"Liberated" Afghanistan, Bush's great success story

From Is Afghanistan Turning into Another Iraq? by S. Amjad Hussain New America Media/Pakistan Link 06/19/06:

The writ of the [national Afghan] government is severely limited and is for all practical purposes confined to the capital Kabul and its environs and to a lesser degree in some of the major urban centers of the country. The climate of uncertainty where loyalties are at best temporary and prone to shifts has been a perfect milieu for the Taliban resurgence.

Reliable Afghan hands, businessmen and journalists in Peshawar, the Pakistani frontier town, paint a discouraging picture of a losing war against the Taliban. At this time the Taliban insurgents have an almost free run of many of the southern provinces including Helmund, Kandahar, Zabul, Ghazni and Paktika. Even the birthplace of President Hamid Karzai, the town of Panjwai near Kandahar, is dominated by the insurgents. The situation in the province of Uruzgan is typical of the situation in most of the south.

Just a year ago the province was in firm control of Hamid Karzai’s supporters but not any more. According to reports reaching Peshawar and collaborated by a recent report in the New York Times, the Taliban are showing increased presence, at times in full public view, in most of the province. Even the governor Moulvi Abdul Hakim Munib admits to the deteriorating conditions. The people either through intimidation of the insurgents or because of tribal loyalties (or both) pay lip-service to the government and instead help the insurgents. Added to the mix is also the rising resentment of the occupation.

On a recent visit to the area the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan General Karl Eikenberry found this out for himself. During the day the people, the army and the provincial officials act as if they are loyal to Kabul but at sunset the façade disappears and insurgents call the shots. (my emphasis)

You're doing a heckuva job there, Rummy and Dubya!

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