The beautiful Ozark Hills from Scenic 7
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Arkansas Ride
Riding is good for the soul. This past weekend I took a three day weekend and went for a ride. My homebase for these motorcycle peregrinations was Russellville, Arkansas where Princessbelle was taking a karate seminar. Brokerbelle was kind and patient enough to do the driving and to allow the abogado in leather to drift in and out of the motel room.
Friday, the ride went from Joplin, Missouri to Russellville, Arkansas with stops in Eureka Springs at a small leather shop where I shot the breeze with some other riders who coincidentally were also from Joplin and had just returned from a 2300 mile trip including stopovers in Sturgis, a motorcycle Mecca that is said to be past its prime. Next I headed South to Russellville.
Saturday, I headed out again and rode to Hot Springs on Scenic Route 7 . Hot Springs is an old resort town that is reinventing itself. There are long rows of renovated bath houses built around the old hot springs that were considered salutary for your health. Hot Springs has a number of old beautiful homes. It also has a renovated downtown area. Hot Springs is known for its horse racing track. Also when the horses are not running, people go to the track to bet on other races that are simulcast and are watched on satellite TV by the betters. Then it was time to return to Russellville back over scenic 7. On the way back I stopped at Ozark Springs National Park, Lake Quachita, and other local lakes. I arrived in Russellville in late afternoon and it was 102 degrees hot. And that is hot, I tell you.
Sunday, I left early and hit the road on Scenic 7 North and went through the mountains toward Harrison Arkansas. The route is beautiful but the morning run from Russellville north has the sun in your eyes most of the way. I took some pictures of the sunrise however. It was a great ride.
I headed past Booger Hollow, past the old Dogpatch amusement park which is in ruins and then to the Buffalo River. I hit Harrison and then decided that if I went to Branson, I could make it in time for our 9:40 worship service at the church I attended. I made it to Branson and attended the contemporary service just coming off the road in Harley gear. Well there were some wide open eyes since it is not a dress that most people wear to our church. However, the people recognized me and were kind, more or less, then it was time to hit the road.
So I headed down 76 and stopped at the Harley-Motorcycle leather store in Branson and milled around there until I got a call from Brokerbelle that it was raining in the Joplin area. I headed for Joplin after storing any thing that does not like water in the watertight bag that I always carry. I then headed the backroads to home going from Branson to Reeds Springs, to Crane, to Monet, to Wentworth, to Diamond, to Saginaw and safely back to Joplin with hardly a drop on me. Ah the adventure of going the farm roads at 60 to 70 miles per hours.
The ride was great. The roads were curvy. The air was fresh and I returned feeling better physically than when I left.
It was a great ride. I will be posting some pictures of the ride from time to time in the days following.
HarleyDad
Friday, the ride went from Joplin, Missouri to Russellville, Arkansas with stops in Eureka Springs at a small leather shop where I shot the breeze with some other riders who coincidentally were also from Joplin and had just returned from a 2300 mile trip including stopovers in Sturgis, a motorcycle Mecca that is said to be past its prime. Next I headed South to Russellville.
Saturday, I headed out again and rode to Hot Springs on Scenic Route 7 . Hot Springs is an old resort town that is reinventing itself. There are long rows of renovated bath houses built around the old hot springs that were considered salutary for your health. Hot Springs has a number of old beautiful homes. It also has a renovated downtown area. Hot Springs is known for its horse racing track. Also when the horses are not running, people go to the track to bet on other races that are simulcast and are watched on satellite TV by the betters. Then it was time to return to Russellville back over scenic 7. On the way back I stopped at Ozark Springs National Park, Lake Quachita, and other local lakes. I arrived in Russellville in late afternoon and it was 102 degrees hot. And that is hot, I tell you.
Sunday, I left early and hit the road on Scenic 7 North and went through the mountains toward Harrison Arkansas. The route is beautiful but the morning run from Russellville north has the sun in your eyes most of the way. I took some pictures of the sunrise however. It was a great ride.
I headed past Booger Hollow, past the old Dogpatch amusement park which is in ruins and then to the Buffalo River. I hit Harrison and then decided that if I went to Branson, I could make it in time for our 9:40 worship service at the church I attended. I made it to Branson and attended the contemporary service just coming off the road in Harley gear. Well there were some wide open eyes since it is not a dress that most people wear to our church. However, the people recognized me and were kind, more or less, then it was time to hit the road.
