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发帖数: 7521 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: ubcumn (ubcumn), 信区: Military
标 题: Re: 现在看来, 美国在阿富汗是输定了
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Wed Jan 5 11:56:45 2011, 美东)
作者搏客的英文原文
http://www.juancole.com/2010/12/top-ten-myths-about-afghanistan
Top Ten Myths about Afghanistan, 2010
Posted on 12/27/2010 by Juan
10. “There has been significant progress in tamping down the insurgency in
Afghanistan.”
* Fact: A recent National Intelligence Estimate by 16 intelligence
agencies found no progress. It warned that large swathes of the country were
at risk of falling to the Taliban and that they still had safe havens in
Pakistan, with the Pakistani government complicit. The UN says there were
over 6000 civilian casualties of war in Afghanistan in the first 10 months
of 2010, a 20% increase over the same period in 2009. Also, 701 US and NATO
troops have been killed this year, compared to 521 last year, a 25% increase
. There were typically over 1000 insurgent attacks per month in Afghanistan
this year, often twice as many per month as in 2009, recalling the guerrilla
war in Iraq in 2005.
9. Afghans want the US and NATO troops to stay in their country because they
feel protected by them.
* Fact: In a recent [pdf] poll, only 36% of Afghans said they were
confident that US troops could provide security. Only 32% of Afghans now
have a favorable view of the United States’ aid efforts in their country
over-all.
Afghan poll Dec. 6, 2010
Dec. 6, 2010, ABC/BBC et al. poll of Afghans
8. The “surge” and precision air strikes are forcing the Taliban to the
negotiating table.
* Fact: The only truly high-ranking Taliban leader thought to have
engaged in parleys with the US, Mulla Omar’s number 2, turns out to have
been a fraud and a con man.
7. The US presence in Afghanistan is justified by the September 11 attacks.
* Fact: In Helmand and Qandahar Provinces, a poll found that 92% of male
residents had never heard of 9/11.
6. Afghans still want US troops in their country, despite their discontents.
* Fact: one poll found that 55% of Afghans want the US out of their
country. And, the percentage of Afghans who support Taliban attacks on NATO
has grown from 9% in 2009 to 27% this year!
5. The presidential elections of 2009 and the recent parliamentary elections
were credible and added to the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s government.
* Fact: Karzai stole his presidential election and the parliamentary
elections were riddled with fraud. One fourth of the votes for parliament
this fall had to be thrown out because of suspected ballot fraud, and 10
percent of victors were unseated for serious irregularities.
4. President Hamid Karzai is “a key ally” of the United States.
* Fact: Karzai has repeatedly threatened to join the Taliban. He has
also admitted to being on a $2 million a year retainer from Iran. All he has
to do is cozy up to North Korea for a trifecta!
3. Shiite Iran is arming the hyper-Sunni, Shiite-hating Taliban in
Afghanistan.
* Fact: Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates told Italian Foreign
Minister Franco Frattini last February “that intelligence indicated there
was little lethal material crossing the Afghanistan-Iran border.” This
according to a wikileaks cable.
2. Foreigners are responsible for much of Afghanistan’s fabled corruption.
* The trail of big corruption usually leads back to people around
President Karzai. Karzai insiders bankrupted a major Kabul bank with their
shenanigans, forcing the government to bail it out. A significant portion of
the $42 million in medicine given by the US for Afghan soldiers this year
has disappeared and the Karzai-appointed official concerned has just been
fired. US officials have alleged that Karzai’s brother in Qandahar has run
interference for illegal businesses and the drug trade.
1. The US is in Afghanistan to fight al-Qaeda.
* Fact: CIA director Leon Panetta admitted that there are only 50-100 al
-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan! The US is mainly fighting two former
allies among the Mujahidin whom Ronald Reagan dubbed “freedom fighters”
and the “equivalent of America’s founding fathers:” Gulbaddin Hikmatyar
and his Hizb-i Islami, and Jalaluddin Haqqani and his Haqqani Network. These
two organizations, which received billions from the US congress to fight
the Soviets in the 1980s, are more deadly and important now than the ‘Old
Taliban’ of Mulla Omar. The point is that they are just manifestations of
Pashtun Muslim nationalism, and not eternal enemies of the United States (
being former allies and clients and all). Hikmatyar has roundly denounced al
-Qaeda. |
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