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GUEST: Emmanuel Reinert, Executive Director of SENLIS Council

It has been nearly five years since the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom claiming retaliation for the attacks on 9/11. But has the war in Afghanistan been a success as many Americans are led to believe? Two influential international think tanks yesterday released reports on the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. The International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) reported that a vital opportunity was lost when the West failed to carry out adequate reconstruction work after the 2001 war in Afghanistan. Another think tank, the Senlis Council also claims that Western forces in Afghanistan are caught in a cycle of violence against the Taliban which is sparking poverty and starvation on a grand scale. The violence is turning the average Afghan against British and US forces, leading some to claim their lives were better under Taliban rule. According to the Senlis report, the Taliban now “have a strong grip on the Southern half of the country.” Meanwhile, Pakistan’s government just signed a peace deal with the heads of a semi-autonomous border region with Afghanistan, aimed at ending years of violence. Under the deal, fighters from the border province would stop attacks on Pakistani forces and stop crossing into Afghanistan to attack U.S. forces hunting al-Qaida and Taliban. Pakistani troops for their part, will stop their hugely unpopular military campaign in the area, where hundreds of civilians, fighters and their own soldiers have been killed.

For more information, visit www.senliscouncil.net.

Read the entire report here:
http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/publications/014_publication