Two Italian Soldiers Killed in Kabul

ROME/KABUL, 6 May 2006 — Two Italian soldiers died and four others were injured yesterday in a bomb attack on a foreign troop convoy in the Afghan capital Kabul, Italian media quoted NATO sources as saying. The two victims were both members of Italy’s elite Alpino regiment and died as a result of their injuries. According to preliminary information provided by Italy’s Defense Ministry, an explosion hit two armored vehicles while they were patrolling the city.

Italy has about 2,000 peacekeeping soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. A total of 5 Italian soldiers have now died in the country since October 2004.

Also yesterday, five people including a key tribal chief and his son were killed in the latest spate of violence blamed on the Taleban in restive southern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday. Chieftain Haji Lala died along with his son and his bodyguard on Thursday when a roadside bomb planted by suspected Taleban rebels exploded beneath their vehicle in Helmand province, Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said. A provincial spokesman earlier said that men were killed in a Taleban ambush.

The attack occurred in Grishk district, where authorities on Wednesday found the beheaded body of a policeman kidnapped and killed a day earlier, allegedly by the Taleban. Lala was an influential tribal chief and was the cousin of parliamentarian and former Helmand Governor Sher Mohammad Akhundzada.

Arab News

are ever going to get our asses out of Afganistan. No matter what combination of armies and governments and alliances either try to gain power or are proposed, it all falls to shit in a matter of minutes. And NATO is trying to get a grip on that country. A country that the English and the Russians both got kicked out of, albeit at different times. No one can control the crazies in that country. Or the warlords. Or the cultivators of the poppy fields. Or the Taliban.

Oh nuts.

"Fixing" it is a different matter.

that country are vicious to women and children. Hell, they're nuts, the whole country will call for the public execution of a man just because he decides he prefers a different flavor of religion.

I'm all for getting out. I frequently wonder if it would be worth it for the Western powers to just walk out of there and let them go back to the Dark Ages (or maybe they've never really left). Let them have their warlords and mysogyny and barbarity and chauvinism (to put it mildly).

Same for Iraq. We fucked that up so bad I don't think anyone can fix it. The three sects can't get along, don't want to get along, and refuse to let the other secede. They sure ain't gonna let the Shias have all the power willingly, they are going to continue this payback of the Sunnis, and the Kurds, well the Kurds are just screwed from the get go. They just don't know it. The bush** admin doesn't care about them. Or an independent Kurdistan. Just the Kirkuk oil fields.

Shit.

The more we fight with them, the more entangled we get.

I assume you are familiar with Uncle Remus?

the deeper we get the longer we stay. Please, don't talk down to me and I won't be forced to tell you what I think of people who patronize and try to give an impression that gee, if they weren't around, the rest of us would wallow in a sea of ignorance.

And yes, I am familiar with Uncle Remus. Had a storybook of old bedtime stories and fables when I was very young. And also saw the Disney movie, many many times.

My point is that we let the bad guy lose. WE DID THAT. And now, how do put the genie back into the bottle? And I don't think that's possible. But for what we've done we will have to pay for years, maybe generations, for all the death and destruction we've caused. There are now thousands upon thousands who hate this country, and hate us, for killing their old people and babies, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles...

Yeah, we can cut and run. I wish we would in Iraq. But its the residule problems that worry me. And all the hardship and hatred we will leave behind.