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 a hundred Royal Marines to secure the Bagram airbase, and the Northern Alliance doesn't like it. They've said that all but 15 have to leave; they're very leery right now about having foreign troops on their soil. Given the history, both recent and ancient, of foreign troops, that's perhaps understandable. Anyway, there will be negotiations.What I find curious is that there's no mention of the Americans who also went in. Of course, right now the Northern Alliance are feeling rather solicitous about American troops, having had them fight along side and bring in the all-important air strikes and generally majorly facilitate the recent victories. On the other hand, in all the coverage of this British troop movement to Kabul I've only seen one mention of the fact that Americans also went in, and that was low key. So we may be seeing the fact that the Afghans object to Brits but not to Americans, or it may just be that the press is ignoring the Americans again. (discussion in progress) Update: CNN reports on this story (basically by commenting on the Reuters story) and makes more clear that it is the excess 85 British that are being objected to. I'm beginning to think that it is indeed the case that they don't object to the Americans. (It's also possible that CNN was incorrect and that there aren't actually any Americans there.) I'm beginning to wonder what will happen when the French try to move into the airport at Mazar-e Sharif in a couple of days. Update: Apparently this is a case of press overreaction. The guy who made that announcement wasn't speaking on behalf of the Northern Alliance but was just venting. For the moment the NA isn't quite speaking with a single voice. |
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