RUMSFELD'S CONSTANTLY CHANGING POSITIONS

US DEFENCE Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has had a sudden change of mind.
He's changed his tactics and is now saying that Afghanistan's drug
trade from the massive opium poppy crops was hampering US efforts to
foster democracy in the central Asian state.

Has he suffered a memory lapse?

Has he forgotten that just a few months ago his main objective in
Afghanistan was to clean out the terrorists while at the same time
destroy the Taleban government because it stood by Bin Laden and point
blank refused to hand him over to the US. This was America's main
objective and it cost them not just a lot of money but also a lot of
bloodshed too. Parents, mothers, fathers and children lost their loved
ones in the US war in Afghanistan. And now, after all this, Rumsfeld
says there is a crisis - a crisis of drug money!

Rumsfeld says that the drug money raised by insurgents and warlords
from bumper poppy crops posed a threat to US efforts to establish
democratic rule in Afghanistan, which spent a quarter century under
conflict, including five years of harsh Taleban rule until late 2001.

We beg your pardon Mr Rumsfeld! What precisely do you mean when you
say the enormous wealth that comes from dealing in drugs is flowing to
your "opponents"? Do you mean the Taleban? Ironic indeed.

Isn't Rumsfeld the one who has been harping that presidential
candidate Kerry is not good because he has a tendency to retreat from
his previous positions and is constantly changing his stand?

Yet, Rumsfeld who said that Afghanistan had been cleared of
terrorists, now says the Taleban is posing a threat to US and expects
more attacks by Taleban supporters in the run-up to the presidential
vote, Afghanistan's first ever. He says the "opponents" are powerful.
He needs to make up his mind and paint the correct picture.

It's total mess as it stands now. The public is fed up. The terrorists
continue to operate with impunity.

The US army that heads a 20,000-strong coalition of troops hunting Al
Qaeda insurgents and their allies have not scared them away. Instead,
they have only succeeded in scattering them and now, many of them have
wound up in Iraq and other places making it even more dangerous.

He talks of Afghan warlords and yet he had claimed they had been
dismantled. But what about the groups of other warlords like Dostum
and late Ahmed Shah Masood. Rumsfeld should focus more clearly and
emphasise that the historic elections in Afghanistan will take place
in September as scheduled.

He should take this stand and not retreat from it. The Republicans are
poking fun at Kerry for his constantly changing positions and policy
shifts on various issues.

Now Rumsfeld is doing the same. Any wonder then that Rumsfeld had kept
a low profile the last four months. We're sure the US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld can do better.