<http://www.juancole.com/2005/10/us-military-desecrates-bodies-of.html>
The burning and desecration of Taliban bodies as a technique of intimidation in Afghanistan by US troops has backfired big time. Afghanistan clergymen are hopping mad at the US, and opposition to continued US troop presence in Afghanistan is growing.
Just when you hoped that US helicopters helping evacuate earthquake victims from Muzaffarabad might make some friends for the US in that part of the world, something like this emerges.
As at Abu Ghraib, the basic problem is that the US wants to cow and intimidate the Muslim or nationalist forces threatening it and its Muslim allies. But the techniques chosen to accomplish this goal are repugnant to all Muslims, and cut down on the number of allies.
Me, I'm not sure what 20,000 troops in Afghanistan are even doing any longer. They sure aren't capturing Bin Laden or Zawahiri. As for the remnants of the Taliban, you don't need 20,000 US troops to deal with them. NATO is doing a good job in Afghanistan, and the US should bow out in favor of it until the Afghanistan government can stand alone.
As for combatting the Taliban, we should stop pretending that is what the Americans are doing. When the deputy governor under the Taliban who oversaw the blowing up of the Buddhas of Bamiyan is sitting in the new parliament, it is hard to see who the large US troop presence even matters any more.
And keeping a division in Afghanistan may end up turning the country against the US again. Isn't that where we came in? No, maybe that was where Brezhnev came in.