Afghanistan

[Michaelangelica]

Forgive me if this thread duplicates anything. I had a good search and could not find a thread just on Afghanistan.
I am not starting a geography forum although. . yanks are very bad at it

THIS inspired me

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/wo...5kites.html?hp

How great if we could send kites and string and paper to Afganistan istead of guns.

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: December 15, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan — The kites appear suddenly, whimsical flashes of colour that kick above the beige landscape here of relentless dust and desperation.
Video
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They reveal themselves, like dragonflies, at the most unexpected moments: through the window of a grim government office, beyond the smoke curling from the debris left by a suicide bomber, above the demoralizing gridlock of traffic and poverty. To a new arrival in this chaotic city of three million, they are unexpected and wonderfully incongruous.

Banned during the Taliban’s rule, kite flying is once again the main recreational escape for Afghan boys and some men.
. . .

While nearly all the string sold in Afghanistan is now factory-made and imported from other countries, most of the kites are still made by local artisans.[/B]

By consensus in Shor Bazaar, a blocklong market of tiny kite shops in Kabul, the best kite maker in the capital is Noor Agha, a slender and vain 53-year-old man who lives in a squalid mud-and-stone hovel in a cemetery and is missing most of his teeth.

“Nobody can beat me, nobody can do what I’m doing,” he said one recent afternoon as he sat barefooted on the carpeted floor of his workshop making a kite. “Even computers can’t beat me.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/wo...5kites.html?hp

Perhaps you know a soldier in Afghanistan you could send some sting to, it seems in short supply.(??) How much string will be thrown out over Christmas in the West?

(We need not to put the kite-makers out of business but string seems in short supply. Would sending kites to the NATO troops so they can play too be OK?)?

I made brown paper kites with my dad every August (windy month -or it was)

Once while working for the Army, during the Viet-nam war (Victoria Barracks). I galvanised a few confederates into stealing army glue, paper, sticks, brown paper, cleaning material (for tail) Then we had some great lunch hours making the kite and flying it in nearby Moore Park. What a kite (paid for out of defence budget- you would expect no less )
It was REALLY fun even if everyone thought the Army had put LSD in out tea.

[Michaelangelica]

It is not easy sending parcels to troops O/S
This might be ajoke (i hope)

Army bomb disposal experts called in to defuse Christmas crackers
Last updated at 01:21am on 10th December 2007

Comments Comments (18)



Hundreds of packages sent from family and friends to soldiers serving abroad have had to be "disabled" because regulations class the snap strip in crackers as an explosive.

Britain is postage free and seems relatively easy
BBC NEWS | UK | Postage-free packages for troops
Send season's greetings to British troops on the front line this Christmas - Telegraph
Although the Brits can be pinickity
Parcel for soldier hero is sent back because it is two poppies too heavy | the Daily Mail


USA has a mile of regulations and you pay
Any Soldier Inc. ... How to Send


The Kiwis send over hundreds of parcels free.
Scoop: Christmas Parcels For Kiwi Troops

Canada is doing something?

Australia I cant find at all?

Afghanistan is a forgotten war isn't it?

'Our boys are so shattered' ... families plead for more Afghanistan troops


Defence Secretary to call for reinforcements from Nato amid claims that British soldiers are just too tired to fight

Mark Townsend, defence correspondent
Sunday September 17, 2006
The Observer

Relatives of British troops serving in Afghanistan's Helmand province have raised serious concerns over the safety of soldiers, claiming many are so exhausted they are finding it difficult to operate properly.

A growing number of wives, mothers, girlfriends and sisters have decided to speak out over the 'intolerable' pressures on loved ones amid fears that, unless more Nato countries agree to send extra troops, the situation will deteriorate further.

The women describe how soldiers

'Our boys are so shattered' ... families plead for more Afghanistan troops | World | The Observer

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Afghanistan is a forgotten war isn't it?

We're not at war with Afghanistan, you drongo fruit loop! We're at war with Christmas.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

We're not at war with Afghanistan, you drongo fruit loop! We're at war with Christmas.

That's Crackers !

[InfiniteNow]

From the article referenced in Post #2:

Relatives of British troops serving in Afghanistan's Helmand province have raised serious concerns over the safety of soldiers, claiming many are so exhausted they are finding it difficult to operate properly.

A growing number of wives, mothers, girlfriends and sisters have decided to speak out over the 'intolerable' pressures on loved ones amid fears that, unless more Nato countries agree to send extra troops, the situation will deteriorate further.

How long has the average soldier been there? Do we know if the conditions they face are better/worse in some measurable way than the conditions faced by soldiers in other areas?

I guess I'm trying to figure out what may be driving the cause of this exhaustion. Is a lack of leadership? Is it a lack of clearly defined objectives and missions? What?


Does anybody in the Hypography community have inputs on the above? Any perspectives to offer, or perhaps questions of their own?

