Baptism Of Fire - Afghanistan

June 2006
Southern Afghanistan is rapidly turning into a full-scale war zone. The Taliban have regrouped and now conduct major operations against coalition soldiers virtually every day.

"There's no doubt that the Taliban are in greater strength and are more organised", admits NATO commander David Richards. Resentment at US operational tactics and anger at the number of civilian casualties has increased support for the Taliban. At Kandahar hospital, Dr Sharifa Saddiqi struggles to keep up with the daily toll of casualties. "When a car speeds up, the Americans get suspicious. They mistake it for a suicide bomber and kill the occupants", she complains. "We're afraid people will react as they did when Russia invaded." Areas like Tarin Kot, capital of the province or Uruzgan, have been cut off from the rest of the country. "The insurgents are stronger than us because they are trained by the Pakistani government which gives them money", complains local Commander Razi Khan. "Our government is very weak." The area he controls has now shrunk to a narrow 10 km strip. Even Karzai's government acknowledges: "the situation is getting worse."

Produced by SBS/Dateline
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Afghanistan
• Jihad
• Terrorist
• Taliban
• Suicide
• Bomber
• documentary
• news
• current affairs
• journeyman
• journeyman pictures

[e1l9l9e5n]

Taliban is too evil.

[tomy22222222]

Not winnable war, It will be worst than Vietnam.

[basak983]

REMEMBER afghans can not be controlled learn from history you dumb as foreigners. in past 5000 thousand years all major powers were defeated by afghans.

you can hire an afghan but never own him we not like ARABS.

[AhmedM85]

Well, I agree, but how is that different from what ivan said? Are they not supporting the local boys? Do they not want to take control over their own affairs?

[AhmedM85]

no...not really. ivangrozny27 has a point.

[trinkdichfit]

Bingo!

[ivangrozny27]

"we cannot afford to fail". These people make me sick, as it was the US govt that was negotiating with the Taliban IN THE US in the late 90s (who refused for the US to build a pipeline thru Afgh) and now they call them extremists. The fact is Afghans are deeply conservative and religious, whoever takes over will be similar to the Taliban as they enjoy the support of most afghans. No one in the world would support foreigners over their own local boys no matter what