1115.org

Rumsfeld: Afghanistan a ‘Big Success’ - AP (9/10/07):

In an interview billed as his first since leaving the top Pentagon post, Donald Rumsfeld calls Afghanistan “a big success,” but says U.S. efforts in Iraq are hampered by the failure of Iraq’s government to establish a foundation for democracy.

“In Afghanistan, 28 million people are free. They have their own president, they have their own parliament. Improved a lot on the streets,” Rumsfeld says in the October issue of GQ magazine.

Afghanistan slipping backward, analysts say - Newsday (9/9/07):

Afghanistan has slipped backward into a political “danger zone,” the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies warned in March. In the broadest published evaluation of Afghans’ attitudes, the center said Afghans are facing worsened physical security, greater threats from warlords, criminal gangs and corrupt officials, and more difficulty in supporting their families. Such alarms are ringing from every side: UN agencies, non-government aid organizations, scholars, some U.S. officials and ordinary Afghans.

In the battle against the Taliban for Afghans’ hearts and minds, “support for America and for Karzai is becoming less every day,” said Eissa Wahdat, an Afghan government engineer who coordinates small development projects in Nuristan.
[…]
America is investing nowhere near the troops and money needed to confront the Taliban and other insurgents. Nearly six years on, the total of troops and police backing the Afghan government remains less than 10 percent of what leading counter-insurgency analysts say is needed. Iraq has sucked away troops, money and policymakers’ attention, analysts say. And, U.S. officials concede, Washington will be unable to add significant forces here as long as Iraq ties down its current 150,000 U.S. troops.