How Goes the Afghan War?

A fair question, especially in the wake of this latest debacle, the attempted assassination of Karzai and the reaction of the Afghan troops and police on hand, ie: fleeing for their lives (see pic above.)

To judge by this analysis from Debka.com (who know their eggs), the answer to "How goes the Afghan war?" must be not well at all. Particularly troubling is the obvious inside help that must have been lent, which is so reminiscent of the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat by Egyptian Jhad Islami, who later formed al Qaeda with bin Laden.

It seems to me that if the "insurgents" can strike like this at the heart of the Afghan government in the heart of the capital, what can we make of talk of "progress" being made elsewhere? Kandahar is clearly a mess, they couldn't even pull off a USO show on base there without it coming under mortar fire.

The Australian PM is preparing Australians for a tough 2008 as his "Army chiefs warn that Afghanistan is entering its so-called fighting period, when the melting of winter snow heralds an increase in activity by Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists."

Great, just great. Those melting snows can also bring another influx of Chinese Muslim fighters into Afghanistan of the kind that's been going on since at least 2001. These are "entering Afghanistan along the ancient Krakoram Road to the Afghan-Pakistani border, through the Kulik Pass of Little Pamir, which is situated in one of the highest and most remote regions of the world."

Spell along with Ol' Uncle Dave now, kiddies: Q-U-A-G-M-I-R-E.