So I headed down 76 and stopped at the Harley-Motorcycle leather store in Branson and milled around there until I got a call from Brokerbelle that it was raining in the Joplin area. I headed for Joplin after storing any thing that does not like water in the watertight bag that I always carry. I then headed the backroads to home going from Branson to Reeds Springs, to Crane, to Monet, to Wentworth, to Diamond, to Saginaw and safely back to Joplin with hardly a drop on me. Ah the adventure of going the farm roads at 60 to 70 miles per hours.
The ride was great. The roads were curvy. The air was fresh and I returned feeling better physically than when I left.
It was a great ride. I will be posting some pictures of the ride from time to time in the days following.
HarleyDad
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Saturday, June 03, 2006
True Believers and The Da Vinci Code
True Believers and The Da Vinci Code
HarleyDad used to read. It has been a long time; but one good book was Eric Hoffer’s True Believer. Eric Hoffer was a longshoresman with an excellent mind and insight on life.
Now in one sense I am a true believer myself and in one sense I am not. Not even all the apostles were true believers. There was always a sceptic or two in the midst such as St. Thomas, but even they became believers when they experienced the presence of the Risen Christ.
Without a strong belief in the resurrection, the disciples would not have been willing to encounter the violent deaths that they did encounter. Peter when fleeing Rome during the persecution would not have turned around to go back and experience the violent death by crucifixion that took not only his life, but that of his wife. Paul who had one time had been a sceptic regarding Christ, later wrote that if we do not believe the resurrection we are to be pitied by others who do not believe. At least 10 of the original disciples met death willingly and became martyrs (witnesses) who followed the path of sacrifice of Christ .
And so being a true believer, I greet Dan Brown’s statements in The Da Vinci Code not with alarm, but with a yawn. Dan Brown served up a warmed over stew made up of morsels from an earlier book “Holy Cross-Holy Grail.” However through excellent writing this stew was served up in a most delicious and appetizing manner. However, a false stew it is, complete with fake experts, forged documents and other assorted morsels designed to appeal to the ignorant.
After all if one has truly experienced the Living and Resurrected Christ, then when you have experienced what is Real it is difficult to believe what is false. For instance if I had been to a zoo and had seem a Bald Eagle and then someone told me that a canary was an eagle, I might try to convince them that they were wrong or simply smile and go on my way. After all, the canary is a bird, and it flies and so it must be an eagle. Once you have seen an eagle, you know the eagle. And it is NOT a canary.
It is for this reason that I am intrigued about how many people are willing to eat the soup served up to them.
It is some what difficult for one to believe that Jesus Christ slipped alway after having fooled the Romans skilled in crucifixion and fled to Europe with Mary Magdalene as his bride. Of course his line would be protected by a secret group. And all this time, I had assumed that it took faith to be a Christian. However, it must take double faith to believe this line of malarky. But then that is what fiction is all about. Why would a group of disciples and then later many others be martyred to protect a teacher that slipped away in the night to hide himself and raise his family.
And then there is that statement made by C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity about Jesus. He said something to the effect that if the Great Teacher said that He was the Son of God, then that leads to one of two conclusions. Either he was who he said he was or “he was as crazy as a poached egg.” I agree with C.S. Lewis.
We need to get straight on who Jesus is. Either we take him at his word or he was a charlatan, a fraud, a liar and a cheat who has duped the masses or he is who is says he is.
Dan Brown and the writers and producers of the Da Vinci Code have chosen one alternative. I prefer the other. It is as simple as that.
HarleyDad has seen the eagle and it ain’t no canary. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know.
HarleyDad used to read. It has been a long time; but one good book was Eric Hoffer’s True Believer. Eric Hoffer was a longshoresman with an excellent mind and insight on life.
Now in one sense I am a true believer myself and in one sense I am not. Not even all the apostles were true believers. There was always a sceptic or two in the midst such as St. Thomas, but even they became believers when they experienced the presence of the Risen Christ.
Without a strong belief in the resurrection, the disciples would not have been willing to encounter the violent deaths that they did encounter. Peter when fleeing Rome during the persecution would not have turned around to go back and experience the violent death by crucifixion that took not only his life, but that of his wife. Paul who had one time had been a sceptic regarding Christ, later wrote that if we do not believe the resurrection we are to be pitied by others who do not believe. At least 10 of the original disciples met death willingly and became martyrs (witnesses) who followed the path of sacrifice of Christ .
