HOLDEN IS PAYING ATTENTION

I posted below about SECDEF Gates trying to convince NATO that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are markedly different. Holden finds that Fredo, Gate's boss, cut the ground right out from under him:

And the two most evident places that that's happening right now is in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both those countries are part of the war on terror. These aren't separate, you know, wars; they're part of the same war; different theaters, certainly different circumstances, but the outcome is essential for our security. Chimpy, January 31, 2008

I think the real problem is that the Europeans simply can't trust the Bush regime. The incompetence is simply astounding. Leaving aside the Iraq Fiasco, Afghanistan has been going downhill for years:

Afghan Opium Fields Show Failure of U.S. Economic-Aid Efforts

By Ken Fireman

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The strategy combined economic development, drug control and security: two Afghan-American brothers with a factory in Kandahar and a plan to give opium farmers an incentive to grow cotton instead.

For two years, Yosuf and Abdul Mir pleaded with U.S. officials for a $1.5 million grant for their project, arguing that it meshes perfectly with a billion-dollar-a-year American opium-eradication program. Then, last year, they were turned down.

On the security front, the report points to a sharp increase in violent attacks, especially roadside bombs and suicide explosions, by the Taliban and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. Reported acts of violence in Afghanistan rose to 8,950 last year from 900 in 2004, according to former Lieutenant General David Barno, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

Roadside bombings rose to 1,469 from 325 in the same period, while suicide bombings increased to 130 from 3, Barno told the House Armed Services Committee on Jan. 23.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in November that the value of Afghan opium exports in 2007 rose 29 percent over the previous year and was equal to 53 percent of the country's legitimate gross domestic product. A follow-up report issued Feb. 6 said opium production this year would be at or near 2007 levels.