Afghan Outlook Bleak as Taliban Grabs Territory

Debranya Brower
10-16-09
4:50 pm
Although there is a record number of troops in Afghanistan, there is still a need for more. The Taliban is not slacking up in their efforts to take over and it is going to more troops to try and stop them. The warning signs were not seen earlier on when the Taliban was trying to make their presence known in the population. Unfortuanately those warning signs were all to familiar to many of us because they included things such as a rise in drug trade, crime and corruption. Our government viewed this as just a simple rise in crime in the area and not a maliscious group trying to take over. Although there are many people that want to do away the Taliban, many Afghans are joining them due to the enormous amount of Afghan civilians that are being killed each day because of US Troops. They do not trust the US Troops and view the Taliban as safety. While these things are happening the Taliban is slowly inching its way to trying take over. They are not informing social laws such as banning music and movies, having to wear a long beard, and keeping women from going out in public alone. The ultimate goal of the Taliban is to eventually take over the government but they know that it will be a struggle while the US troops are still there. Instead of the Taliban completely giving up they plan only to wait for the US to leave so that they finish out what they started.
I feel that it is not a good idea to continue to send over troops to Afghanistan unless we have a true understanding of the situation over there and we know what its going to take to deal with the Taliban. Until that happens just like what was stated in the article we are going to have even more troops driving over those treacherous bombs. I don't think that we should put more people in danger until there is a set plan. Too many innocent people are dying and I think that a lot of it could be avoided. I also feel that in these days and times we unfortunately look at crime as a social norm because when the government saw the rise in drug trade and crime that should have shown them something was wrong. Red Flags should have gone up at this time. I think that crime is growing rapidly especially within the Taliban regime. We as a nation and a government have to stop looking at it as normal and trying to change it.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/12/world/AP-AS-Afghan-Downward-Spiral.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=taliban crime&st=cse&scp=4