NATO's Afghan quagmire

While the civil war created by the U.S. in Iraq is worsening day by day, the NATO alliance is preparing to sink ever deeper into another mess called Afghanistan.

Some people feel Iraq and Afghanistan are different cases. They argue that somehow the U.S. and its allies were justified in attacking Afghanistan because the Taliban shielded Al Qaeda. The society concept of the Taliban was indeed Medieval backwardness and the country harbored a couple of training camps, but the U.S. and later on NATO intervention didn't solve a thing. The Taliban had largely eradicated opium production, while Afghanistan is now once again, under the noses of NATO, a large producer.

The Western countries promised a better society, democracy, education, women's liberation and so on; but Afghanistan is once again sinking back into the morass. Like its infamous cousin in Baghdad's Green Zone, the government of Hamid Karzai only rules in parts of Kabul and has no control whatsoever in other parts of the country.

The drug trade accounts for a third of the economy and permeates the higher levels of government, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime wrote in a report. It says 2006 saw opium cultivation rise by 60% and production by 50%. (BBC News: Warning over Afghan drug economy)

Today, the NATO summit in Riga decided to lift engagement restrictions, so more troops could be deployed in combat. This is exactly the wrong decision! The U.S. and the U.K. are blamed for the mess in Iraq; all NATO member countries will be blamed for the mess in Afghanistan. NATO should leave Afghanistan. It is not the absence, but the presence of NATO troops which is fueling a resurgence of the Taliban. (CNN: NATO signals Afghan reinforcements)