Published December 28th, 2008 by Future Atlas
The Taliban on the March
The Taliban insurgency continues to hold the momentum in Afghanistan.
The AP reports that they are setting up shadow governmental structures within 30 miles of Kabul, increasingly replacing those of the official, Western-backed government.
US officials quotes in the article downplay this and ascribe Taliban success to intimidation, but a tribal elder in one province asserts that 90% of the population of the region support the insurgents.
To counter the Taliban, the US and the Afghan government are planning to arm local militias, in hopes of replicating some of the success of that strategy in Iraq.
But, the New York Times notes, “the plan is causing deep unease among many Afghans, who fear that Pashtun-dominated militias could get out of control, terrorize local populations and turn against the government.”
And a Taliban commander suggested to the Times “that the government militias would find it hard to put down roots in the area, if only because the Taliban had already done so. ‘We are living in the districts, in the villages — we are not living in the mountains. The people are with us.’”
The upshot is that the neglect of Afghanistan by the Bush administration may have set up Obama to be LBJ: firmly pledged to get deeper into a deteriorating situation.