I generally support sending more troops to Afghanistan but I'm not entirely sure it will help. My primary hope is that it will avoid some of the most egregious public relations disasters like bombing weddings. The situation will require a lot more than troops though to succeed. The Pakistan/Afghanistan border is porous...but only for one side. Our troops don't get a free pass on the other side. The Taliban has been making more inroads amongst the populace and corruption in the government has worsened things.
But there are also some good news. Opium production is down quite a bit and efforts to market alternative crops (mostly pomegranates) are making headway. Pomegranates from Afghanistan are now starting to be sold across Europe. No word on a US distributor yet but I'm hopeful that will happen. I think that if a successful export market for pomegranates emerges we'll see a precipitous decline in opium production and a lessening of the Taliban's influence. If we are able to stabilize the security situation in the country a bit and develop a consistent import/export system then I think things will go well. But more troops only help with part of that and we need to focus on the rest of it as much as the troop levels if not more. Judah On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 7:24 PM, Bruce Sorge <[email protected]> wrote: > Yeah, OK. I am sure that this has not happened. Here is an idea, how about > Pakistan stops being the Taliban's brothers in arms and lets us go into > their country undeterred and look there? I mean, it is no secret that the > border towns in Pakistan are harboring the Taliban. > Oh yeah, and what about the extra 20K troops that are being sent to > Afghanistan? That's not progress? I believe it is and I believe that this > will help. Afghanistan is a large country and it is going to take more than > what we currently have over there right now to find him, if he is even still > alive. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:284957 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
