later somebody is going to get him, because we don’t control enough of the country. We could have, but George is not into nation-building. We still could, if we weren’t massing the troops for some future action in Iraq. Kabul is Saigon, updated for a new century and a new enemy. Same old dumbass government. We control the city, barely, but wolves roam the countryside. We make the correct noises, yes
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz said in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington that expanding the international force would benefit Afghanistan, but that other countries would have to shoulder the burden.
but we make it obvious that when it comes down to it, it’s not a job we’re interested in. We punish, we don’t rehabilitate.
Killing the bad guys is an important part of the WoT. It’s not the most important part. Taking out rogue states is an important part of the WoT. It’s not the most important part. The most important part is giving the residents of the nations we fight cover while they develop a stable democratic society. It’s not the fun part, or the easy part and it’s not the part that makes for great video, so the government tries to do as little as possible to save face, and the media ignore it until things start blowing up. Afghanistan is not getting better. The Taliban have re-grouped and are starting to strike back. I won’t be surprised if Karzai dies on the 9th, a year to the day after Osama’s goons killed the last leader that threatened them. If history is any guide, we should realize one thing right now. The Bush family knows how to win battles, but they suck at winning wars. George’s dad betrayed the Kurds of Northern Iraq when they rose up against Saddam, and his boy George looks to be treading that same road in regard to the Afghanis.
If, ten years hence, the women of Afghanistan are back to burkas and summary executions at the hands of religious fanatics, it will be because of the inaction of this administration today, and they will curse our names, and tell their children that Americans are feckless cowards.
And they’ll be right.
