Edmonton Sun | 25Feb2010 | Orest Slepokura

Why not pessimism?

"It's easy to see why there's so much optimism about Afghanistan," says Andrew Hanon in "Taliban insurgents wilt in face of coalition troops," Edmonton Sun, Feb. 22, 2010.

Surely the opposite could just as easily be true? So far, dozens of Afghan civilians have either been killed or injured by NATO's offensive against Marjah. The Dutch parliament has voted to withdraw its force of 2,000 troops from Afghanistan. And Taliban chief Mullah Omar and al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden still remain defiantly at large some nine years after the U.S. invaded, while Hamid Karzai, the NATO-friendly Afghan president, is now a much-diminished figure following a stolen election

Orest Slepokura

(The intent and some outcomes are good, but not all.)