Ken:
Apologies for inaccuracies. The only things I know about Afghanistan is from the UN Habitat Reports, and stuff I get open net.
Problems always exist in what UN Habitat defines as urban, and as informal urban settlements, and what others might define it as. The Afghan Minister's report to the Habitat conference was higher than the sources you cited (CIA Factbook, Global Security). Doesn't mean any of them are very accurate until somebody does some credible counting.
Also, how many people are in Afghanistan? (Somewhere between 26 and 33 million as best as I can understand the disagreements). Makes a big diff in figuring out the percentage urban.
Nice if somebody had some pop figures that meant something.
Schmedlap's got it right as to purpose and content.
One thing that all of us on this board know is that none of us have all the pieces to really finalize anything, except maybe on a collective basis from many different and competing opinions.I find the assertions that he made to be of little interest. I'm more interested in knowing who had this letter released and why. This appears to be little more than a PR stunt in the ongoing back and forth between folks who want different courses of action.
I can't imagine that, based on even a heavy tour of one province, a final conclusion as to the whole country, and whole US effort, could be conclusively put forward.
The President is having meaningful and complex presentations from a lot of parties on a lot of different views. Glad when he is done and able to make a final decision, but sounds like it ain't over yet.
Fingers crossed for the right one.
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