This story gives some sense of the feelings of ordinary Afghani's in relation to their peacekeepers - would that it were otherwise.

"The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says he can hear the sound of machine-gun fire which suggests that US troops may have returned fire.

Staff at the US embassy have been moved to a secure location, a spokesman says.

The unrest began after a US military vehicle apparently lost control and smashed into other vehicles, reports say.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets

"There was a military flatbed truck which had a mechanical failure, maybe a break problem, and it crashed into some civilian vehicles," a US-led coalition spokeswoman, Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence, is quoted as saying by AFP.

Hundreds of Afghans gathered in the wake of the accident chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Karzai", referring to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

They pelted the US military vehicles with rocks before the shooting began, forcing them to scatter."

Or will we again get those posters on here - locked, frozen in an ideology - who will suggest that the riots were not a spontaneous public reaction, but an organised media event, orchestrated by Al Qaeda or the Taliban Afghani peasantry...all just to embarrass the US!

More sober posters will note the disturbing degree of antipathy..

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

That kind of reaction from the Afghanistan people is so easy to explain. What would you do if troops from a foreign country were driving around the US supposedly looking form some terrorist. That alone would really (*)(*)(*)(*) off most Americans. But after 4 or 5 years, and the criminal they are looking for still can't be found, but they are still driving around in military vehicles with big guns - yes, I'd be really angry too.

Not to mention the fact, that the US came in and changed their whole government and now continues to prop up that corrupt new government. Can you imagine a country like China coming over to the US and saying, "Bush & Co. are not good government, so we are going to change it...and then we are gong to stick around to see that all you good US citizens agree with our decision." Come on, as much as I dislike Bush, I can change my own government, thanks a lot.

Why is it so difficult for some American people to understand that?

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Hobo
Charter member of 'Republicans Who Hate Bush" Club

According to the Neocons the occupation / new democracy was gong well.

Sacked buildings, tanks in the street, US troops shooting civilians. That don't sound good.


"KABUL, Afghanistan - A deadly traffic accident Monday involving U.S. troops sparked the worst rioting in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban regime, with hundreds of protesters looting shops and shouting "Death to America!" At least eight people were killed and 107 injured, an official said.

Hundreds of Afghan army troops and NATO peacekeepers in tanks were deployed around the city, as chanting protesters marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings, including the compound of aid group CARE International. Computers were set on fire and smoke billowed from the buildings, according to an Associated Press reporter.

Witnesses said that Afghan and U.S. troops opened fire to quell protesters. A U.S. spokesman said American troops shot into the air, and AP Television News video showed a machine gun on a Humvee firing over the crowd as the vehicle sped away. But a Kabul police chief said U.S. troops had fired into the crowd. . . .

The riot was the worst in Kabul since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001. It erupted in the city's northern suburbs before spreading into the city center and then to other areas frequented by foreigners, including areas near U.S. and NATO bases.

The unrest started after three U.S. Humvee vehicles coming into the city from the outskirts rammed into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several civilian cars, witnesses said.
The coalition said at least one person was killed and six injured in the crash, but police said at least three people were killed and 16 injured."
http://news.yahoo.com

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Classic American liberal

...but `Our man in Kabul` Mr Karzai himself.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...9FAC6CC520.htm

See? There`s no antipathy. Just a few hundred `agitators`.

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Marx (G.)

For a supposed model of economic activity, the American record in Iraq and Afghanistan has not been very good. Iraq's economy is still a joke (they don't even have reliable water and power supplies and the unemployment rate is sky-high) and the rebuilding is going slowly.

In Afghanistan, the foreign aid programs have been declining rapidly and the rebuilding is occuring at a snail's pace. Quite a few of the refugees who came back after the fall of the Taliban have left again because there is nothing for them. Karzai himself has two sets of bodyguards (the second set watches the first).

If I was an Afghani, and I saw that the armed Christians who had promised all these good things were not delivering on those promises but were more intent on 'fighting terrorism' (whatever that means to those crazy Westerners) and then I heard they ran over a family driving in their fighting vehicles through the city, I might go out and vent some spleen too.

This isn't a show of support for the Taliban and/or Al-Qaeda, but it is a sign that some promises had better be kept or our welcome may wear out quickly.

We have a very bad track record of promising and not delivering. We left the Iraqi insurgents hanging in the wind after the Gulf War, same with the Afghanis.

When did we ever promise the Iraqi rebels anything? Or the Afghanis for that matter?

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Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

that we have the cast of the "F TROOP" running this administration?

I thought Afghanistan was the "model" of success. Wasn't Cheney there a few months ago celebrating Karzai's "selection" as head of state?

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"Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet."

I'm glad most of you liars have dropped the support for AFghanistan BS you spewed here for months.

Bush don't remember the great game!

He probably read his international history out of a comic book if he read any of it at all.

The Great Game

"From the British perspective, the Russian expansion threatened to destroy the so-called "jewel in the crown" of India. As the Tsar's troops began to subdue one Khanate after another the British feared that Afghanistan would become a staging post for a Russian invasion of India. It was with these thoughts in mind, that in 1838 the British launched the First Anglo-Afghan War and attempted to impose a puppet regime under Shuja Shah. The regime was short lived, and unsustainable without British military support. By 1842 mobs were attacking the British on the streets of Kabul and the British garrison agreed to a retreat from Kabul with guaranteed safe passage. Unfortunately for the British, the guarantee proved to be worthless. The retreating British column consisted of approximately 4,500 military personnel and 12,000 camp followers including many women and children. During a series of ruthless attacks all but a few dozen were killed on the march back to India."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game

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Classic American liberal