Node Of Evil - Fair And Balanced Reporting

Thursday, April 17, 2003

 
Robert Fisk is particularly interesting today. His article ends:


'It's easy for a reporter to predict doom, especially after a brutal war that lacked all international legitimacy. But catastrophe usually waits for optimists in the Middle East, especially for false optimists who invade oil-rich nations with ideological excuses and high-flown moral claims and accusations, such as weapons of mass destruction, which are still unproved. So I'll make an awful prediction. That America's war of "liberation" is over. Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is about to begin. In other words, the real and frightening story starts now.'


Yesterday's print edition of the Los Angeles Times had an interesting story about U.S. "minibases" in Afghanistan. These military bases consist of both combat troops and humanitarian assistance forces. U.S. troops continue to establish these bases as the realization sets in that there's a huge problems with the warlords and their armed bands. The British troops are setting up another "minibase" in northern Afghanistan to deal with the threat posed by warlords in the region. On NPR this morning, one analyst referred to Hamid Karzai as the "mayor of Kabul" due to the fact that outside Kabul the government of Afghanistan has little influence. As millitary operations evolve into "mopup" operations that seem to expand rather than contract, I'm getting a funny feeling that U.S. forces are now mired for at least 3 to 5 years in the region. If they do leave large-scale instability may erupt in both Afghanistan and Iraq, possibly leading to institutional anarchy on the level of Somalia.


Andrew 10:47 AM : |

---