The plan to embed in Afghanistan has come to fruition. Late next week, I will be headed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, and will embed with the Canadian Army, and will spend about three weeks in country. The activity in and around Kandahar has been intense as the Taliban are attempting to reestablish control of southeastern Afghanistan. There is still a chance I may meet up with a U.S. Army unit operating in Afghanistan (the Marine unit I wanted to embed with is rotating out of country.)
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America’s loss is our gain. More respected than the CBC, more meaningful than a Globe & Mail poll – as a bonus, Bill actually knows of what he writes. Imagine that – a war reporter with knowledge of the subject matter that rises to the level expected of sports broadcasters!
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Good news and bad news today:
The good news is that the major Afghan agrarian industry that was suppressed by the Taliban has bounced back to exceed pre-Taliban productivity ( indicating Taliban influence in this argraian region is diminishing)….the bad news is that the crop is opium.
However I’m sure the “connected” brokerages who fence this illicit drug in North America and Europe are glad that the new Afghan government is spread thing fighting the Taliban while regional drug warlords dominate a very lucrative opium trade with their old partners in Paris and New York
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52042
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=1675283&page=1
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0513/p01s04-wosc.html?s=spworld
Good news and bad news today:
Good news is that the specific agrarian regions of afghanistan which were suppressed by the Taliban, have rebounded and exceeded pre-Taliban production….indicatin Taliban influence in the agrarian regions is in decline.
The bad news is the crop is opium.
It seems that the new government has no time to battle opium war lords in the provinces when it has its hands full rooting out Taliban resistance.
However I suspect there are some very happy “connected” fences who supply the pure Afghan opium for distribution in Paris and New York.
Pollsters confounded … again.
“In some ways, what is most remarkable here is how robust support for the mission has proven to be,” said Ekos President Frank Graves.
“After all, for the first time in many years, Canadians are seeing significant casualties among their armed forces,” he said in a statement
http://www.voy.com/178771/
more …
Looks like some Afghans like the Canadians:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/05/11/taliban05112006.html
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have captured 10 suspected Taliban fighters.
GUMBAD, AFGHANISTAN: A suspected Taliban prisoner is searched, handcuffed and processed by members of the 1st Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, after a raid on a compound in northern Kandahar. (JOHN D MCHUGH/AFP/Getty Images)
http://www.voy.com/178771/10957.html