Those poppies again

This one almost got lost in the shuffle here. Ben Masel sends in a link to a PINR report on Afghanistan that was reprinted in the Asia Times. You remember Afghanistan, the other war we're still fighting that no one really talks about.

Unsurprisingly the transition to self-government is going badly and it looks unlikely that elections slated for October will go forward or have any effect on the stability of the country if they do. The article offers an excellent overview of the obstacles to a western style democracy being installed in the country, where traditionally, only uneasy and mutable alliances of convenience keep the various ethnic factions from engaging in endless civil war. It's worth reading just for the explanation of the quam system of government.

Meanwhile of course, contributing greatly to the current state of flux is the burgeoning poppy trade that currently finances the resurging Taliban.

The Taliban have regrouped as guerrilla forces determined to impede the formation of a stable Afghan government. The primary condition for centralized state control - the disbanding of local and regional militias - has not been realized: Approximately 40,000-50,000 fighters are still under the control of the warlords, dwarfing the fledgling Afghan army.

Unfortunately for the indigenous Afghanis who are still struggling to recover from our "liberation" of their country, it appears that change is not on the horizon. In fact, since the only interest the US has in the country is to prevent them from becoming a staging ground for Islamic dissidents and they have no other natural resources the west can exploit, there's little need for major intervention. Barring the discovery of untapped oil fields, it seems unlikely this will change soon or ever.