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given the hopeless muddle that the afghan adventure has been from the outset, i think this is about the only sane alternative and its release to the public indicates (finally) that there actually is attention being paid to how to get out of the muddle that is the bush administrations and now the obama administrations afghan adventure. the central government is in about the same position it was in around 2003---it cannot deliver the basic services required to assure a routinized legitimacy (basic services are a political argument for the legitimacy of the status quo if you think about it)---it represents a different coalition of factional leaders many of whom now find themselves in a far weaker position than they were in previously for having joined with the karzai goverment---the americans etc. have been a party withi a civil war rather than a mediating force for a long time---the whole situation is absurd, futile. and there are no good options. the taliban is not a great bunch of guys. the americans and allies probably dont want to be understood as a colonial occupation...there's no good way out.
so this seems to me about as sensible an approach as is possible in a nutty situation.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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