The biggest tragedy
Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/67352/
Few believed Afghanistan would become peaceful overnight. But even fewer imagined the negative trend we have recently witnessed. The increasing number of civilian deaths is a serious reminder of the high price paid by the Afghan people for the conflict between President Hamid Karzai’s government and international forces on one side and the Taliban-inspired rebels and their allies on the other. In June, the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan was the highest in a single month since the invasion that brought down the Taliban regime in 2001. Even though that was seven years ago, the situation is by no means under control. During the last two months, more foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Unclear and confusing fronts are among the most serious problems in the Afghan conflict. One thing is that local warlords play their own game, without much regard for centralized authorities. The humanitarian aid effort by the U. N. and others has been badly hurt by large parts of Afghanistan being marked by unclear and shifting power balances. It has been impossible to achieve even a small improvement in living conditions for most people. The Taliban and their cohorts have thereby succeeded with their destructive tactics. That is the biggest tragedy.
— Aftenposten, Oslo, Norway