From correspondents in Washington | October 09, 2008
THE US administration has launched an urgent review of its policy in Afghanistan as US intelligence officials warn of a "downward spiral" in conditions there, newspapers report.
The US papers cite officials familiar with a draft National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, a comprehensive and classified report combining analyses of 16 US intelligence agencies that is due for completion after US elections in November.
The report concluded that Afghanistan was in a "downward spiral" and casts doubt on the ability of its Government to stem the resurgence of Taliban influence there, the New York Times said.
"The classified report finds that the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the Government of President Hamid Karzai and by an increase in violence by militants who have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks from havens in Pakistan," the Times said.
It also described the impact of a heroin trade "which by some estimates account for 50 per cent of Afghanistan's economy", the Times said.
According to The Washington Post, "analysts have concluded that reconstituted elements of al-Qaeda and the resurgent Taliban are collaborating with an expanding network of militant groups, making the counterinsurgency war infinitely more complicated".
"As the US presidential election approaches, senior officials have expressed worry that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is so tenuous that it may fall apart while a new set of US policymakers settles in," when a new administration takes over in January, the Post said.
THE US administration has launched an urgent review of its policy in Afghanistan as US intelligence officials warn of a "downward spiral" in conditions there, newspapers report.
The US papers cite officials familiar with a draft National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, a comprehensive and classified report combining analyses of 16 US intelligence agencies that is due for completion after US elections in November.
The report concluded that Afghanistan was in a "downward spiral" and casts doubt on the ability of its Government to stem the resurgence of Taliban influence there, the New York Times said.
"The classified report finds that the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the Government of President Hamid Karzai and by an increase in violence by militants who have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks from havens in Pakistan," the Times said.
It also described the impact of a heroin trade "which by some estimates account for 50 per cent of Afghanistan's economy", the Times said.
According to The Washington Post, "analysts have concluded that reconstituted elements of al-Qaeda and the resurgent Taliban are collaborating with an expanding network of militant groups, making the counterinsurgency war infinitely more complicated".
"As the US presidential election approaches, senior officials have expressed worry that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is so tenuous that it may fall apart while a new set of US policymakers settles in," when a new administration takes over in January, the Post said.
Source: The Australian
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