Saturday, 23 June 2007

Unfriendly fire

"Afghan patience is wearing thin with such incidents. Although many still support the presence of the foreigners, Afghans these days speak of aerial bombardments and Taliban suicide-bombings as twin evils. President Hamid Karzhai has expressed his frustration, but tries to appease his countrymen. 'Foreign troops are like powerful drugs that cure a disease but have side effects as well,' he told a meeting in Shindand last month after fighting between Taliban and Western troops left some 50 civilians dead."

(The Economist, June 23rd 2007)

As well as the scary side effects, the problem with powerful drugs is that the more they are taken the more the body begins to depend on them. The result: the required dosage just keeps on increasing and the body's natural defenses just keep on weakening.

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