And so being a true believer, I greet Dan Brown’s statements in The Da Vinci Code not with alarm, but with a yawn. Dan Brown served up a warmed over stew made up of morsels from an earlier book “Holy Cross-Holy Grail.” However through excellent writing this stew was served up in a most delicious and appetizing manner. However, a false stew it is, complete with fake experts, forged documents and other assorted morsels designed to appeal to the ignorant.
After all if one has truly experienced the Living and Resurrected Christ, then when you have experienced what is Real it is difficult to believe what is false. For instance if I had been to a zoo and had seem a Bald Eagle and then someone told me that a canary was an eagle, I might try to convince them that they were wrong or simply smile and go on my way. After all, the canary is a bird, and it flies and so it must be an eagle. Once you have seen an eagle, you know the eagle. And it is NOT a canary.
It is for this reason that I am intrigued about how many people are willing to eat the soup served up to them.
It is some what difficult for one to believe that Jesus Christ slipped alway after having fooled the Romans skilled in crucifixion and fled to Europe with Mary Magdalene as his bride. Of course his line would be protected by a secret group. And all this time, I had assumed that it took faith to be a Christian. However, it must take double faith to believe this line of malarky. But then that is what fiction is all about. Why would a group of disciples and then later many others be martyred to protect a teacher that slipped away in the night to hide himself and raise his family.
And then there is that statement made by C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity about Jesus. He said something to the effect that if the Great Teacher said that He was the Son of God, then that leads to one of two conclusions. Either he was who he said he was or “he was as crazy as a poached egg.” I agree with C.S. Lewis.
We need to get straight on who Jesus is. Either we take him at his word or he was a charlatan, a fraud, a liar and a cheat who has duped the masses or he is who is says he is.
Dan Brown and the writers and producers of the Da Vinci Code have chosen one alternative. I prefer the other. It is as simple as that.
HarleyDad has seen the eagle and it ain’t no canary. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know.
Good Afghanistan Map
Now this is what I call a good map of Afghanistan. You can see it in large size by going to the following address:http://www.verygoodsearch.com/maps/afghanistan-ref.shtml
The Mega Church and Kubla Khan
The Mega Church and the Palace of Kubla Khan
Unless the Lord builds the house, those that build it labor in vain.
…somewhere in the Bible
Last night our family ate out with my parents. They are in their 80’s and have served God faithfully for a long time. And so in response to a question, my father began to talk about the denomination in which I was raised and the Texas mega-churches. I listened. At my age, I occasionally take the advice that I heard as a boy that God gave you two ears and one mouth because listening is twice as important as speaking. I often speak, and now was the time to listen.
Among other things, I heard how popular the mega churches are. I heard about all the facilities that they have and how they can meet so many needs. Many even contain restaurants and work-out facilities so that we can become “in shape” Christians, an idea that seemed to work well in a prior generation with the development of the YMCA and YWCA. Does anyone recall that the YMCA stands for the Young Mens’ Christian Association.
Next we heard about a new 40 million dollar facility for a mega-church being built in my parent’s hometown. We also heard that mega-churches send out their own missionaries, instead of banding together in a spirit of cooperation with other people of the same denomination or a spirit of cross denominational unity.
In my parent’s denomination, there is a drive for doctrinal purity so about one third of the missionaries in the field were unable to return as the denomination morphed into a more centralized creedal denomination.
Things have changed a bunch from when HarleyDad was a boy growing up.
And so after supper, I slept. And as I slept I continued to listen to the musings of my Heavenly Father in my heart and below are the messages are echoing in my heart. Now let’s be clear about one thing—the heart can be deceitful and someone with the name of HarleyDad obviously does not run in the circles of those who “hear from God” and engage in “infallibility.”
However, from time to time I try to listen to the Spirit of God and this is what I think I heard:
The loss of so many missionaries is not a good thing. These people have made great sacrifices for the Kingdom of God. Great injury has occurred to the Kingdom even though it is not necessary visible to the unassisted eye.
We all do much wrong with noble intentions.
Those who have $40 million dollars to spend on their new churches are responsible for the $40 million that they have. They are stewards of money belonging to the kingdom of God. They better use it well because we are all responsible for what we are given.
