According to US Government sources, attacks on security forces have increased threefold since last year. A notable incident in Southern Afghanistan left 4 people dead, highlighting the unstability in the militant stronghold.
With the upcoming election, will this increasing trend of violence undermine the efforts to build a democratic state in the war torn country?
What is undermining the effort to build a democratic state is that Afghanistan produces around 90 percent of the world's opium. It is believed that the proceeds from this drug are used by the Taliban to fight NATO forces and Afghan government forces - a claim the Taliban denies. Farmers and drug traffickers also deny they are helping to fund the Taliban.
ReplyDeleteAttempts to eradicate opium poppy plants are not entirely sucessful - police and government officials are all too often given bribes to look the other way.
Of course, eradicating the poppy plants would anger farmers who depend on the crop for their livlihood and drive them to support the Taliban.
It is a delicate situation.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2007/2007-03-15-03.asp
Yes it will as what is the driving force behind the violence and the Taliban is to have a state that is based upon the teachings of the Koran, their religion. The Taliban reject the Western idea of democracy as the rules and regulations of democracy are different from that of Koran. Such as the idea of equality in which is a part of democracy is not part of the Koran. For example the Koran does not believe that women should be equal to men.
ReplyDeleteThe point im trying to make is that the recent violence is not so much going to be the problem though it contributes to it. It is the ongoing violence that will be the main problem as the taliban are not just fighting for a political ideology, the ideology is part of their religion. It is easier to eradicate or change a political ideology than a religion as the koran has been around for thousands of years and to change or eradicate a faith is near impossible. There will always be opposition and war as long as there is Western forces in Afghanistan.
'There will always be opposition and war as long as there is Western forces in Afghanistan.'
ReplyDeleteThat may be true, but perhaps President Obama's plan to bring more 'moderate' members of the Taliban into discussions about the country's future will gain some traction.