Rights Group: Inept Karzai Makes Afghan War Unwinnable

Insurgency Becoming More Resilient as Toll Rises

According to a new report by the Afghanistan Rights Monitor, the war in Afghanistan is going increasingly poorly and is virtually unwinnable so long as Hamid Karzai’s “inept” government remains in power.

The report details the repeated US escalations and the misguided international community, and said it would “take a miracle” to win the war at this point, nearly nine years after the initial invasion.

It also reported that at least 1,074 civilians had been killed so far this year in attacks, with more than 1,500 others wounded. They estimated that 61% of the civilians were killed in attacks by the Taliban, with the rest killed in attacks by coalition forces.

The death toll was roughly in keeping with the number from the first half of 2009, which is something of a surprise considering the enormous rise in NATO troops killed in that period. It suggests that as the insurgents gain influence they are increasingly focusing their attention on NATO troops, with over 320 killed in the first six month, roughly double the number killed in the same period of 2009.

It is difficult however to draw broad conclusions based on the first six months of any year in Afghanistan, as the bulk of the violence in the nation comes in the second half of the year, between July and late autumn.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.