PM in Afghanistan: Taliban furious over 'rug snub' - Not everyone happy with PM’s Afghanistan visit.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 3, 2010 -- Kabul.

Australian troops serving in Afghanistan might have been ambivalent about Saturday’s surprise visit by Julia Gillard, but their irritation at having the telecast of the AFL Grand Final replay interrupted by a politician was not matched by the Afghans they are there to protect.

Gillard touched down at the Australian-US military base at Tarin Kowt at 2.00 Saturday amidst tight security.

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PM in Afghanistan: Taliban furious over 'rug snub' - Not everyone happy with PM’s Afghanistan visit.

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But despite the best efforts of defence and intelligence personnel to keep her visit a secret she was greeted at the airport by Afghanistan’s only massed pipe band and up to 10,000 well-wishers.

Gillard’s 57-minute visit to a country in the grip of a civil war that has so far cost 22 Australian lives and up to $10 billion in taxpayer's money had been the topic of rumours in the country’s gossip magazines for weeks, but few Afghans dared to hope the PM would actually make the trip.

Especially delighted are Afghanistan’s beleaguered hairdressers.

After struggling to make ends meet following decades of internecine warfare and laws implemented by the former Taliban leadership mandating men wear beards and women be covered head to foot when in public, Gillard’s visit has provided a much needed boost to the industry.

“Thing’s haven’t been this good since Serge Gainsbourg and his all female nude jazz quintet toured in 1978,” said Wali Masoud Sassoon, whose family have run a hair dressing salon in Kabul for 200 years.

“There was a brief fad for fake purple birthmarks during the Mikhail Gorbachev era but once the Taliban came to power baldness and artificial skin colouring were banned.“

But Gillard’s visit seems to have reignited the Afghan people’s well-documented love of new and radical ideas and her trademark ginger hair has triggered a firestorm of interest with hairdressers struggling to keep up with the demand for red hair dye.

During her surprise visit Gillard met with Australian commanders and shared a pie and beer with soldiers trying to watch the AFL.

In her address to the troops the Prime Minister avoided the thorny issue of an increase in Australia’s military commitment to the troubled international military operation but did reject out of hand a call by the Opposition to deploy tanks, commit two squadrons of F18 fighter aircraft, and sail the HMAS Adelaide up the Indus and into the Kabul River in an effort to blockade Taliban strongholds east of the capital.

Even the Pentagon has dismissed the Opposition’s idea as “hair brained.”

To cheers of “sit down in front!” “you’re blocking the bloody screen!” and “who is this woman?” Gillard also asked for a show of hands of those soldiers due home by Christmas.

She then ordered 50 members of the 6th battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment to each pick her up “a couple bottles of duty free Bundy Rum and a carton of fags."

However not every one is happy with the Gillard visit.

Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, who was not informed of Gillard’s arrival until after she had left, called her “rude and discourteous” and said that he had personally killed a goat which was to be served as the main course at a state dinner.

“What am I going to do now?” Karzai asked at his weekly press conference.

“I’ve got a whole goat taking up all the room in the fridge and no where to keep the yoghurt cold. I’ve had to put it in the spare fridge in the garage. It’s really inconvenient.”

Also angry at Gillard’s visit were local Taliban commanders who said that their spies had overheard the PM complaining about the poor range of products at the duty-free stores at Tarin Kowt airport.

“Not only does this fire headed infidel come to our country unaccompanied by a husband or brother and without covering up, but she bloody well criticises our duty free shopping,” said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the al-Qaeda linked Hezb-e-Islami.

Speaking exclusively to Vote Smart’s South Asia Bureau Chief, Barry Tendulkar, a close aide to Hekmatyar also said the quick-tempered Taliban leader is angry at Gillad’s failure to visit his rug shop near the military base.

Hekmatyar and other Taliban leaders have vowed to “exact revenge” for Gillard’s alleged insults by beating their chests, bombarding the local airwaves and obscure Internet sites with a fresh wave of maniacal clichés, and massacring more civilians.

Photo: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the al-Qaeda linked Hezb-e-Islami, outside his duty-free rug shop at Tarin Kowt airport.

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