Winning Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan

The Story of the Good Ship, "Relentless"

This catchy phrase has lubricated the relentless appropriation of million after million, billion after billion of our tax dollars as a sort of "icing on the cake" in the constant redefinition of our involvement in Afghanistan.  

Oh yes, NATO has been dutifully -- and relentlessly -- training the locals in the fleeting hope that they might, one day, support the government we have installed so carefully once we are gone.  

Oh yes, 15 cents of every dollar we have relentlessly allocated for infrastructure has "hit the dirt" before even this last little bit was stolen.  

Oh yes, the poor, bomb blasted wreck of a country has been relentlessly exploited for the extraction of the relentless stream of half-baked "talking points."

Now, the Americans are as tired of this rolling disaster as the Afghans are.  But wait, how could all those Afghans be "tired" of our relentless, high priced effort to, uh, modernize their country and establish democracy there?

From DEMOCRACY NOW: ( source link )

Poll: 92% of Young Afghan Men Don’t Know About 9/11 Attacks

In other news from Afghanistan, a new public opinion poll of young Afghan men in Kandahar and Helmand provinces has been released by the International Council on Security and Development. The poll founded that 92 percent of young men in those regions knew nothing about the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States; 40 percent think NATO forces are there "to destroy Islam" or Afghanistan itself; 61 percent believe that Afghan national security forces will not be able to cope without international support; and 56 percent suspect that Afghan policemen are helping the Taliban.

Surely, after 9/11 they can understand our motivation.  Right?  And, since they understand our motivation, they should be able to understand our relentless execution of "everything necessary" to, well, oh whatever...