Newsvine - Afghanistan: Casualties of War, is it worth it?

Afghanistan reminds me of what one person can do to the world, unfortunately. A few now decades ago, one Treasury "minister" ran off with what would be a small sum, however large for Afghans, $80 million it was reported, throwing the country into the chaos of accusations and repercussion that the then USSR thought, without any other proposed international interdiction, to control enough on its border to perhaps stop what might become "break away republics" in the region.

As a grad student in Anthropology some of the more excellent social anthropology/ethnography studies had been done there by the British, i.e., the Swat Pathans, and had been involved in that area militarily and historically as part of former "colonial" efforts, also producing literature. However, given the opportunity, US intelligence and arms dealers saw an opportunity to create a insurgency there against the USSR helping to provide high tech weapons, and help create for the USSR a "Vietnam debacle".

The other day I watched a German television documentary of a devout Muslim truck-trailer driver deliver his cargo from Pakistan into Afghanistan. The Taliban had declared war on Germany, as part of NATO, the narrator stated, which developed out of the hostilities with the Americans.

I wish at the time an international effort, perhaps as a economic package from various nations had been able to stabilize what had started as the grandest of larceny -- the theft of a country's treasury.

#3 - Thu May 14, 2009 8:56 AM EDT

Newsvine - Afghanistan: Casualties of War, is it worth it?

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