[Michaelangelica]

Sorry Infinate,
i don't know
there is virtually nothing reported about Afghisatn in the Australian Press.

This I just received from the US

Dear Reader,

I just loved reading The Kite Runner. I couldn't put it down. And along the way, it broke my heart. Now the film. Author and media personality Laura Flanders' review on AlterNet tells us:

"... the film adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel is right on target. Abuse of power, remorse, shame, grief, guilt and the dream of redemption: They're exactly the right emotions to stir in a movie about the United States and Afghanistan."

Sounds good to me. I'm looking forward to seeing the film myself.

Don Hazen
Don Hazen
Executive Editor, AlterNet.org

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Does anybody in the Hypography community have inputs on the above? Any perspectives to offer, or perhaps questions of their own?

All I can add is some anecdotal evidence from a person that served in the marines and carried out orders in several countries, namely Iraq. This person told me of their migration to Afghanistan and how they traveled across the border to Pakistan and the roadside was fields of poppies as far as the eye could see. This Marine was of the opine that US forces should concentrate on Afghanistan and Pakistan rather than focus on Iraq.

This is the opinion from someone who has been there, not my own.

[Jet2]

So happen I am reading [The Kite Runner] these days. It's such a good story that let us understand more about the Afganistan.

And I really agree with this

How great if we could send kites and string and paper to Afganistan istead of guns.

Or it would be much better if we could turn all wars to Kite Flying Competition...

[LaurieAG]

Hi InfiniteNow,

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

I guess I'm trying to figure out what may be driving the cause of this exhaustion. Is a lack of leadership? Is it a lack of clearly defined objectives and missions? What?

Does anybody in the Hypography community have inputs on the above? Any perspectives to offer, or perhaps questions of their own?

After being side tracked into Iraq on a wild goose chase, it just seems that it isn't a lack of leadership but a very strong leadership desire NOT to win (to keep the US economy ticking over maybe?).

You'd think that the tactics used to subdue the civil war in Iraq (pay your own army, the Iraqi army, the Sunni militas and the Shia militas) would be applicable if the whole Afghanistan thing wasn't just a means to an end (Iraqs oil). Because world record Opium tonnages from Afghanistan since its 'liberation' isn't exactly anything to crow about.

[Michaelangelica]

KABUL, Afghanistan — In a walled compound outside Kabul, two members of Colombia’s counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarters combat.
. . .
Poppy growing is endemic in the countryside, and Afghanistan now produces 92 percent of the world’s opium. But until recently, American officials acknowledge, fighting drugs was considered a distraction from fighting terrorists.

Poppy Fields Are Now a Front Line in Afghan War - New York Times

92% ?
Doesn't sound like anyone is trying too hard.
Who does it fund the Taliban or the CIA?
Hasn't someone heard of Round-Up?
The Colombians teaching them!?
This is a good idea?!

Growing Cannabis in Afghanistan

While Balkh Province in Afghanistan has been successful in eradicating opium poppy cultivation, many farmers have merely switched to another illicit crop: cannabis.

Afghanistan News - Breaking World Afghanistan News - The New York Times
(Above is a good link to links in the NY Times about Afghanistan.)A ready market with all the troops there?

the long-term cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could head into the vicinity of $3.5 trillion. The vast majority of those expenses would be for Iraq.

Priorities don’t get much more twisted. A country that can’t find the money to provide health coverage for its children, or to rebuild the city of New Orleans, or to create a first-class public school system, is flushing whole generations worth of cash into the bottomless pit of a failed and endless war.
. . .
Youngsters who were just starting high school when the U.S. invaded Iraq are in college now. Their children, yet unborn, will be called on to fork over tax money to continue paying for the war.

Seriously. How long do we want this madness to last?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/op...=1&oref=slogin

Annual defence budget USA 3/4 of a trillion a year.

WASHINGTON — Deeply concerned about the prospect of failure in Afghanistan, the Bush administration and NATO have begun three top-to-bottom reviews of the entire mission, from security and counterterrorism to political consolidation and economic development, according to American and alliance officials.
. . .
Unlike the administration’s sweeping review of Iraq policy a year ago, which was announced with great fanfare and ultimately resulted in a large increase in troops, the American reviews of the Afghan strategy have not been announced and are not expected to result in a similar infusion of combat forces, mostly because there are no American troops readily available.
. . .
“I have a real concern that given our preoccupation in Iraq, we’ve not devoted sufficient troops and funding to Afghanistan to ensure success in that mission,” Mr. Skelton said. “Afghanistan has been the forgotten war.”
. . .
The NATO-led security assistance mission in Afghanistan has about 40,000 troops; of those, 14,000 are American. Separately, the United States military has 12,000 other troops in Afghanistan conducting specialized counter-terrorism missions.
. . .
“The mission in Afghanistan has been suffering from neglect on all sides,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/wa.../16afghan.html