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Losing Afghanistan Five Years After Massoud
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I read the news articles coming out of Afghanistan five years after the death of Massoud, five years after 9-11, five years after the US first went into Afghanistan, and I am worried and disheartened. The news is bad...
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AP
US General James Jones admitted on Thursday that the strength of the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan had taken the military alliance by surprise and said "modest reinforcements" -- between 2,000 and 2,500 troops -- would need to be moved there from other parts of the country.
"The issue at this point is that we are engaged in combat in the south and until we can bring the security situation more in line with what it is in the north and west, which is relatively stable and secure and allows reconstruction to take place, reconstruction and development have stalled," Boudreau said.
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BBC
A suicide car bombing in Kabul has killed at least 16 people, as Nato military chiefs prepare to discuss a plea for more troops for Afghanistan. The attack on a US military convoy occurred near the American embassy, killing two US soldiers and injuring two others, the US military said.
Pajhwok Afghan News
By Saeed Zabuli
QALAT, Sep 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Taliban have captured Arghandab district in the southern Zabul province. Zabul police chief Noor Muhamamd Paktin told Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday the local administrator and police of the district left their offices Tuesday evening since they knew about the Taliban's plan of attacking the government headquarters in the night.
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Believers in "body counts" and other Vietnam-era tallies may be cheered by the weekend's reports that a NATO-led offensive in southern Afghanistan killed more than 200 Taliban militants. Almost everyone else, however, will realize that developments in that cursed country are bad and getting worse. ...Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's boast in 2002 that the Taliban and al-Qaida are "gone." That, obviously, wasn't so.
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The news is bad, and I can't help but wonder how things might be different if Massoud was still in Afghanistan today. The words he spoke less than six months before his assassination echo through the past five years into today and tremble with their truth. Massoud said:
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"We consider this our duty - to defend humanity against the scourge of intolerance, violence, and fanaticism. We will build a democratic Islam in which the rights of all citizens, both men and women, are protected and in which all are free to determine their political leadership by ballots, not bullets.
"The international community must support us in our struggle. They must provide aid to both our internal refugees as well as those refugees who have who have fled the brutality of the Taliban and the war by moving to Pakistan and Iran. There is famine and disease. My people are starving and dying. We need your help, and I humbly ask you for it.
“Finally, I have words of caution for you. If the West does not help us eliminate al-Qaeda, if they do not help us rid our land of those terrorists who have invaded it, there will be a tragedy, a horror visited on you that is beyond comprehension or endurance. Help us, and in doing that, help yourselves.”
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The bad news, for the rest of us, is that in Bush-liberated Afghanistan, billions in drug profits are financing the Taliban. Remember them, the guys who harbored the al-Qaida terrorists, who gifted us with the 9-11 attacks five years ago, that President Bush promised to eliminate? Well, it turns out that while he was distracted with Iraq, the patrons of terrorism were very much in business back where the 9-11 attack was hatched, turning Afghanistan into a narco-state that provides a lucrative source of cash for the "evildoers" Bush forgot about. (Robert Scheer/Yahoo News)
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“We fight not for honor, nor glory, nor for wealth. But only and alone we fight for freedom, which no good man surrenders but with his life.” (Robert Bruce)
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New York Times
Reclaiming Afghanistan from the Taliban remains a crucial element in America's global struggle against terrorism. So it should be setting off alarm bells in Washington that Afghans are becoming disenchanted ...
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No one knew or loved Afghanistan and her people more than Massoud did. What would he say, what would he do if he was still there when everything promised to his country was being abandoned yet again? Would he rail in anger and frustration, or would he summon patience and determination? In either case, Afghanistan would be better off with him than she is without him.
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May a merciful God hold you close to his heart, Ahmed Shah Massoud. You lived and died with limitless courage.
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For those who honor Massoud and grieve for his passing on this fifth anniversary of his death, don't forget Afghanistan. Don't let the people around you forget Afghanistan in the shadow of Iraq. Demand that your elected officials honor the promises made to the Afghan people. Remember that Massoud fought and died for his country, and this most noble, heroic man wanted nothing more than peace and prosperity for his people.
Remember Massoud....Remember his country....Remember his people. Never forget.
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Yet then this word did speak
The old warrior cheered on his men,
Ordered to go forward his good brethren.
No longer could he firmly on his feet stand.
He looked up to heaven........
"I thank Thee, Lord of all peoples,
For all those joys that I on earth have known.
Now, my Maker mild - I have most need
That thou to my ghost should grant good.
That my soul to Thee may journey,
Into thy kingdom ...(from "The Battle of Maldon")
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Sikh Warrior prayer
May I never refrain from righteous acts
May I fight without fear all the foes in life's battle
With confident courage, claiming the victory
May my highest ambition be singing thy praises
May the glory of God be, reign in my mind
When this corporal life reaches its limits
May I die fighting with limitless courage
When this mortal life reaches its limits
May I die fighting with limitless courage
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Ahmed Shah Massoud
1953 - 2001
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