Afghanistan linkage

by James Brown - 22 September 2010 12:15PM

The US might have been more successful in exporting democracy to Afghanistan than it thinks. In a Tammany Hall-style incident, hundreds of Hazara Afghans seized a polling booth in Uruzgan and cast 4200 votes for their preferred candidate.
ForeignPolicy.com has this insight into local politics in Southern Afghanistan, including a profile of Matiullah Khan – a figure well known to Australian soldiers in Uruzgan.
The Commanding Officer of Australia's Afghan Mentoring Task Force calls home once a week. Right after his family, Channel 10 News Brisbane is next on his call sheet.
Now that General McChrystal has been replaced, the ban on Burger King has been overturned.
Over 800 Australian soldiers will soon deploy to Uruzgan to replace their comrades and fill positions left vacant by the departing Dutch. The venerable Northern Territory News neglects its normal crocodile reporting duties to profile Lt Col Huxley, who will lead 'the Darwin Battalion'.
Huxley's future boss in Uruzgan, US Army Colonel Jim Creighton, spent time at the Council on Foreign Relations as a Military Fellow. His CFR bio is here.
Australia's most recent mission in Afghanistan is training the Afghan National Army to take over security. This clip (some strong language) shows just how tough that can sometimes be – when the ANA soldiers you're trying to train are stoned.