Losing Afghanistan after Winning It

Nir Rosen reports on ‘How we lost the War We Won’ in Afghanistan:

‘ Until recently, Ghazni, like much of central Afghanistan, was considered reasonably safe. But now the province, located 100 miles south of the capital, has fallen to the Taliban. Foreigners who venture to Ghazni often wind up kidnapped or killed. In defiance of the central government, the Taliban governor in the province issues separate ID cards and passports for the Taliban regime, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Farmers increasingly turn to the Taliban, not the American-backed authorities, for adjudication of land disputes.’

Afghan villagers say a NATO airstrike killed 18 innocent civilians. Such incidents have multiplied in recent months, alienating Afghans.

Aljazeera English reports on the defection of Afghan soldiers, who had NATO training and weapons, to the Taliban.

This was a Persian-speaking group, not Pushtuns, and I wonder if they turned on NATO and the US because of the August strike that killed dozens of Afghan innocents.

Aziz Huq at Tomdispatch.com discusses the impact on America’s imperial role of the financial crisis.