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Afghanistan: West Stares into the Abyss

Afghanistan is on the brink of chaos. That is the stark message from local leaders, the US military and development workers in the troubled country. The elected government, they warn, can no longer compete with the Taliban.

As the US steps up its commitment to sending more troops into Afghanistan and calls on its allies to also do so, this piece from Spiegel International paints a grim picture of the situation in war-torn country:

"Internal reports by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) paint grim pictures of the situation. US generals say that they are seeing a "significant challenge from insurgents" in Wardak, and their commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama, recently responded with a simple "no" to the question of whether the United States and its allies are currently winning the war in Afghanistan."

And:

"The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) classifies the situation in 26 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces as "insecure." But this is not exclusively the doing of terrorists. The world is too quick to lump all those standing in the way of positive development in Afghanistan together under the term "Taliban." In fact, the Taliban is only one of many groups struggling for political and military power in the country."

Read the full piece here.

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