Big is not better. Richer is not better than poorer. That is what the story of the widow’s mite is all about. God sees things better than we do.
Better to have a mega heart than a mega church. Nothing wrong with both; but if you have to choose better to have a mega heart.
The way into the kingdom is narrow. Sometimes mega things can not get through the narrow passage, be they people loaded with mega possession, camels etc. Sometimes less is better than more.
God has called us to build the house of God but the call comes from the top down rather than the bottom up. The call comes from the top. The building comes from the bottom.
God is not too impressed with personality cults or superstar preachers. Jesus Christ gave an example of the leadership of the church being servants. If you are too important or busy to be a servant because of your position in a church, then you better go ride a Harley like HarleyDad.
Are we about building the kingdom of God on earth, or should we rather build spiritual pleasure domes like Kubla Khan where our every desire can be met.
Well, HarleyDad has written enough to get into MEGA trouble. I wonder if Jeremiah ever road a Harley. Oh well, better than a Harley than having to walk around naked with a yoke on my neck.
HarleyDad
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Why the Taliban is back in Afghanistan
Below is an article by Ahmed Rashid for the BBC. I would encourage you to read it:
"Afghanistan: Taleban's second coming
By Ahmed Rashid
Guest journalist and writer Ahmed Rashid on why Afghanistan is facing a resurgent Taleban movement.
Taleban fighters are able to attack, then melt away into communitiesNearly 400 Afghans have been killed in an unprecedented offensive by the Taleban, in a bid to pre-empt a major deployment by some 6,000 Nato troops this summer in southern Afghanistan.
From just a few hundred guerrillas last year, Taleban commander Mullah Dadullah now claims to have 12,000 men under arms and control of 20 districts in the former Taleban heartland in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan. There is also a strong Taleban-al-Qaeda presence in the eastern provinces bordering Pakistan.
Why - five years after the Taleban and al-Qaeda were smashed by US forces - is Afghanistan facing a resurgent Taleban movement that is now threatening to overwhelm it?
Even though the country now has a legitimately elected president, government and parliament, there have been major failures by the international community and the Afghan government in their inability to provide troops, security and funds for reconstruction and nation building to the Pashtun population in the south.
Security vacuum
Neither Nato, nor the American forces they are replacing, have offered an honest assessment of their successes and failures during the past five years.
Afghanistan has received far less funds for reconstruction than almost all recent nation building efforts such as the former Yugoslavia, Haiti or East Timor
Here is a checklist of failures in the south that the US, Nato, the UN and the Afghan government should be discussing and rectifying:
Washington's refusal to take state building in Afghanistan seriously after 2001 and instead waging a fruitless war in Iraq, created a major international distraction which the Taleban took advantage of to slowly rebuild their forces.
US-led coalition forces were never deployed in southern Afghanistan in sufficient numbers, even though this was the Taleban heartland and needed to be secured. Apart from a US base for 3,000 troops in Kandahar and a couple of fire bases, for four years there was virtually no military presence in three of the four provinces. US forces failed to secure even the major cities and highways in the south. The growing security vacuum in the south was steadily filled by the Taleban.
The rise in attacks come as Nato boosts its troops in the country
Afghanistan has received far less funds for reconstruction than almost all recent nation building efforts such as the former Yugoslavia, Haiti or East Timor. The lack of security in the south meant that UN development agencies and western and Afghan aid organisations could not provide sufficient aid and reconstruction. Nor was there ever adequate funding by western donors, especially for rebuilding the vital agricultural sector. The West's refusal to invest in agriculture on which 70% of the population depend, led to a massive return to poppy production by destitute farmers in the south, which quickly spread to the rest of the country.
Drug smugglers and cartels now offer much greater incentives to Pashtun farmers than aid agencies. The best functioning extension programmes for farmers are operated by opium traffickers who provide improved varieties of poppy seeds, fertilizer, improved methods of cultivation, banking and loan facilities and organised large scale employment during the poppy harvest. Compared to 2001 when poppy cultivation was at a minimum, southern Afghanistan now needs to develop an entire alternative economy costing billions of dollars in order to replace the drugs economy.
