In Greek mythology, Sisyphus (pronounced /ˈsɪsəfəs/; Greek: Σίσυφος sísypʰos was a king punished in Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity.

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war

Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting

This is an excellent article in yesterday's Washington Post There is a link on the page to the State Dept officer's letter of resignation. If you don't have time to read the article, please read the letter.

As for Iraq, there were no reasons but lies to go to war with Afghanistan. Just pull evryone out, we're not Nazi Germany.

(Or at least, we should not be.)

Have a read of his letter when you have time Vidd.

The US should leave, like McDonald's is soon to leave Iceland.

What a mess... interesting read though. Big news for the U.S. Army... what happens next? Obama has a real task ahead of him on Afghanistan strategy... what does he do? 100% pull-out overnight is impossible as a civil war would almost certainly break out immediately together with large scale massacre of poor civilians caught in the middle of it all. Leave the Taliban to partly govern their own country? I don't think so. But clearly U.S. strategy/tactics not working. Is there even a solution? I think whatever the next move by the U.S. there will be plenty of bloodshed, it's just a matter of limiting that bloodshed and moving forwards somehow towards Afghanistan partial-stabilisation.

Vidd, what do you think would happen if the U.S. 100% pulled out of Afghanistan this weekend... what do you think would be going on there this time next week?

Afghanistan's local economy would flourish under the Taliban...

2008 Reuters report:

Afghanistan's poppy fields produced 93 percent of the world's opium last year, but Afghan officials say drug traffickers are increasingly using chemicals to convert it into heroin before it is shipped abroad.

The Afghan ambassador to the United Nations hailed Wednesday's resolution, drafted by France, which will host a 65-nation donor conference on Afghanistan on Thursday, as a blow at Taliban insurgents who profit from the drug trade.

all this hoo ha..  its ok   the americans have found the soloution here

...its all about benjamin  ...   just in this case benjamin al-taliban

Thanks for the link to the article Alex. Matthew Hoh has clearly served his country with distinction and he knows what he is talking about. Those of us who have not yet had field experience should be careful in criticising those who have. However, while i agree with 90% of what Hoh says i disagree with his assessment. Hoh says that it is 'their (the Afghans) problem to solve' this is true but it is also a bigger problem. It is Pakistan's problem and 9/11 showed it is the world's problem. History may prove me wrong but i believe our best hope for a stable outcome is to commit to a long term and comprehensive COIN strategy, protecting civilians, rebuilding the country and isolating the insurgency until it becomes a weak and marginal force and until the afghans work out that they have more to gain working with us than with the Taliban. This brings me to pulling out. I find this a lazy and irresponsible argument. I remember it was used a lot in 2006 regarding Iraq. If the americans had of pulled out then there would have been a civil war and tens of thousands of sunnis would have been killed. Iraq is much much more stable today because we applied COIN principles. However, it is not a finished project and could still go backwards. Just because COIN worked in Iraq does not mean it will work in Afghanistan, COIN is not a template you just apply wherever you go. You have to adjust it to suit your AO(area of operations) Some people that i really respect like Hugh White, think the war is unwinable and that we (Australia, US, UK, NATO) are there is because of honour. If Hugh is right then we should leave because honour is a stupid reason for young men to die. However, I don't think he is right on this one. I say this because i think that the consequences of leaving are much worse than staying. I think that there is a real risk that if the Taliban ran the country that AQ would come back in force and you could have new terrorist raining camps. There is also a risk that a Taliban lead Afghanistan would destabilise Pakistan. This could be disastrous as Pakistan has nukes. The risk is not so much that the AQ will get its hands on the nukes but that the indians will panic and move on Pakistan and that you could then have a war between two nuclear states. also the morale boost for AQ and its allies would be huge if we pulled out. No one would ever take our commitment to fight terrorism seriously again.

Thank you very much lauren H for your considered remarks. I am going to give this some more thought.

Take 10 seconds signing up with TanglerLive and so long as you leave s'thing here following your registration, the app will know to tell you when I have got off my backside and made further comment!

Good stuff Lauren! Am now 'following' your conversations.

SHIFT + ENTER gives you a paragraph break. ENTER posts or Sends the message to the topic.

Lauren that is quite a good article by retired defence chief Peter Cosgrove in yesterday's Australian How Australia could have won the Vietnam war His basic premise is the need to win the hearts and mids of the people. He concluded with some remarks about Afghanistan. 

This will made for a fascinating debate on my birthday last March.
Intelligence Squared debate March 10th 2009