Though the invasion of Iraq has been the main contributory factor in the declining popularity of both Bush and Blair the escalating war in Afghanistan may well turn out to be a further and final nail in both their political
According to the CIA's own World Factbook unemployment in the country stands at 40 per cent and 53 per cent of the population live in poverty. If anything these figures are likely to be highly conservative.
In the capital, Kabul, economic aid that has not found its way into the pockets of corrupt officials has financed the building of luxury hotels and shopping malls. In practise though these buildings are used almost exclusively by foreigners and mean little to most residents of the city who are tar too poor to use them.
A symptom of the increasing opposition to the foreign occupanon was ine demonstration in Kabul on May 29 after a fatal accident involving a US military truck. The mainly young demonstrators fought the police for several hours during which they attacked buildings associated with the occupation and burnt graul mural of President Karzai.
It took the first curfew in four years and the deaths of about 20 demonstrators restore order. According to many news agencies the deaths were caused by US and Afghan security forces opening fire on the demonstrators.
It is not just in Kabul that opposition growing. In recent months there has been an increase in insurgent attacks on occupation forces throughout Afghanistan and particularly in the south of the country.
On July 31 over 8,000 Nato Many senior British military officers are worried that British troops are likely to suffer severe fatalities in battles with the insurgents in the southern provinces. 3,000 British troops will formally take responsibility from the US for military control of the four southern provinces of Afghanistan.
The troop level throughout Afghanistan as a whole will remain though; that is to say these troops are being sent in mainly to supplement the US
Cals lig forces.
This takeover has been touted in the Western media as a force for reconstruction and keeping the peace. In keeping with this hype the then Defence Secretary John Reid stated in a recent visit to Kabul that after the takeover Nato troops would not have to fire a single shot in anger during their tenure.
So far the reality has turned out to be different. Already in the southern provinces eight foreign including five British soldiers have died in June alone as well as over a hundred members of troops based on a core of over the Afghan security forces in clashes with insurgents.
This could well be that the reason the Bush administration wants a Nato force to take over from the US in southern Afghanistan is because it anticipates an upsurge in the insurgency and therefore in fatalities from the occupation forces.