The drugs economy has fuelled massive corruption among government officials, undermined the authority of the government and funded the Taleban. The failure to reconstruct the south has led to widespread public disillusionment, increasing sympathy for the Taleban and anger at the Afghan government. Drugs money has allowed the Taleban to acquire new weapons, provide salaries to fighters and larger sums to suicide bombers.
Corruption
For the past five years President Hamid Karzai has tolerated Pashtun warlords as governors, police chiefs and administrators in the south. Most of these warlords were discredited and defeated by the Taleban in the 1990s, but were resuscitated by US forces to help defeat the Taleban in 2001. Unlike Northern Alliance warlords who tended to defy President Karzai's authority, these Pashtun warlords were friends of the government and helped secure the Pashtun vote for Karzai in two Loya Jirgas and two elections in 2004 and 2005. Despite pledging loyalty to President Karzai these warlord-governors became visibly corrupt, by their open involvement in the drugs trade, cutting deals with criminal gangs and the Taleban and showing supreme incompetence in dealing with development issues. For the majority of southern Pashtuns, the corruption of these warlord-governors unfortunately symbolised the intentions of the Kabul government.
There have been a spate of suicide car attacks
Kabul refused to change these warlord-governors, until forced to do so by Nato countries, who refused to deploy their troops until they were removed. Thus Canada, Britain and the Netherlands played a major role in forcing the resignation of the governors of Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan - the provinces in which their troops are now being deployed.
Kabul's offer of an amnesty and safe passage home in 2003 to non-belligerent Taleban living in Pakistan was a sensible attempt at reconciliation, but it was badly handled. The Northern Alliance leaders refused to accept any reconciliation with the Taleban. Overtures to the Taleban were handled secretly by the American and Afghan intelligence, instead of being done openly with international support and guarantees of protection for returning Taleban and a separate aid programme to rehabilitate them. Pakistan refused to help persuade the Taleban to return home, while Washington refused to put any pressure on Islamabad to do so. The reconciliation drive has been a failure.
After being routed in 2001 the Taleban found a safe sanctuary in Balochistan and the North West Frontier province of Pakistan. They have been able to set up a major logistics hub, training camps, carry out fund raising and have been free to recruit fighters from madrassas and refugee camps. The Taleban have received help from Pakistan's two provincial governments, the MMA, Islamic extremist groups, the drugs mafia and criminal gangs - while the military regime has looked the other way. Al-Qaeda has helped the Taleban reorganise and forge alliances with other Afghan and Central Asian rebel groups.
Thus the current Taleban resurgence is a reflection of the failure of policies by all the major players in Afghanistan - the US, Nato, the UN, the international community, the Afghan government and neighbours such as Pakistan.
All these problems will have to be addressed honestly and frankly, before Nato and Afghan security forces will be able to defeat the Taleban. "
This article is important and explains much of what is going on in Afghanistan today.
HarleyDad
"Afghanistan: Taleban's second coming
By Ahmed Rashid
Guest journalist and writer Ahmed Rashid on why Afghanistan is facing a resurgent Taleban movement.
Taleban fighters are able to attack, then melt away into communitiesNearly 400 Afghans have been killed in an unprecedented offensive by the Taleban, in a bid to pre-empt a major deployment by some 6,000 Nato troops this summer in southern Afghanistan.
From just a few hundred guerrillas last year, Taleban commander Mullah Dadullah now claims to have 12,000 men under arms and control of 20 districts in the former Taleban heartland in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan. There is also a strong Taleban-al-Qaeda presence in the eastern provinces bordering Pakistan.
Why - five years after the Taleban and al-Qaeda were smashed by US forces - is Afghanistan facing a resurgent Taleban movement that is now threatening to overwhelm it?
Even though the country now has a legitimately elected president, government and parliament, there have been major failures by the international community and the Afghan government in their inability to provide troops, security and funds for reconstruction and nation building to the Pashtun population in the south.
Security vacuum
Neither Nato, nor the American forces they are replacing, have offered an honest assessment of their successes and failures during the past five years.
Afghanistan has received far less funds for reconstruction than almost all recent nation building efforts such as the former Yugoslavia, Haiti or East Timor
Here is a checklist of failures in the south that the US, Nato, the UN and the Afghan government should be discussing and rectifying:
Washington's refusal to take state building in Afghanistan seriously after 2001 and instead waging a fruitless war in Iraq, created a major international distraction which the Taleban took advantage of to slowly rebuild their forces.
