Juan Cole: Serial Catastrophes in Afghanistan threaten Obama Policy

[unhappycamper]

Serial Catastrophes in Afghanistan threaten Obama Policy
Monday, January 04, 2010

You probably won't see it in most US news outlets, but on Monday morning in Kabul and Jalalabad, hundreds of university students demonstrated against US strikes this weekend that allegedly killed a number of civilians. I want to underline the irony that the students in Tehran University are protesting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while students in these two Afghan cities are calling for Yankees to go home. Nangarhar University in Jalalabad only has a student body of about 3200, so 'hundreds' of students protesting there would be a significant proportion of the student body.

The demonstrations could be a harbinger of things to come, but there was worse news. CIA field officers blown up, four US troops killed Sunday, and the rejection of most of the cabinet nominees by parliament, all signal rocky times ahead.

The past two weeks have seen the situation in Afghanistan deteriorate palpably, raising significant questions about the viability of the Obama-McChrysstal plan for the country. The chain of catastrophes has been reported in piecemeal fashion, but taken together these events are far more ominous than they might appear on the surface.

First, the US military launched a raid in Kunar Province two days after Christmas on a village a night, in which President Hamid Karzai alleged that 10 civilians, some 8 of them schoolchildren, had been killed (some say dragged out of their beds and executed). The NYT reported the head of a Kabul delegation to the village saying,“They gathered eight school students from two compounds and put them in one room and shot them with small arms." (The spokesman is a former governor of Kunar and now a close adviser to President Hamid Karzai-- i.e. not exactly a pro-Taliban source). The charitable theory is that in a nighttime raid, US troops got disoriented and hit the wrong group of young men.

The outraged Afghan public saw this raid as an atrocity, and on Wednesday December 30, they mounted street protests against the US in Jalalabad, an eastern Pashtun city, and Kabul. In Jalalabad, hundreds of university students blocked the main roads, and then marched in the streets, chanting "Death to Obama" and "Death to America," and burning Obama in effigy. (If they go on like that, the anti-imperialist Pashtun college students of Jalalabad may attract the support of Fox Cable News . . .)


Rest of article at: http://www.juancole.com/

[kenny blankenship]

1. K&R - the news needs to be heard even when it's bad

[Selatius]

2. Rambo 3 speech:

I leave you this video. It's only relevance is the end of the clip. You'll know what I'm pointing at and laughing when you see the end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQjDvnPpCk

[unhappycamper]

6. "We already had our Vietnam"

Yes, sadly, we did.

[IsItJustMe]

18. History repeating itself. Will they ever learn?

[rgbecker]

3. Don't confuse the demonstrations in Iran with anyone wanting the US to help out there!

The Iranians on the streets of Iran demonstrating against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are not asking for a bunch of US thugs to come and save them. I'm a supporter of leaving Afghanistan to the Afghanis, Iraq to the Iraqis and Iran to the Iranians. Time to show the world how well our airplanes work and fly the troops home.

[Mari333]

4. from RAWA: lives taken by US drones (graphic)

if I am not allowed to post this pic please let me know.

Its just that pictures speak better than words.

please, people, this has to end. we are the monsters.

[Mari333]

5. AND ONLY COWARDS WOULD UNREC THIS

[chimpymustgo]

16. So true. K&R.

[IsItJustMe]

19. Or a war monger, or both.

[Mari333]

7. K

[Mari333]

8. K

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Well, those protestors don't understand that Obama has to win the middle by being "tough".

They don't see how embarrassing it would be for our president and military to have to admit to another lost war.

The ingrates just don't get the "realistic" politics involved in killing their people.

[Mari333]

10. I blame the MSM for their refusal to cover this occupation or any occupation

and the murders of our troops and civilians for profit.

until than the US public looks the other way and keeps their heads in the sand.

and that is cowardice. on both parts.

[bemildred]

11. The " Obama-McChrysstal plan" never was viable, except as another stall.

An excuse for a few more Friedman Units. These events could result in an early end to that.

[bvar22]

12. THIS is "The Government of Afghanistan".

Meet Hamid Karzai
or as Obama calls him, "The Government of Afghanistan".

He was appointed by Bush the Lesser to run Afghanistan.
He is one of the most despicable criminals in The World,
But NOW we like him so much
that our children will be sent to KILL and DIE in the deserts of Afghanistan to keep him in power.

[amborin]

13. we're there protecting China! ny times article:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Mari333]

14. k

[Hissyspit]

15. k&r nt

[TexasObserver]

17. Recommend

[Douglas Carpenter]

20. kick and recommend

[G_j]

21. demonstrations?

Who would have known? Didn't hear much about that.
:shrug: