US concerned international community may abandon Afghanistan

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States expressed concern Thursday that the international community could abandon Afghanistan, cautioning that success in the insurgency-wracked nation was "not assured."

"The greatest threat to Afghanistan's future is abandonment by the international community," Richard Boucher, the State Department's pointman for Afghanistan, told a Senate hearing on the turmoil in Afghanistan.

He said the mission in Afghanistan needed more troops and equipment, such as helicopters, pointing out that "too few of our allies have combat troops fighting the insurgents especially in the south."

Southern Afghanistan has seen the worst violence since the Taliban were ousted in the US-led invasion in 2001, after the September 11 terror attacks masterminded by Al-Qaeda, whose leaders were given sanctuary by the Taliban.

Several top experts, including retired US Marine Corps general James Jones, warned in separate reports Wednesday that Afghanistan could become a failed state.

The reports came amid new concerns over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's commitment to providing more troops to fight a resurgent Taliban militia, whose control of the sparsely populated parts of Afghanistan was increasing


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080131/pl_afp/usafghanistanattacksnato_080131165313

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Wow, maybe other countries know to stop digging when you're in a hole. But not us!

[noonwitch]

2. Isolating Afganistan will do no one any good.

When they were isolated before, that was when bin Laden moved in to take refuge.

I separate the war in Afganistan from the one in Iraq. The guys who attacked us on 9-11 were hiding there.