Choices in Afghanistan

An interesting opinion piece from Deustche Welle - An Afghan Mission with risks or total chaos? - looking at the need for the ISAF to be deployed outside of Kabul if there's going to be any long term stability there:

The result is that Afghanistan's provinces must be pacified. After two decades of bloody quarrels, the Afghans will hardly put an end to the power struggles and overcome the ethic [sic - I presume it's a typo for 'ethnic'] conflicts on their own. The wounds are too deep and the appetite for revenge too strong for reconciliation without help from outside. Afghans will not recognize there is a better alternative to the culture of the Kalashnikov until reconstruction of the country delivers visible advantages and palpable benefits to all.

There's also some worrying news about press freedom in Afghanistan in there:

The death sentence delivered to two Afghan journalists and confirmed by Supreme Court President Maulavi Fazl-e Hadi Shinwari is a shocking step backwards that recalls the misdeeds of Taliban regime. In the weekly Aftab the two men, Sayeed Mahdawi and Ali Reza Payam, had criticized what they described as the reactionary interpretation and abuse of Islam for political purposes in Afghanistan.

Afghan mullahs have accused them of blasphemy. The theological exchange is one thing, while the brutal death threat is another entirely unacceptable response. Instead of reacting in a knee-jerk fashion and sentencing people with a different opinion to death, the Afghan clerics should engage in a sincere, verbal discussion about the correct interpretation of Islam.

The Director-General of the Deutsche Welle, Erik Bettermann, was right to protest publicly against the death sentence. He described it as a "severe blow to the basic right to press freedom" and an "alarming step backwards in the development of a civil society in Afghanistan."