With news so good, why bother with anything else?
Andrew Sullivan offers this knee slapper today:
GOOD NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN: 83 percent of a large polling sample say they are better off than three years ago.
The polling sample was large, but it didn’t cover the entire country. And why is that you ask? If you clicked on the link, you know why:
The aid groups stressed the survey does not necessarily represent the views of all Afghans, because security concerns prevented them from getting the opinions of those living in the most dangerous areas.
Sullivan concludes happily thus:
There is still much work to do in that country. But liberation has worked there. It can still work in Iraq.
Has worked? Let’s hope the people in charge are using a different definition of worked. Sadly, No! brings you this Afghanistan roundup:
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban guerrillas attacked a road checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, killing three militiamen and wounding two others, an official said Wednesday.
In the attack, about 30 suspected Taliban, traveling in four vehicles, attacked the checkpoint in southern Helmand province’s Sangin district late Tuesday, said Dad Mohammed Khan, the provincial intelligence chief.
In a separate attack Wednesday, an Afghan soldier was shot dead. The soldier provided security for construction along a major highway linking the capital Kabul with the main southern city of Kandahar, said Mohammed Yasin, a security official.
The recognition that Afghanistan remains on the brink of collapse, in sharp contrast to the expectation that it has in fact begun moving back to stability, must be the first step towards beginning to stabilise that country.
Paul Barker, head of the aid agency Care in Afghanistan, said lack of security had led to the cancellation or delay of aid projects for more than 600,000 Afghans. The death on Sunday of UN refugee worker Bettina Goislard, bringing to 13 the number of aid workers killed over the past year, had shown why Nato teams should be deployed to the more insecure areas of the country, said Mr Barker.
The Afghan base at the Khost airport came under heavy attack last night by Taliban Mujahideen who, instead of firing rockets and slipping in the forests, waged a continuous operation using heavy weapons. The attack started at Suhoor, the morning meal before Muslims fast for the day during Ramadan, and lasted for three hours.
Jasarat is reporting fourteen soldiers in the base were killed and another 23 wounded. The injured were transferred to the Bagram airport via helicopters. No reports of Taliban casualties came for this attack. In Paktika, the Taliban ambushed a convoy at Shahi Kot using RPGs.
The United Nations has restricted movement of demining teams in southeastern Afghanistan after masked men stole a car at gunpoint in the same town where a French UN worker was shot dead at the weekend.
“The danger of terrorist activities is high in the south and southeast of the country, and the best means to contain it is to stabilize security, improve administration and expedite reconstruction process,” Interior Minister Jalali said on Thursday.
On the recent closedown of the South Korean embassy in Kabul due to fears of possible terrorist attacks, the minister said thatAfghan police is ready to provide security for any foreign missions here if they feel unsecured.
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 20 (Xinhuanet) — Pakistan Thursday refuted statements made by US and Afghan senior officials that Taliban is using its land for attacks in Afghanistan, terming the statements are “baseless,” according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.
Has worked my ass. What a useless hack Sullivan has become.