The New York Times published an Op-Ed Chart detailing several key aspects of the stability and growth of both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts from 2005, 2007, and 2009. The numbers for Iraq are looking amazingly improved, where as Afghanistan is facing smaller scale, but troubling downturns.
All the Afghan indicators are on the rise except for the public’s view of Karzai’s government, which is trending downward. Civilian, Afghan military and police, and US/NATO troop casualties are all rising at the same time as the size of US and Afghan army increases. In 2005, US troops were rarely being killed (1 in February) and the Afghan military was facing minimal attacks (10 killed in February), but these numbers have edged upward. US combat deaths in February 2009 went from 1 to 15 and the Afghan army went from 10 to 75. The civilian deaths are even more alarming with a rise from 40 to 200 during the same period.
The two favorable markers included per capita income and the number of telephone subscribers, and these were modest gains. Per capita income went from $252 in 2005 to $400 this February and telephone subscribers rose from only 2.2 million to 7 million during the same period.
I urge you to look at these numbers. What do they tell you?
