Thursday, August 25, 2011

A bit over the top - but only just the tiniest bit.

"Given the record of the UN and other international powers in Afghanistan, Libyans could hardly do any worse than trust to themselves. Building on ‘lessons learnt’ in Afghanistan, we would advise the Libyans to say a polite ‘no’ to offers of expert advice. . ."

Meanwhile, how's Obama's Afghanistan strategy coming along?

"There is a real sense of despair in Afghanistan right now. Most Afghans I have spoken with seem to think this is one of the lowest points in their country's history for at least 30 years. I think this comes from the sense that without the presence of international troops, things are likely to degenerate quickly into civil war and chaos." You have to read to the bottom of all this before you get to the part about what Afghans think, but still, worth a look.

Meanwhile, next door, in The Republic of Lies:

"In such a country —so fearful of India, distrustful of America and protective of its traditional influence over Afghanistan as a counterweight to Indian power —conspiracy theories fester unchecked.

"Wahab Khan Maseeb, 20, leaves his lectures at the medical faculty in Abbottabad. A young Pakistani-American in jeans and a T-shirt, he was in school in Brooklyn on that fateful day 10 years ago. He saw the ash cover everything. But was it an militant attack? Wahab hesitates. Like others, he saw the 'Loose Change' series of documentary films, which accused elements of the US government of carrying out the 9/11 attacks. 'It was pretty convincing,' he says.

"In a country awash with anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, Pakistani newspapers peddled totally unsubstantiated claims that 4,000 Jews didn’t turn up to work in New York that day, so the attacks were somehow a Zionist plot. Such theories are preached from mosques and propagated by madrassas responsible for the education of millions of largely penniless children. . ."

Closer to home, another Wikileaks cable containing absolutely nothing that was not already known to everyone and his dog.

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