Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Good Morning, Vietnamistan!

http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan05222007.html
The Afghan Quagmire:
Looking More and More Like Vietnam
By CONN HALLINAN
The longer the U.S. and NATO stay in Afghanistan, the more the place
is
looking like Vietnam:
*Body counts. Remember when the U.S. used to claim things like "250
Vietcong" killed during a firefight, most of whom turned out to be
civilians? On April 27 the U.S said "more than 130 Taliban" were
killed
after Special Forces called in air strikes during a two-day battle in
western Afghanistan. Except local residents said there were no Taliban
in the village and that the dead included many women and children.
With
U.S. and NATO forces relying more and more on air power, large numbers
of civilian casualties are inevitable.
*Drugs. With the help of the CIA, the U.S.-supported regime in South
Vietnam and Laos shipped opium from Laos to Thailand, making the
Vietnam War ground zero in the heroin epidemic that gripped Europe and
the U.S in the late '60s and early '70s. For details see "The Politics
of Heroin in Southeast Asia," and Frontline's "Guns, Drugs and the
CIA." Well, 2006 was a banner year for opium production in Afghanistan
and, according to an investigation by the Financial Times, Afghan
government claims that it had eradicated 21,000 hectares of poppies in
Kandahar and Helmand provinces "bore little resemblance to reality."
Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium.
*Meaningless battles. Remember the "critical" battles at Khe Sanh and
"Hamburger Hill," where hundreds of Americans and thousands of
Vietnamese died? Six weeks after the battles ended, the Vietnamese
reclaimed them, and the "critical" clashes disappeared into esoteric
military history. The U.S. has been battling to pacify the Tora Bora
region of Eastern Afghanistan, the supposed hiding place of Osama bin
Ladin. The Russians tried to tame Tora Bora as well, and recently Gen.
Victor Yermakov (Ret.), who commanded the Soviet's 40th Army,
commented
that he "was very impressed by the Americans. Gaining control of Tora
Bora is a great accomplishment. I should know. I did it three times.
Unfortunately, the second I turned my back on the place, I needed to
conquer it again. It is the same now. It will never change."
The rising toll of civilian deaths and the friction created by the
on-going occupation led the upper house of the Afghan parliament to
demand that the government open ceasefire talks with the Taliban.
According to the Independent, the Karazi government has already
reached
an informal agreement with the insurgent leader and former U.S. ally,
Gulbuddin Hikmatayar, that has kept Kabul free from suicide bombers
for
the past several months.
Meanwhile, a number of NATO members are having second thoughts about
the Afghan adventure. A recent Der Spiegel poll indicates that 57
percent of Germans want to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Opposition is also on the rise in Canada, where the Conservative
government recently beat back a resolution to withdraw troops by
150-134. Canada has suffered more than 50 deaths in Afghanistan-a
larger percentage than any other NATO country-and polls indicate
increasing unrest among voters.
Most of the Canadians have been killed by roadside bombs. "It costs a
couple of hundred dollars for a bomb," says Sunil Ram, a professor at
the American Military University in West Virginia, "but they can knock
out a $3 million or $4 million vehicle, and kill troops that cost
millions of dollars to train."
Which brings to mind a line about Afghanistan from Kipling's
"Arithmetic of the Frontier":
    A scrimmage in a border station-
    A canter down some dark defile-
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail*--
    (*A cheap rifle)
It's time to leave.
[Conn Hallinan is an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, a winner of
a
Project Censored Award, and did his PhD dissertation on the history of
insurrectionary organizations in Ireland.]

appare irrilevante, perderci tempo č stupido.
Infatti.  La trovo una cosa molto ma molto ipocrita. (Persio)

 -Stefano
_" Conn Hallinan is an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, a winner of a
Project Censored Award, and did his PhD dissertation on the history of ..."
_Oltre che pubblicare nelle latrine i tuoi luoghi di ritrovo, con tanto di
indirizzo, quale sono le tue qualifiche zoccolona ?...Continui coi tuoi
bboconotti, che vai distribbuendo lungo la statale adriatica, marcando i
malcapitati di herpes zoster...???
G.