Afghanistan This Friday 13th

By Steve Hynd

It's a Black Friday for those who support the ongoing occupation in Afghanistan. Just days after NATO proudly touted getting to an arbitary number of trained Afghan Army recruits two months early, that Afghan Army proved that its training should've gone on longer. The NYT reports:

An ambitious military operation that Afghan officials had expected to be a sign of their growing military capacity instead turned into an embarrassment, with Taliban fighters battering an Afghan battalion in a remote eastern area until NATO sent in French and American rescue teams.

We've heard a lot of happy-talk from the U.S. general in charge of training the Afghan Army. If these guys are meant to stand up so we can stand down, then much of what comes out of Gen. William Caldwell's office must be simply PR spin unconnected to underlying reality (hey, much like his job in Iraq!).

Meanwhile, in Kabul:

At least two people were killed in ethnic clashes that broke out in Kabul on Friday when Hazara villagers allegedly burnt down the hilltop homes of Pashtun nomads, an official and witnesses said.

The violence started when Hazara men allegedly burnt mud houses built on a hilltop above Hazara villages on the southwestern edge of the Afghan capital, according to officials.

Police fired bullets into the air and used batons to try and disperse the crowd, but hundreds of youths marched through Hazara-dominated villages towards the city, witnesses and an official said.

At around sunset the crowd clashed with police, throwing rocks at hundreds of members of the security forces blocking the way to the city centre, a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Two Hazara youths were killed by police fire in the clashes, the official said. A senior Kabul police officer refused to comment.

The nomads, known as Kuchis, apparently faded fast leaving a Hazara-police confrontation, according to Brian Conly in Kabul. There's a possibility that the Afghan police in Kabul just showed loyalty to their government rather than to their ethnic background - even if the police need to be less trigger-happy. However, that there are ethnic tensions capable of spilling over into such violence is not a good sign for the future as the government led by (Pashtun) President Karzai moves towards reconcilliation with the (Pashtun) Taliban which will probably end up with a mixture of the two holding power and marginalising Hazara and tajik minorities. 

And, three more NATO soldiers died today. Even if none are American, we're only three deaths away from more US soldiers being killed in Afghanistan on Obama's watch than were killed during the entire two Bush terms. According to icasulaties.org, 575 US troops died during Dubya's reign and already 572 have been killed during Obama's.

No wonder Petraeus is wiggling on Obama's 2011 withdrawal date. There's nothing even remotely like a win in sight and he sees his career on the line here.

Time to call the whole thing off.