Is Kabul becoming the new Baghdad?
Telegraph...
Kabul was a fun city for foreigners; Until about three years ago Kabul was an exotic and exciting posting for an ambitious young aid worker or a diplomat; if you were sensible it was safe enough to meet Afghans, go to parties and restaurants, and shop in the bazaars.
Today, after the Taliban resurgence and the growth of banditry, it is starting to look as dangerous as Baghdad at its worst.
Any foreigner arriving for the first time will be given hair-raising warnings about the risks of kidnapping, armed robbery and terrorist attack. Many have armed bodyguards assigned at all times and new businesses specialise in selling technical gadgets that can track an individual's every move by GPS in case of abduction. Where there's risk, there's profit.
Aid workers who could wander the city's bazaars at will are now banned from leaving their hotels, which look like fortresses with razor wire and Kalashnikov-toting guards at the entrances.
The threat is real and, many think, worsening: six international aid workers have been killed so far this year in Afghanistan, and two Britons have died in the capital in the last week alone.
The Taliban is not the only danger – although they carry out the worst attacks, like the deadly suicide bombing of the showpiece Serena Hotel last January.
Like elsewhere in Afghanistan, Kabul is lawless. Admittedly there have never been so many police on the streets, and helicopters circling the skies above. New blast barriers and machine-gun posts seem to sprout almost weekly.
But as faith in the government has waned, crime has grown. Men who 10 years ago were ragged bandits preying off penniless refugees are now armed robbers who kidnap wealthy Afghan businessmen. They go for Westerners too if they think they can get away with it.
Just how dangerous the city has become is a matter for debate. Most of its foreign residents would agree that it is not as bad as Baghdad was when kidnapping was at its height and most fervently hope that Kabul is unlikely to ever get so bad.
But living behind walls and watching endless DVDs while worrying about kidnapping is not much fun. Organisations like the UN now have serious recruitment problems.
After the fatal shooting last week of Gayle Williams, the Christian aid worker who was shot dead by Taliban gunmen in the street, even a walk in the autumn sunshine can seem dangerous.
The Afghanistan NGO Security Office advises on safety for aid workers, and director Nic Lee does not think the Taliban are generally targeting foreigners in the capital but advises expatriates to exercise extreme caution.
"There's been a lot of panicky talk about aid workers getting ready to flee the country but nobody I know sees it like that.
"But there have been some high-profile attacks and that has brought it home just how dangerous Kabul has always been. What worries us is that there is a continual escalation in threat levels across the country."
Oh, I thought I saw a mask on your Avatar, my mistake ;)
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
No, I am not.
Existence is a heavy burden, only high spirited ones can bear it.
Are you a masked marauder?
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
Why should not it be a dangerous city while ruled by eagers and smugglers brought by USA. They should have taken care of these robbers. One ignornat was deposed another weak and undetermined figure like Karzai was imposed.
Existence is a heavy burden, only high spirited ones can bear it.
Correctamundo
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
but which is which? I believe that Kabul fall down before Baghdad long time ago, right?
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. (Gautama Buddha)
Yes almighty one, stay in your ivory tower and preach down to your masses ;) I did not realize this was a PhD forum :P
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
is the definition like this:
Taliban = Torture till death on sight
Three armed men forced their way into a farmer's home and gouged his eyes out in front of his family in southern Afghanistan.
After he opened the door, they punched him in the face, put the barrel of a Kalashnikov rifle in his mouth and gouged out his eyes with a knife in front of his wife and seven children.
Lawlessness rules..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1080848/Attackers-gouge-Afghan-farmers-eyes-screaming-family.html
In era you are talking about, Persia’s Capital was Persepolis! Achaemenides were ruling in Persia. Afghanistan was just a part of Persia as well as Iraq! And Kabul was not the Capital for Persia! Better not just copy paste something from Wikipedia in here!
Not "the" capital but "a" capital. Cities were the "nations" back then.
The city of Kabul is thought to have been established between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE.[6] In the Rig Veda (composed between 1700–1100 BCE) the word "Kubhā" is mentioned, which appears to refer to the Kabul River. There is a reference to a settlement called Kabura by the Persian Achaemenids around 400 BCE[citation needed] which may be the basis for the use of the name Kabura by Ptolemy.[7] Alexander the Great conquered Kabul during his conquest of the Persian Empire. The city later became part of the Seleucid Empire before becoming part of the Mauryan Empire. The Bactrians founded the town of Paropamisade near Kabul, but it was later ceded to the Mauryans in the 1st century BCE.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
Southland! Really! In which era Kabul was the capital of Ancient Persia?
Apples and Oranges
Kabul - Ancient Persian capital
Baghdad/Babylon - Ancient capital.
Okay so the Persians captured it too.
So I guess a fruit is a fruit ;)
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
No but pink is the new orange.
No! Baghdad is the second Kabul!
Sounds risky to me
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
Very true, i remember that t-shirt.
Know I understand why the british soldiers salute backwards and jumps up to attention. instead of assuming the position of Attention.
“Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful,”
T-shirt worth having ;)
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
I recall a T-Shirt doing the rounds during the first Gulf War..
It had the USA and UK flags crossed, with the caption "These colurs don't run"
It got banned in Saudi pretty quick..:o)
These colors don't run ;)
How 'badass' do the oil exporters feel know. . .biaaatch :P
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
hopefully they will not get success in their plans...
What goes around comes around...
the USSR made the same mistake and collapsed shortly after...lets see how long the US can hold
You Patriot You!
there are preparation to turn Pakistan into Iraq.....
____________________________________________________
Have Courage To Live.
Anyone Can Die.
You mean the new Baghdad where alcohol is abundant and the oil contracts are being signed, the electric grid is expanding and there is a fledgling democracy replete with virtually every Arab nation having an embassy for the first time in nearly 30 years?
A fool and his money are soon parted.
-Thomas Tusser
You can't teach experience...