QURAN BURNING EFFECT ON AFGHANISTAN
Support the troops, burn a Quran

"... a hundred or so demonstrators gathered outside a US military base at Mirwais in southern Afghanistan on hearing that there had been a ritual Quran-burning inside the base. In fact, it had been a routine pit burn of documents. At one point in the rally, a demonstrator raised an AK-47 toward a base tower guard, and was shot... there have been several such demonstrations in Afghanistan, and hard line Muslim fundamentalists have used their cover to tear down the campaign posters of the liberal or female candidates for seats in parliament... The anti-Muslim bigots in the US who provoked all this trouble with their Nazi-like threats of book-burning (some of which have been followed through on) did US troops in Afghanistan no favors. I think the growing urban legend in Afghanistan that virtually all Americans enjoy a good Quran barbecue regularly and that it is a central ritual on US military bases is a real psy-ops threat to US counter-insurgency efforts..."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/demonstration-outside-us-base-in-afghanistan-against-quran-burning-turns-violent.html

U.S. TAXPAYERS LIKELY TO BAIL OUT FAILED KABUL BANK

"... Da Kabul Bank, among the country’s biggest such institutions, has been taken over by the Afghanistan government in the face of a persistent run on it by frightened depositors. The bank has huge debts and has been being run like a private fief. The central bank had earlier denied that it would take over the troubled Kabul Bank. But the government pays government and military salaries through it, and could not easily lose it, or risk that its failure would lead to a collapse of the country’s entire financial sector, with massive runs on other banks. The central bank’s takeover makes it most likely that American taxpayers will bail out the Kabul Bank, which had been used by a clique around Karzai to buy up real estate (some of it now worthless) in Dubai..."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/1-dead-45-wounded-in-kabul-anti-american-protest-kabul-bank-taken-over-by-government.html

SECURITY IN AFGHANISTAN DETERIORATING

"Afghanistan is more dangerous than it has ever been during this war, with security deteriorating in recent months... Large parts of the country that were once completely safe, like most of the northern provinces, now have a substantial Taliban presence... Unarmed government employees can no longer travel safely in 30 percent of the country’s 368 districts... and there are districts deemed too dangerous to visit in all but one of the country’s 34 provinces... With one attack after another, the Taliban and their insurgent allies have degraded security in almost every part of the country... The Afghan N.G.O. Safety Office says that by almost every metric it has, Afghanistan is more dangerous now than at any time since 2001..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/world/asia/12afghan.html?_r=2

US SOLDIERS KILLED CIVILIANS, COLLECTED FINGERS

"Twelve American soldiers... members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan... face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies... They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/09/us-soldiers-afghan-civilians-fingers