quag·mire

1.

an area of miry or boggy ground whose surface yields under the tread; a bog.
2.

a situation from which extrication is very difficult: a quagmire of financial indebtedness.
3.

anything soft or flabby.
Sometimes it is good to get back to basics when dealing with complex issues like our ongoing colonial occupation war in Afghanistan.   The CBC reports:

“A dramatic increase in the number of homemade bomb attacks is part of an “alarming trend” in Afghanistan, a UN report released Saturday said.

The report to the UN Security Council said bombings and assassinations have soared in the past four months amid ramped-up military operations in the Taliban-dominated south.

The number of attacks involving improvised explosive devices increased by 94 per cent over the same period in 2009, while assassinations of Afghan officials rose by 45 per cent.

“The rise in incidents involving improvised-explosive devices constitutes an alarming trend,” the report said.

Suicide attacks occurred at a rate of about three a week, half in the restive south. Such bombings have tripled this year compared with 2009.”

Is any of this really surprising? I mean, Afghanistan is the anvil on which Imperial armies go to be smashed.  It has happened before, and will happen again.  So why is Canada still there?  Are we really preserving freedom and democracy?  Fighting terror?  It is all rather nebulous.

“Nevertheless, the UN found the number of security incidents had “increased significantly compared to previous years,” in large part because of more military operations in the south early this year.  NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz told reporters in the capital on Saturday that despite negative assessments, the international force was making steady strides.

“Tough fighting is expected to continue, but the situation is trending in our favour as more forces flow into the area,” Blotz said.

“It has to be tougher perhaps before it goes easier,” Blotz said.”

I think the only statement that contains a grain of truth is Blotz’s final one.  It will get tougher and I highly doubt it will get easier as time passes.

Canada’s military commitment in Afghanistan ends in 2011.  Not a moment too soon.