Reply #4: Henry Hyde agrees with that assessment [View All]

[welshTerrier2]

just for the record, Karzai is nothing more than an oil puppet ...

source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-09-20-voa77.cfm

HYDE: "Afghanistan is on the brink of becoming a failed state, and the re-trained Taleban are showing their strength in new attacks that appear to be influenced by a spiraling Iraqi insurgency."

ROHRABACHER: "There have been many of us warning we would reach this point unless something was done, but the Bush administration has continued to fail in its responsibilities to act aggressively to thwart this problem."

Barnett Rubin of New York University asserts that any hope of reversing a growing insurgency depends on the U.S. placing strong pressure on Pakistan.

"While there are many failings, innumerable ones of the Afghan administration, corruption and so on, they cannot be corrected as long as the Taleban have a safe haven in Pakistan," said Barnett Rubin.

Rubin quoted what he described as a letter he received from a U.S. diplomat in the region, whom he did not identify, saying little progress can be made against the insurgency in Afghanistan unless President Bush places overwhelming diplomatic pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to arrest top Taleban leaders in his country.

President Musharraf told reporters in New York Wednesday he opposes U.S. forces entering Pakistan in pursuit of al-Qaida leader Osama bin-Laden.