.. so, the ""United States has appropriated 127 billion dollars for military efforts in Afghanistan since 2001 .. currently spending nearly 100 million dollars a day .. close to 36 billion dollars a year .. Yet the volume of all non-military international aid amounts to only 7 million dollars a day, ACBAR says. .. "in the two years following international intervention, Afghanistan received 57 dollars per capita, whilst Bosnia and East Timor received 679 dollars and 233 dollars per capita respectively."" http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=28226390
Rudd should stay off opium and deal with bigger issues Crop buster … an Afghan policeman destroys poppies in Helmand province. The policy has stirred up immense local resentment. Photo: AFP
moving on, it seems that rebuilding the country is not a real prerogative; oh, sorry, i forgot it's just about driving up the oil price; or, maybe it's just about keeping the pressure on Russia; or, gee, heck, fuck, it's maybe it's being better than your father .. about feeling secure and superior and missioned .. BEING PROUD TO BE IN CONTROL OF THE WORLD .. is that it ..
////////////////// Sunday, 27 April 2008 In pictures: Afghan parade attack
1 of 8 .. Afghan President Hamid Karzai had finished his speech at the National Day parade, marking 16 years since Kabul was captured from the Soviet-backed government, when shots were heard.
1 February 2008 Why the Afghan Taleban feel confident By David Loyn BBC News
The Taleban in Wardak test-fired their weapons openly
In Afghanistan, the Taleban now claim to have influence across most of the country and have extended their area of control from their traditional heartland in the south.
They are able to operate freely even in Wardak Province, neighbouring the capital Kabul, as a BBC camera crew who filmed them recently found.
One of their commanders in Wardak, Mullah Hakmatullah, said they do not control the roads nor the towns, but they hold the countryside and have increasing support because of the corruption of the administration.
"The administration do not solve people's problems. People who go there with problems have to give a lot of money in bribes and then they get stuck there," Mullah Hakmatullah said.
'Much better now'
Support from villagers is essential to their ability to continue operations through the winter months.
Local people said that they were willing to help the Taleban because they supported their brand of justice.
In one of the villages under their control, people willing to come forward and talk to the BBC said that security was much better now that the Taleban were there.
One of them, Gul Wazir, said that the Taleban were prepared to try to resolve small problems.
"Even if it's a minor thing, the Taleban will sort it out. Before (when the government of President Karzai was in control) it was not like that. They did not pay attention to us and the poor people were ignored."
The Taleban group showed off weapons, including a heavy machine gun they said they had captured from government forces.
They test-fired them in broad daylight, apparently not fearing retaliation from government nor international forces.
They were armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Nearby the burnt-out wreck of a government vehicle was left from a recent confrontation with Afghan national forces.
Orders from the south
The overall military commander of the Taleban in Wardak, Mullah Rashid Akhond, claimed to have 2,000 active fighters.
The fighters say locals support their brand of justice
He said that he was operating an administrative system with orders coming from Kandahar in the south, just like during the days of the Taleban government that fell in 2001.
He said that the Taleban were running their own courts. "People are taking their cases away from the government courts and coming to us. Now there is no robbery in our area."
Many of the suicide bombers who go to Kabul come from this area, just an hour's drive away. Mullah Akhond justified them, saying that most of the attacks are now carried out by Afghans themselves, not foreign fighters.
Six years ago the Taleban found it hard to recruit. They put their increasing success now down to official corruption, the slow pace of reconstruction and the presence of foreign troops.
'Unstable environment'
Speaking in London, the former Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said that the rise of the Taleban was caused by weakness in the central government.
Many of the suicide bombers who attack Kabul come from Wardak
"I think it is a major threat. What moves people is not ideology, but an unstable environment among the existing networks of clans, tribes, aggrieved people, drug traffickers, opportunists, and unemployed youth.
"It is the kind of problem that can be solved only with the establishment of good governance."
Mr Jalali is a potential presidential candidate in next year's election, as President Karzai faces increasing international pressure to deliver swift results.
Spies hack [Australian] defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon's computer NEWS.com.au .. Staff writers and wires March 26, 2009 07:37am
UPDATE 8.49am: THE Opposition has called for Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon to be sacked, amid claims he was spied on by his department.
Defence has ordered an investigation into claims departmental officials conducted covert inquiries into Mr Fitzgibbon and his association with a Chinese-born Sydney businesswoman, Fairfax reports.
The unnamed officials reportedly investigated whether the minister's association with Helen Liu constituted a security risk.
This morning, Opposition frontbencher George Brandis said the relationship between Mr Fitzgibbon and his department had broken down completely.
"The minister ... (must) go," he said on ABC television.
"Defence ... is one of the most important departments in the Commonwealth."
Mr Fitzgibbon needed to be replaced "with somebody who can get a handle on things", he said.
As part of their investigation, Defence security and intelligence officials allegedly discovered Mr Fitzgibbon stays in a Canberra residence sublet from Sydney woman Helen Liu, a long-term friend of the minister's family.
Defence officials also allegedly found Ms Liu's banking details on the minister's office IT system.
Defence officials were concerned about the possible security implications of the friendship, it was reported.
Defence force head Angus Houston and departmental secretary Nick Warner have ordered an inquiry into the newspaper claims today.
The minister is not yet making any public comment, but his father Eric - a former long-time Labor MP - has said the friendship between the Liu and Fitzgibbon families goes back a long way.
"To suggest that there's some danger to Australian defence from me or Joel to be associated with the Liu family is just plainly ridiculous," he said on ABC Radio.
Former senior defence official Alan Behm said it was not standard procedure for a department to investigate its minister.
Any such inquiry would have to be authorised through the prime minister's office and be conducted through proper channels, he said.
"Whenever you have a situation where a department appears to act unilaterally ... investigating the affairs of its minister, then there is a total breakdown in trust."
If it was an unauthorised intrusion of the minister's computer, then those responsible would face investigation, disciplinary action and dismissal, Mr Behm said.
"If it's authorised, that begs the bigger question of who's involved in this and what authority was given to anybody to do this.
"If that goes up the chain of decision making and command within Defence, then the Government has a real problem with that department."
The Opposition previously called for Mr Fitzgibbon's sacking over his handling of a pay bungle involving Special Air Service Regiment soldiers.
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