Afghans begin to ‘doubt US intentions’
Afghans begin to ‘doubt US intentions’Published: Gulftimes, Thursday, 21 August, 2008,
KABUL: Afghans believe the United States knows about Al Qaeda bases in Pakistan, but does not hit them because it wants an unstable Afghanistan to justify its presence for wider regional goals, a state newspaper said yesterday.
While many Afghans have vented such thoughts for some time, it was the first time a state newspaper which generally reflects the government’s view has expressed them, and may point to a souring of relations between Afghanistan and its biggest backer.
Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan, both major US allies in its war against Islamic militants, have hit new lows with the Afghan government accusing Pakistan of funding and training Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters for cross-border attacks.
Nearly seven years after US-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban government for refusing to hand over Al Qaeda leaders behind the Sept 11 attacks, the heads of the militant groups are still at large and are thought to be hiding in Pakistan.
With more than 70,000 mainly Western troops based in Afghanistan, many Afghans believe the United States and its allies are deliberately not doing enough to halt the threat.
The United States always said it would attack the militants wherever they were, but in reality it has not done so, the state-run Anis daily said.
“The Afghan people have long doubted such claims of foreigners, especially of Britain and America, and their trust about crushing Al Qaeda and terrorism has fallen,” Anis said.
“The people have the right to think that there is something in the wind,” it said. “No one believes stability and peace will be restored to Afghanistan until the training and equipping sites of the Taliban are closed.”
Your comments pls..
Salax85 said:
Afhanistan has some quality stuff to smoke up with along with Opium thats widely used by all military forces. so occupying those lands will mean Free Dope for USA!
My brother pass on the joint, quit smoking all the good s-h-i-t from Afghanistan. Keep the rotation going dude, quit being self fish.........
I hear St. Patrick was an Englishman!"
Exectly my point..
Its a comment from the government - No PROOF..
Remember the Red Mosque incident. The governmenrt said that foreign fighters were involved, but could not produce any solid evidence..
There is often a difference between what governments say to placate their public and reality..
I have heard in every debriefing that foreign fighters are there, so it is a public acceptance that Yes there are foreign fighters there.
But there are no foreign soldiers operating there for sure in Pakistani part of land with afghanistan because then it will be a real problem with locals.
I was just rebutting what you stated in your post..You mentioned foreign fighter..My point was that thus far the Pakistani government has not clearly shown that foreign are on Pakistani soil..
No thats not correct, your term factual is just "factual" in words only. You can now only put forward another newspaper wall street jounrnal artical.
Pakistan is in a lot of trouble becasue of them. Pakistani public is fed up so much so that they voted against their previous government for no reason but to get their grudge out some how by making some excuse.
You cannot even find the foreign people there in that region. You cannot even notice them there in that region, they are so much camoflaged that you cannot do that so much easily. Now USA and British etc are on the other side for years, how much have they caught and recognised?.
All signifcant gain is from Pakistan only becasue of its compitence on the gound and to curb them to be out of conflict.
You're stating as factual that "Those in Pakistan are foreigners"
If this is the case, then they can be easily identified and rooted out..
The only other explanation is that the government does not want to go against them..
Fault lied when the whole region was left behind suddenly at the stake of some people after Soviet withdrawal.
The answer is simple.
"Many of them in Paskiatn are foreigners. Who are they?, whrere have they come from?. Even we Pakistanis dont know."
The government or your intelligensia have been unable to offer visible proof of this.. Its all too easy to blame "foreigners" for one's own faults..
Well said..
All countries have a vested interest in the axrtions they take..
Most of these "complainers" need to look into themselves, see what's really wrong with their own country/leader and work to make things better..
tamumech has said something right.
I think that at this time it is in the best interest of Pakistan first to eliminate such law less people (if they fight against Pakistan & casue distruption elsewhere in the world by being in Pakistan). Many of them in Paskiatn are foreigners. Who are they?, whrere have they come from?. Even we Pakistanis dont know.
Pakistani stance was and is the same which is that please dont help and indulge in the war outside the country as we are not responisble for others. Stay quiet but if the the Taliban militants say that they dont agree and want to push Pakistan into some conflict then it is not acceptable, we dont agree with their actions.
It means they need to be controlled and should be taught to abide by the law of Pakistan and we should not allow such persons operate in Pakistan at least, they should go out of the country or should obey the our Law.
Had USA given some times to Pakistan afte 9/11 the matter could had been resolved peacefully there without action and US could have gained much.
any other country would do otherwise! Any other country would not go & invade other countries and kill the civilians. So you are saying the bull5hit that you say, just becoz you are a typical american
get a clue 7aasebToua3... foreign policy is always meant to benefit the country that implements it. you say that bullsh1t as if ANY country would do otherwise? no the u.s. isn't perfect, and no i dont agree with everything it does in the world... but damn dude, pull your head out
and maybe you are forgetting the 21 billion dollars in aid the u.s. government sent to third world countries last year alone? and that doesn't even take into account private givings from the american community (charities, businesses, personal remittances etc...) which totals $71 billion in 2004
to take ALL this time to realize this fact!
(And when did the U.S EVER, have good intentions for any country except israel?)
Well i am from Pakistan and i have seen the tribal area where these people hide in late 1990s when my father was posted there. It seems to me a strange terrain of the world.
Let me tell you that it is a very hard terain. What pakistan has achieved in catching the most prominent Al Qaida leaders no other force has achieved, it is a very diffcult task to catch them by making a perfect military move.
You can never know where their camps are, and how they operated. Pakistan's special forces and other regular, irregular forces & airforce as well are too much engaged with them and definately they are not less than any other force in the world.
USA intervention will be futile there inside Pakistan (if there) wihtout achieving any results but Taliban will gain sympathy and enourmous strength with the local help so much so that Kerzai will be flushed out like a straw if this happens. He dreams of getting the Pakistan's adjoinign area included in afghanistan by making such claims but he cannot do that, No one can harm and threaten Pakistan.
This is all a false claim. USA is not that aware of their camps and without Pakistani help they could made little progress. If you dont believe then listen to interview of any Al qaida figure about this issue, he will surely say that Pakistan has hurt them the most.
Afganisthan is a tough nut to crack.. I remember an Interview just after 9/11 with then USSR's Major General who was in Afganisthan, he said NEVER SENT GROUND FORCE to Afgan. you will never win a war there.
US is helping Pakisthan with Billions and a portion of this aid goes to Militants thru ISI. US is very much aware of the Terrorist camps in POK and Tribal Belt of Pak-Afgan Border. If sombody accuses US for not doing engough to dismantle the terrorist camp inside pak teritory ... we cant blame them.
you are ruining the great whine today...posting the real issue isn't as much fun as throwing up a smoke screen and saying how bad America is...remember, pointing the finger at America is now considered an Olympic Athletic sport.
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked,the good fortune to run into the ones I do,and the eyesight to tell the difference.
Afghanistan is playing games also. Karzai initiates these statements to turn focus away from the problems he himself has as president.
the fact is that Warlords still rule in most of Afghanistan. They are easily bought and themselves can harbour the extremists.
I am sure that if teh USA had credible inbformation, they would have acted on it - With or without Pakistani aid.
I forget..we ARE the evil in the entire world...nothing we ever do is without evil intentions..
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked,the good fortune to run into the ones I do,and the eyesight to tell the difference.
Afghanis now realizing the real intention of america...
but it is late.
that they have that information, how can anyone get do anything?? I mean, everyone in the US thinks they know who killed John F. Kennedy but we have no solid evidence to convict anyone...
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked,the good fortune to run into the ones I do,and the eyesight to tell the difference.