Afghanistan

The world is so obsessed with Iraq that it has forgotten Afghanistan, which may be a model for Iraq after a US conquest. A Reuters report (2/28/03), "UN retreats from parts of Afghanistan". informs us of the present state of Afghanistan: "The UN said it had suspended aid work in parts of Afghanistan because of fighting between rival factions and uncertain security conditions. Tensions had risen in the northern provinces of Faryab, Balkh and Sari Pul and there had been no progress there in a tentative program to disarm fractious regional warlords. The UN had suspended operations in Gosfandi district of Sari Pul province due to factional skirmishes. The UN aid programs in three districts of the southern province of Zabul, once the stronghold of the fundamentalist Taliban, had also been halted for the past three weeks because of an uncertain security situation, the spokesman said. Meanwhile, just north of US headquarters at Bagram Airbase, rival commanders squabbling over scrap metal traded mortar fire. At least six people were killed in several days of fighting between soldiers of Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum and fighters of Ustad Atta Mohammad which erupted last weekend in northern Faryab province. Both men are members of the country's transitional administration headed by President Hamid Karzai, who is abroad seeking help in disarming regional militias. Karzai was pledged US$51 million, but the program is expected to cost nearly three times that. In Washington, Karzai asked US senators to support a request that the US subsidize his budget to allow him to pay 100'000 irregular provincial militiamen".

RH:The fate of Karzai's request is uncertain. Clearly US occupation of Iraq would lead to similar claims. No wonder Bush is unable to give the total cost of the war.

Ronald Hilton - 3/8/03