Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says in an interview for the AP concerning he rapidly deteriorating situation in Afgahnistan:
"There is strong pressure now from the international community to find some solution to Afghanistan because of the fear that this could quickly go south. We haven't lost the war yet, but we could be on our way to doing so."
Not only is the war going south, but so are the Talibs; to Kandahar specifically. AP reports that an American aid worker,Cyd Mizell, and her Afghan driver were abducted in Kandahar on Sunday.
Sarah Chayes, a former reporter for NPR and now a makerr of soap in Kandahar, says the kidnapping "sends a signal. It's like a new chapter in a book." [Christian Science Monitor]
Great, just what we needed a new chapter. The BUsh admistration is also writing a new chapter for this years upcoming "fighting season" preparing to send 3,200 Marines to help out the 28,000 or or so troops already there. This constitutes more troops now in Afghanistan than we had at the beginning of the war.
But, even as we ramp up operations in the forgotten war, Pakistan is also rapidly falling apart. The US is tryign to get out bastard in Rawalpindi to do something about his little Taliban problem, but he's not buying what the US is selling. He;s more interested in goign after "miscreants."
More later.
