Problems in Afghanistan

Drawing on a CIA report reflecting Afghan popular frustration with Hamid Karzai's weak government, Sunday's New York Times has a review of the problems facing Afghanistan, including:

WEAK GOVERNMENT

• Weak leadership by President Karzai;
• The Afghan government's inability to project its power outside Kabul;
• Failure to deliver on reconstruction promises;
• Failure to deliver services to the countryside;
• Perceptions of corruption;
• Corrupt local bigshots and bureaucrats between the central government and powerful village councils that effectively govern many people in the countryside;
• Weak military forces;
• Police forces that will have to be built up, a very expensive task; and
• Generalized weakness.

TALIBAN RESURGENCE

• Decreased overall security;
• Resurgence of Taliban forces;
• Increasing numbers of Taliban attacks;
• Increasing numbers of roadside bombings;
• Suicide attacks, a tactic apparently taken from Iraq;
• The Taliban's continued ability to use Pakistan as a haven:
• The Taliban's increasing support within Afghanistan;
• Coerced Taliban support;
• Opportunism and adventure-seeking by military-age men who join Taliban forces;
• Taliban promises to protect opium crops against government eradication efforts; and
• Resource-sharing by drug smugglers and the Taliban.

Reports from Afghanistan, whether from CIA sources or press sources, consistently say that the war in Afghanistan is difficult and the government is not performing well. The United States is apparently working to put more money and focus onto efforts in Afghanistan, through development of intelligence reports that favor this position -- reasonably, I might add. I hope the U.S. is able to get the forces up and ready to reach the Afghan countryside.