And now there is "The weekend Taliban"...will we ever learn?!?

Click here for the BBC Article on 11th Sep, 2009
Eight long years have passed since the US-invasion of Afghanistan - nicely named Operation Enduring Freedom - that toppled the Taliban in no time despite their tight control over 95% of the country. One would think that they (the Taliban) would have been wiped off the region by now given more than $20 billion dollars being spent on reconstruction aid (let alone the roughly $30 billion each year spent on the military) in the country. But to our surprise, eight years from the invasion, not only are the Taliban NOT wiped off, they are actually making a comeback and getting more and more popular support from the people every minute that we spend arguing how the billions should be spent. The answer is simple: stop putting them in deep pockets where they disappear or get siphoned off through multiple layers of contracting and sub-contracting, and instead try to make a difference in the lives of ordinary people who suffered under the Taliban and now have no choice but to return to them because they (the Taliban) at least feed their families on roughly $8 a day.

There is more than enough evidence that there are no scary beings called "the Taliban insurgency"...read here...but we are creating them on a daily basis through our unfulfilled promises and repeated mistakes. There used to be the "occasional Taliban" ...read here... and now there are the "weekend Taliban" ...read here... and soon they are going to be the full-time Taliban unless we (all those in charge in Afghanistan who control the flow of money) take immediate actions now to truly win their "hearts and minds" and stop them from becoming full-time Taliban and start another chapter of war and violence in the already war-ravaged country.

Alas, those in charge are caught in a bureau-political quagmire and won't listen no matter how many times the same mistakes are repeated!