Fighting in Afghanistan Kills U.S. Soldier

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghan and U.S. troops backed up by American aircraft fought suspected Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, leaving one U.S. service member and an unknown number of militants dead, officials said.

A second U.S. service member and an Afghan soldier were wounded in the fighting in Helmand province's Sangin district, a hotbed of insurgency and the booming drug trade, a U.S. military statement said.

American war planes dropped 11 guided bombs on about 20 militants taking part in the clash, the U.S. military said. "Some Taliban have been killed, but we don't know how many," said Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi.

The slain U.S. service member's name was withheld pending notification of relatives. His death brought to 222 the number of U.S. service members killed in and around Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060325/ap_on_re_as/afghan_fighting

And why do they keep saying the "ouster of the Talliban"? Sure sounds like they're alive a doing well to me!

Not if there is a booming drug trade...
For whatever they are/were, the Taliban was/were violently opposed to drugs. Poppy/heroin production had ceased under their regime.

Opium and the Taliban, an explosive cocktail in Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060313/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanattacksdrugs_060313063029

How doggone interesting!

God! What an ugly world it is that surrounds us.

Thanx for the update, maddezmom.

The rest of the time, the Taliban allowed it, and undoubtedly prospered from it.

They banned it in 2001, no one is sure why. There is speculation they were hoping to score brownie points with the international community (this is when Powell gave them $43 million), or maybe they just had so much stockpiled, they wanted to drive prices up.

and the best news of all: Afghanistan is now the largest opium producer in the world!

Thank you America!

Believe in freedom of religion.

What a bag a shit this Bush and Co. hand out to the people

In their last year in power, before they were toppled in a US:led
invasion in late 2001, the internationally reviled Taliban banned
opium and succeeded in drastically slashing its production to 185
tonnes from 3,300 the year before.

Some observers say their motivation was to win international favour; others
say they wanted to push up the price of the raw ingredient of heroin.

Four years later the Taliban, now anti:government rebels, are willing
to protect opium and opium farmers against the new administration, being
pushed to eradicate the crop by the international community which sees it
as a source terror funding.

Said Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley , "After the Taliban pressured farmers
to grow poppy, it is very likely that they are protecting them.
They could be involved by giving farmers rifles."

http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=137368

The Taliban's former spokesman is now a Yale student. Anyone see a problem with that?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=545986&mesg_id=545986

Anyone?



http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/afghanistan/hashimi.html

damm.

We merely replaced one fundamentalist regime with another!

crap

Grass Bush

Pile the bodies high in Austerlitz and Waterloo Iraq
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; bush; I cover all.

And pile them high in Gettyburg Baghdad
And pile them high in Ypres and Vedum Afghanistan and Al Fallaujah

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?

I am the grass bush.
Let me work.

Carl Sandburg


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