Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(December 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
The forgotten war: Afghanistan.
Since America flattened the tops of numerous mountain
ranges by their bombing of so called Taliban strong holds
in Afghanistan, in order to combat Al Qaeda terrorism,
America has kept approximately 12,000 troops in the country,
(who appear to be mainly situated in the capital city
of Kabul), whilst on the other hand in the oil rich country
of Iraq they have 130,000 troops deployed.
The Afghan war has definitely taken second place to Iraq. I wonder why there
is such a vast discrepancy between the amount of financial and military aid
being given to Afghanistan, and the spectacular huge amount of American money
flowing into Iraq? Afghanistan is certainly the poorer, and in many ways the
more needy of the two countries.
 The
Taliban is reinstating its religious hold over the people
of Afghanistan, and the powerful warlords have split
the country into many fortified territories, plus the
fact that the declared major terrorist of them all, Osama
bin Laden, is still at large.
A large part of the $87B obtained by President Bush from Congress, is said
to be going to finance the war against Middle East terrorism, but it would
appear that most of the money appears is going to pay for the upkeep of American
troops stationed in Iraq and filling the coffers of the companies contracted
to support the American military and perform construction work, with a much
lower percentage going towards the actual rebuilding of the Iraqi infrastructure.
Very little of America's money is going to improve the life of the people
living in the mountainous waste land of Afghanistan. The non-oil producing
countries such as Afghanistan, (which of course is currently relying heavily
upon increased poppy production, with the end product being the much desired
drug heroin), are being deprived of American generosity due to the fact that
the warlords are back in power and thriving on funds extracted from the local
populace by extortion, taxation, and drug trafficking.
 Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, who currently heads
the interim coalition government of Afghanistan, is a
frequent visitor to Washington with the obvious intent
of soliciting badly needed funds in an effort to try
to rebuild the war torn country. Karzai was a military
leader of the northern militia force that helped drive
the Taliban out of Kabul in 2001. Reports suggest that
if ever it is possible to hold fair elections in Afghanistan,
(which is very much doubted), Hamid Karzai will probably
be challenged by Mohammed Fahim, the current Vice President
and Defence minister, and will probably be ousted from
the interim Presidency.
After more than eighteen months only 7,000 Afghan troops
have completed military raining under British, French,
and American Officers, and many of the locals who were
recruited have deserted.
The program has been plagued by
delays, desertions, and political interference from Afghan
defence officials.
So could it be assumed that American
troops will be kept behind their barricaded barracks in
the capital city of Kabul for a long period of time without
accomplishing any of the desired results.
The growth of religious extremism:
I
was going to attempt to write an article on the subject
of who is winning the war for religious domination in
our current world, (Christianity, Muslimism, Buddhism,
or Judaism), and after researching the vast amount of
information available, I saw that it would be such an
enormous and hopeless task for an amateur like myself
to even attempt to define, let alone come up with a reasonable
facsimile of an answer, so in all humility I abandoned
the idea and admit defeat. Of course this will save me
the trouble of explaining to the believers amongst us,
my non-religious affiliations.
I came to the conclusion that even a most devout scholar,
who has studied all aspects of religion for most of his
or her life, would not be able to come up with a feasible
answer let alone come up with an accurate and acceptable
conclusion.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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