Pubdate: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL) Copyright: 2006 The Sun-Times Co. Contact: http://www.suntimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81 BUSH CAN'T AFFORD TO LET AFGHANISTAN WOES WORSEN It is likely Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf were not feted with tea and Twinkies when they dined with President Bush at the White House on Wednesday. Tea and Twinkies were on the menu when Musharraf visited Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" earlier in the week, but there were far fewer laughs at the White House when Karzai and Musharraf met face-to-face after publicly squabbling about the lack of security along the Afghan-Pakistan border. While Musharraf has denied his country is abetting Taliban fighters, reports suggest otherwise. It is believed Pakistani sympathizers are harboring al-Qaida leaders and supporting the Taliban by swapping weapons for drugs. Indeed, poppy cultivation has blossomed in Afghanistan -- a problem Karzai said he takes responsibility for. The United Nations estimates this year's opium yield has gone up 49 percent, and money gleaned from the drug-infused flowers goes into the warlords' pockets and then buys weapons for Taliban fighters. It was believed, five years ago when the United States went into Afghanistan, that the Taliban -- who had ruled Afghanistan since the Soviets withdrew -- had been decimated. But like the poppy that grows so effortlessly in the harsh Afghan soil, they have grown in force and in determination to take back control of the country. The entire southern part of the country, near the Pakistan border, has been devastated by suicide bombers and roadside bombs. The murder of an Afghan official who was working for women's rights was fanatical and repugnant. Safia Amajan was a religious woman and wore a burka when a Taliban gunman shot her four times with a pistol. The vicious killing recalled filmed scenes in a Kabul sports stadium when the Taliban were in power and a woman was brought into the middle of the field and shot in the head. NATO forces, about 18,500 troops, are frustrated because their mission had been intended to help reconstruction, not fight the Taliban, and they rightly are asking for more troops. Many Afghans have lost faith in Karzai's government: Only one in 10 has electrical power at home. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry noted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday that the American government must pressure our allies who "have pledged troops and assistance" but have not followed through. Pakistan President Musharraf recently made a deal with tribal lords to leave jurisdiction of their lands to them in exchange for no militant incursions into Afghanistan. It isn't working. It is hoped President Bush communicated this to Musharraf and that he will turn his attention again to the continuing problem of Afghanistan's instability. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman