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Politics : The Donkey's Inn

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To: Mephisto who wrote (3037)	2/27/2002 3:09:11 AM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (5) of 15516

People have an amazing capacity to rationalize policy...from later in the article... But the power of the warlords themselves has been enhanced by the money and weapons that the United States has funneled to regional leaders who have helped Washington to root out Al Qaeda fighters and the former Taliban government. That makes sense; Afghans have been living for over 20 years under the rule that weapons means power and control. We also know that the Afghans and going to be growing opium poppy and money won't be much of an issue once the crops come in. [Though the US perhaps doesn't much care about the opium since that product feeds the European market, while the US market is supplied by opium from Central and South America...though I'm sure that's not the official position.] We also know that there is a large supply of weapons that can be brought to the third world. In fact, the US has opposed any international agreements to restrict that weapons trade. Now earlier in the article.... There is broad agreement that Afghanistan's security can be assured by setting up an Afghan army, a national police force and an effective legal system while encouraging heavily armed and squabbling militias to disband. Why would any one possibly believe that encouraging the militias to disband would have any affect other than generate some comic relief for the warlords? IMO, it's a darn good bet that if you pump weapons into an Afghan national army, those weapons will find their way to the warlords. But ignore that corruption possibility. We know that part of the Afghan culture includes the tradition flipping sides at the first sign of a victor. So those armed national military people, will take their weaponary and join a warlord if their is a hint that a warlord will win in a region. jttmab

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