Doctors Without Borders is hardcore. If they are leaving the country, conditions have gotten really bad. This is the natural consequence of diverting resources and attention away from the real struggle against terrorism to the Iraq sideshow. What do you think the consequences of another failed state in Afghanistan will be? Afghanistan Aid Agency Suspends Work After 5 Workers Killed June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Doctors Without Borders, the Brussels- based Nobel Peace Prize-winning aid agency, has suspended its work in Afghanistan after five of its staff were killed yesterday in the northeastern Baghdis Province. The five workers, three foreigners and two Afghans, were shot in an attack on their vehicle near the village of Khairkhana, about 350 miles (560 kilometers) west of the capital Kabul. They were the first ever fatalities for the group, which was set up by French doctors in 1971 and is known as Medecins sans Frontieres. ``For the time being our activities will be suspended nation- wide, except for life-saving activities,'' the group said today in a statement on its Web site. ``In the coming weeks we will analyze this event in depth, but for the moment our priority is to take care of those most affected by this tragedy.'' Yesterday's killings and the suspension of work by Doctors Without Borders will be a setback to aid and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, which has been beset by security problems since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that ousted the Taliban regime. President Hamid Karzai has postponed to September parliamentary and presidential elections planned for June, citing security and voter registration problems. The aid group said it didn't know who was behind yesterday's attack, or the motive for the killings. The attack was carried out by Taliban militia, the Associated Press said yesterday, citing Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Hakim Latifi. ``Those international aid workers were working for the police of America. There will be more of these attacks in the future,'' Latifi told AP. Doctors Without Borders named the dead as Afghans Fasil Ahmad and Besmillah, Belgian Helene de Beir, Egil Tynaes of Norway, and Dutchman Willem Kwint. Doctors Without Borders, which works in conflict and natural- disaster areas, is active in about 80 countries, with 2,500 volunteer doctors, nurses and sanitation experts operating alongside 18,000 locally hired workers. The group, founded in 1971, won the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize for its work. Karzai has asked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which leads a 6,500-strong peacekeeping force in Kabul, to provide more soldiers to help with security. Last week, U.S. Representative Doug Bereuter, 64, president of NATO's parliamentary assembly, said NATO must send more forces and equipment to Afghanistan or risk losing control of the country.
If you were the most horrible person in the world...why would you kill Doctors helping people? Hitler probably would have let foreign Doctors come in and give aid to Germans, why do a bunch of terrorists want to kill Doctors that are there to treat Muslims that they are supposedly fighting for?
In the report I heard on this last night, the correspondent was making the point that many people in Afghanistan do not make a distinction between international humanitarian relief efforts/agencies and U.S. efforts. They see it all as being controlled by the U.S. I'm sure the Taliban are interested in general destabilization and therefore will attack any westerners coming in to provide aid.
