March 28, 2003 6:36 AM

Freedom's just another word for "nothing left to lose"

U.S. Lands in Middle of Afghan Feuding: Despite Stated Policy, Force Reluctantly Being Used to Subdue Local Conflicts

You remember Afghanistan, right? The Taliban? The temptation to pave and stripe Kabul? Sure you do. Well, though you'd never know it by watching the news, we're still there and still hip-deep in settling local score-settling.

ZOH-E-KOT, Afghanistan -- Amanullah Khan and Ismail Khan despise each other and have been killing each other's people for almost 20 years. The two men, nominally loyal to the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, are the strongest warlords in western Afghanistan along the long and barren border with Iran, and their conflict has no end in sight.

The rivalry and private armies of these men are unremarkable in post-Taliban Afghanistan, where the national government controls little more than the capital. What is unusual is that the armies of both men have been bombed by the U.S. military on the same day -- a show of power that, intentionally or not, significantly calmed the area.

Since the U.S. bombs were dropped in December near the border between their disputed territories, the two sides have fought only minor skirmishes, rather than the tank battles that used to break out periodically.

Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said in an interview that his forces do not intervene in fighting among Afghans unless Islamic militants are involved. The bombing in December was ordered because U.S. troops in the area were fired on, he said.

It might just be a lot easier to wall the country off and wait until the warlords are finished killing their own. THEN we can pave it and stripe it.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 28, 2003 6:36 AM.

Free speech? Nah, it's all about the Benjamins was the previous entry in this blog.

Dictators Gone Wild- Spring Break edition is the next entry in this blog.

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