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Battles yet to come
Mar 5th 2002
"Declarations of an American military victory in Afghanistan, such a prominent feature of political and diplomatic discourse in the past few months, have suddenly begun to look premature ... "
"The abrupt collapse of the Taliban regime caught almost everyone, not least the Americans themselves, by surprise. ... The discovery of so many well-armed and determined al-Qaeda and Taliban troops, months after victory in Afghanistan had seemed largely assured, raises many questions. Why has it taken so long ... to discover their existence? How many others? ... Where are Osama bin Laden and other ... leaders ... ? ... where is Mullah Omar? ... Most significantly ... how secure is the interim Afghan government?"
" ... caught off guard by the scale and ferocity of the resistance ... "
" ... the country is in chaos. Warlords have divided up most of the country. The remit of the UN-backed interim government of Hamid Karzai does not extend beyond Kabul, and even there its control is shaky. ... Failure to secure stability in Afghanistan would also raise serious doubts about America’s plans for pursuing its war on terrorism anywhere else." ... [more]
8:51:59 AM 
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