Operation 'What's Up Doc?'

Nine months into the "war on terrorism" and it is difficult to get a handle on what's going on in and around Afghanistan. Outside Kabul, writes Edward Epstein in the San Francisco Chronicle, "kidnappings, extortion and the power of the warlords are on the rise." The U.S. military, he writes, is "getting bogged down in that country's old fractious ways." Congressional leaders are bickering with the administration over whether enough money and support is being earmarked for security in Afghanistan.

On May 27, the New York Times reported that Maj. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the commander of American-led forces in Afghanistan claiming that the leadership of the Taliban and al Qaeda have been driven out of eastern Afghanistan. The bad news is that they are now operating out of what the Times characterizes as "the anarchic tribal areas" of western Pakistan. Maj. Gen. Hagenback said that al Qaeda and Taliban leaders were planning terrorist attacks and could attempt to disrupt the "selection of the new national government in Kabul next month."
(...)

Against the backdrop of a possible nuclear conflagration, Bush Administration officials and the Pentagon continue to insist that the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al Qaeda is going well.

That's their story and they're sticking to it.
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CNN Debate on "Terrorism"
Chomsky v. Bennett

Is Bennett self-delusional, living in an alternate reality, or extremely cynical? I go with self-delusion.