POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY THE DAILY TELEGRAPH'S DE QUETTEVILLE
This event is significant because it happened in the North. In the South, it would be almost expected.
Afghanistan is proving a pointless effort, much as, though not as extreme as, Iraq.
America set the tone here in its first years by having its armed brutes go door-to-door, breaking into peasant houses and holding families at gun point while men were questioned or taken away.
The ugly Mr Rumsfeld said in public captives should be killed or walled away for life. Some values taught.
A Scottish director, as many will know, made a film about the disappearance of thousands of captives. It is thought they were driven in sealed trucks into the desert to expire. Again, some values taught.
America 'won' its easy victoy by cooperating with the nasty war lords, many every bit as unpleasant as the Taliban, of regions outside Kabul.
These are the men who still rule much of the country. America's man there, the president, has been accurately described as the Mayor of Kabul.
The whole bloody adventure is pointlees. You don't change the culture of 25 million people over a vast, rugged land in decades.
You don't create democracy or human-rights concepts with B-52s.
In fact, in a land like Afghanistan, you make enemies for life.
Since democracy grows out of healthy economic growth over time, the rising of an extensive middle class, America would have done more in Afghanistan by dropping dollar bills instead of bombs.
