Taliban Resurgent in Afghanistan

Rather than consolidating control over Afghanistan, the Bush Administration detoured to "daddy's war" in Iraq and didn't finish the job. bin Ladin is still free and the Tabilan grow again in strength with more daring tactics copied from the success in Iraq. Meanwhile, the rest of the Middle East continues to destabilize.
The invasion of Iraq has stalled the war with Al Qaeda for decades.
WaPo

Afghanistan has been rocked over the past two days by some of the deadliest violence since the Taliban was driven from power in late 2001. As many as 105 people were reported killed in four provinces as insurgents torched a district government compound, set off suicide bombs and clashed fiercely with Afghan and foreign troops.


Between 80 and 90 Taliban fighters were killed in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, according to Afghan, U.S. and NATO officials. Two sites in Kandahar were struck by U.S. warplanes, including a long-range B-1 bomber, which U.S. military officials said destroyed a compound that Taliban guerrillas were using to stage an attack.


Among the dead were an American police trainer killed by a car bomb in Herat province, a female Canadian army captain and at least 12 Afghan national policemen, officials said.


Afghanistan experienced several years of relative calm after a pro-Western government took over in Kabul in 2001. But in recent months, the pace and scope of insurgent attacks have been increasing steadily, and now include suicide bombings, a tactic long foreign to Afghanistan. The violence has surged as NATO forces prepare to assume the lead military role in Afghanistan from U.S. troops this summer, a transition that some observers believe the Taliban and other insurgent groups are seeking to test.


President Hamid Karzai, visiting the capital of eastern Konar province under heavy security, angrily denounced the new violence as the work of religious extremists and intelligence services in neighboring Pakistan, saying they had sent young men across the border to stage attacks in the name of holy war. "In Pakistan they train people to go to Afghanistan, conduct jihad, burn schools and clinics," he told a gathering of provincial elders in a long, emotional speech. "What kind of Islam is this?" Karzai did not blame Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, calling him a "dear brother" and saying that "terrorism is a fire that will extend to your country, too." But he directly taunted Mohammad Omar, the fugitive Afghan Taliban leader, challenging him to "show yourself" and "come fight with me" instead of hiding.