US-led coalition forces were never deployed in southern Afghanistan in sufficient numbers, even though this was the Taleban heartland and needed to be secured. Apart from a US base for 3,000 troops in Kandahar and a couple of fire bases, for four years there was virtually no military presence in three of the four provinces. US forces failed to secure even the major cities and highways in the south. The growing security vacuum in the south was steadily filled by the Taleban.
The rise in attacks come as Nato boosts its troops in the country
Afghanistan has received far less funds for reconstruction than almost all recent nation building efforts such as the former Yugoslavia, Haiti or East Timor. The lack of security in the south meant that UN development agencies and western and Afghan aid organisations could not provide sufficient aid and reconstruction. Nor was there ever adequate funding by western donors, especially for rebuilding the vital agricultural sector. The West's refusal to invest in agriculture on which 70% of the population depend, led to a massive return to poppy production by destitute farmers in the south, which quickly spread to the rest of the country.
Drug smugglers and cartels now offer much greater incentives to Pashtun farmers than aid agencies. The best functioning extension programmes for farmers are operated by opium traffickers who provide improved varieties of poppy seeds, fertilizer, improved methods of cultivation, banking and loan facilities and organised large scale employment during the poppy harvest. Compared to 2001 when poppy cultivation was at a minimum, southern Afghanistan now needs to develop an entire alternative economy costing billions of dollars in order to replace the drugs economy.
The drugs economy has fuelled massive corruption among government officials, undermined the authority of the government and funded the Taleban. The failure to reconstruct the south has led to widespread public disillusionment, increasing sympathy for the Taleban and anger at the Afghan government. Drugs money has allowed the Taleban to acquire new weapons, provide salaries to fighters and larger sums to suicide bombers.
Corruption
For the past five years President Hamid Karzai has tolerated Pashtun warlords as governors, police chiefs and administrators in the south. Most of these warlords were discredited and defeated by the Taleban in the 1990s, but were resuscitated by US forces to help defeat the Taleban in 2001. Unlike Northern Alliance warlords who tended to defy President Karzai's authority, these Pashtun warlords were friends of the government and helped secure the Pashtun vote for Karzai in two Loya Jirgas and two elections in 2004 and 2005. Despite pledging loyalty to President Karzai these warlord-governors became visibly corrupt, by their open involvement in the drugs trade, cutting deals with criminal gangs and the Taleban and showing supreme incompetence in dealing with development issues. For the majority of southern Pashtuns, the corruption of these warlord-governors unfortunately symbolised the intentions of the Kabul government.
There have been a spate of suicide car attacks
Kabul refused to change these warlord-governors, until forced to do so by Nato countries, who refused to deploy their troops until they were removed. Thus Canada, Britain and the Netherlands played a major role in forcing the resignation of the governors of Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan - the provinces in which their troops are now being deployed.
Kabul's offer of an amnesty and safe passage home in 2003 to non-belligerent Taleban living in Pakistan was a sensible attempt at reconciliation, but it was badly handled. The Northern Alliance leaders refused to accept any reconciliation with the Taleban. Overtures to the Taleban were handled secretly by the American and Afghan intelligence, instead of being done openly with international support and guarantees of protection for returning Taleban and a separate aid programme to rehabilitate them. Pakistan refused to help persuade the Taleban to return home, while Washington refused to put any pressure on Islamabad to do so. The reconciliation drive has been a failure.
After being routed in 2001 the Taleban found a safe sanctuary in Balochistan and the North West Frontier province of Pakistan. They have been able to set up a major logistics hub, training camps, carry out fund raising and have been free to recruit fighters from madrassas and refugee camps. The Taleban have received help from Pakistan's two provincial governments, the MMA, Islamic extremist groups, the drugs mafia and criminal gangs - while the military regime has looked the other way. Al-Qaeda has helped the Taleban reorganise and forge alliances with other Afghan and Central Asian rebel groups.
Thus the current Taleban resurgence is a reflection of the failure of policies by all the major players in Afghanistan - the US, Nato, the UN, the international community, the Afghan government and neighbours such as Pakistan.
All these problems will have to be addressed honestly and frankly, before Nato and Afghan security forces will be able to defeat the Taleban. "
This article is important and explains much of what is going on in Afghanistan today.
HarleyDad
Saturday, May 27, 2006
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