Fighting in Afghanistan Kills U.S. Soldier

[maddezmom]

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghan and U.S. troops backed up by American aircraft fought suspected Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, leaving one U.S. service member and an unknown number of militants dead, officials said.

A second U.S. service member and an Afghan soldier were wounded in the fighting in Helmand province's Sangin district, a hotbed of insurgency and the booming drug trade, a U.S. military statement said.

American war planes dropped 11 guided bombs on about 20 militants taking part in the clash, the U.S. military said. "Some Taliban have been killed, but we don't know how many," said Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi.

The slain U.S. service member's name was withheld pending notification of relatives. His death brought to 222 the number of U.S. service members killed in and around Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060325/ap_on_re_as/afghan_fighting

[napi21]

1. I thought things were doing great in Afghan?

And why do they keep saying the "ouster of the Talliban"? Sure sounds like they're alive a doing well to me!

[timtom]

2. I don't think the Taliban is doing well at all

Not if there is a booming drug trade...
For whatever they are/were, the Taliban was/were violently opposed to drugs. Poppy/heroin production had ceased under their regime.

[maddezmom]

3. reading this looks like the Taliban may have hooked up with the producers

Opium and the Taliban, an explosive cocktail in Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060313/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanattacksdrugs_060313063029

[timtom]

4. well, well

How doggone interesting!

God! What an ugly world it is that surrounds us.

Thanx for the update, maddezmom.

[High Plains]

13. That was only one year.

The rest of the time, the Taliban allowed it, and undoubtedly prospered from it.

They banned it in 2001, no one is sure why. There is speculation they were hoping to score brownie points with the international community (this is when Powell gave them $43 million), or maybe they just had so much stockpiled, they wanted to drive prices up.

[cantstandbush]

5. I can't take much more of this "good news" coming from Afghanistan. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

11. More good news: Women forced to wear burqa, Christian converts executed

and the best news of all: Afghanistan is now the largest opium producer in the world!

Thank you America!

[izzie]

6. How come we give money to a country that does not do this?

Believe in freedom of religion.

[rodeodance]

9. there are some oil pipelines there

[izzie]

15. Fun to watch them spin the thing

What a bag a shit this Bush and Co. hand out to the people

[sattahipdeep]

7. 2.8 billion dollars in exports in 2005 (65,450 acres)

In their last year in power, before they were toppled in a US:led
invasion in late 2001, the internationally reviled Taliban banned
opium and succeeded in drastically slashing its production to 185
tonnes from 3,300 the year before.

Some observers say their motivation was to win international favour; others
say they wanted to push up the price of the raw ingredient of heroin.

Four years later the Taliban, now anti:government rebels, are willing
to protect opium and opium farmers against the new administration, being
pushed to eradicate the crop by the international community which sees it
as a source terror funding.

Said Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley , "After the Taliban pressured farmers
to grow poppy, it is very likely that they are protecting them.
They could be involved by giving farmers rifles."

http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=137368

The Taliban's former spokesman is now a Yale student. Anyone see a problem with that?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=545986&mesg_id=545986

Anyone?



http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/afghanistan/hashimi.html

[rodeodance]

8. 222 dead US troops---for the sake of religious freedom.

damm.

[IndianaGreen]

10. 222 dead GIs for the right of Afghans to execute Christian converts!

We merely replaced one fundamentalist regime with another!

[rodeodance]

12. yes, the irony involved is mind-boggling!

[flygal]

14. Shit - that's where my brother's heading

crap

[0007]

16. Pile 'em high'

Grass Bush

Pile the bodies high in Austerlitz and Waterloo Iraq
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; bush; I cover all.

And pile them high in Gettyburg Baghdad
And pile them high in Ypres and Vedum Afghanistan and Al Fallaujah

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?

I am the grass bush.
Let me work.

Carl Sandburg


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