NATO to Taliban: Don't worry, we'll send more victims...

... because Afghanistan doesn't have enough targets already...

NATO yesterday called for a civilian surge to match the upcoming American military surge:

KRAKOW, Poland (AFP) – NATO called Thursday for a "civilian surge" in Afghanistan to boost reconstruction and help spread democracy as the military alliance battles to overcome a Taliban-led insurgency.

Warning of the price of failure in Afghanistan, where NATO has undertaken its biggest and most challenging mission ever, alliance Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer appealed for new efforts ahead of elections in August.

"It is not only a matter of more forces in Afghanistan, we need an equal civilian surge as well," he told reporters in Krakow, southern Poland, after chairing informal talks between NATO defence ministers.

He called on international institutions like the United Nations and the European Union, to help provide "more development, more support for governance and more institution building."

This is idiotic on too many levels to count.

But let's try the basic question: why are we in Afghanistan in the first place?

I'll make it multiple choice...

A) Because we need to do nation-building at the frontline of the war on terrorism

B) Because Afghanistan has ten times the reserves of oil and natural gas previously thought, and major multinationals are building major pipelines through the mountains

C) Because we need to keep Iran surrounded in case we want to invade later

D) Because all those bazillions of weapons being used there create good American jobs

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