NYT Trumpets All That's Wrong With Afghan Rebuilding

NYT trumpets all that is wrong with the NATO effort in Afghanistan in a piece about a road cutting through the country.

That would be like focusing on all the crime along one street in a high crime area in NYC and extrapolating to the entire country. Things aren't all rosy in Afghanistan, but it does show that the Times is doing its best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Reconstruction projects were planned, but never materialized. Now NATO countries are championing the thoroughfare as a $5 million gift to local people.

Displaced and buffeted by fighting since May, the Afghans are homeless, fearful and far from being won over. They say the road was built for the troops’ benefit and forced on them, at the cost of their land and livelihoods.

“We are compelled to be happy about the road,” said Hajji Baran, 48, a farmer from Panjwai. “They are building the road and they are not going to stop, but in fact we are not happy about it. We have been displaced for nine months and no one has asked us how are we managing. This is a kind of cruelty.

“In fact, we are selling our wives’ jewelry to support our families.”

The conflict over the road is just the most apparent of the many things that Afghans, diplomats and aid workers cite in explaining why NATO’s war looks uncertain in southern Afghanistan. Others include what local people see as the indiscriminate killing of civilians by NATO forces, and corruption and incompetence among local officials.

And often it is Western media sources claiming that casualties were inflicted by coalition forces without ever bothering to confirm that it happened - or relying upon Taliban sources for its news.

That reconstruction projects lag the military operations is part and parcel of perceptions of violence, a reluctance by certain NATO members to place troops in harm's way to deal with the threat of a resurgent Taliban (aren't they always resurgent in these reports despite the fact that every time they get together in groups larger than a handful they're obliterated unless the gathering is for a funeral).