What of Afganistan?

[jegs2]

With so much attention focused on Iraq, what of Afganistan?

Los Angeles Times
August 4, 2003
Pg. 1

Afghans On Edge Of Chaos

As opium production and banditry soar, the country is at risk of anarchy, some warn, and could allow a Taliban resurgence.

By Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writer

WARDAK, Afghanistan — Two months after a gun attack, the bullet holes in the Datsun sedan have been patched and it runs beautifully. But water engineer Asil Kahn walks with a limp and he still has two bullets in his body, one of them half an inch from his spine.

The vehicle's humanitarian logo made him a victim in the battle for Afghanistan's future, where water engineers, mine-clearers and humanitarian workers — people the country needs most — are prime targets for militants trying to destabilize President Hamid Karzai's interim government.

The May attack on the Afghanistan Development Agency car in Wardak province, south of Kabul on the road to Kandahar, injured Kahn but killed the driver.

"They weren't robbers or thieves," said Kahn, 46. "They just wanted to kill us. They're people against the government. They thought that maybe there would be some foreigners or some officials from aid organizations in the car. That's why they shot us."

U.S. forces have their hands full trying to subdue attacks in Iraq. But with the slow buildup of a national Afghan army, an inadequate U.S. and coalition presence and poor progress on reconstruction projects, Afghanistan is spiraling out of control and risks becoming a "narco-mafia" state, some humanitarian agencies warn.

Already the signs are there — a boom in opium production, rampant banditry and huge swaths of territory unsafe for Western aid workers. The central government has almost no power over regional warlords who control roads and extort money from truck drivers, choking commerce and trade.

If the country slips into anarchy, it risks becoming a haven for resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. And the point of U.S. military action here could be lost — a major setback in the war against terrorism.

Money spent on the war may end up being wasted, and dragging the country back from chaos could be even more costly. America spends about $900 million a month on its forces stationed here, but little of the $3 billion authorized for aid in the Freedom Support Act has been spent.

U.S. promises of a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan raised Afghan expectations, but security and reconstruction woes are undermining support for the coalition among ordinary Afghans. Their disappointment and disillusionment plays into the hands of anti-government militants.

Humanitarian agencies, calling for a big boost in international funds for security and reconstruction, contend that the commitment to Afghanistan is relatively low. A CARE International paper in January stated that postwar international aid spent in Bosnia-Herzegovina was $326 per capita, compared with $42 promised for Afghans up to 2006. For every peacekeeping soldier there were 48 Bosnians, compared with one for every 5,380 Afghans, the paper said. Yet Bosnia poses no appreciable terrorist threat.

There are 8,500 U.S. military personnel leading the 11,500 anti-terrorist coalition forces in Afghanistan. An additional 5,000 international troops secure the capital city, Kabul. A key missing piece is an Afghan army, but with only 4,000 troops trained so far, it will take many years to reach the planned 70,000-strong force. It won't be ready in time to ensure free and fair elections scheduled for June. Some of the 4,000 trained soldiers have already defected because of poor salaries and low morale.

The security vacuum outside Kabul has emboldened Taliban fighters, who constitute the bulk of anti-government militants, some who cross from Pakistan, others based in the east and south. U.S. officials say the Taliban controls part of the opium business, a rich source of funds to attract fighters.

As security worsens, there are sharp differences between the aid community and Western leaders on how to prevent a deepening slide.

Many in the international aid community in Kabul believe the coalition's latest response to the security problem — small scale military teams tackling modest reconstruction projects — will have little impact and will put aid workers at more risk by blurring the line between them and soldiers.

About 40% of the $5.2 billion pledged by the international community last year has been spent but with little progress on big reconstruction projects like the Kabul-to-Kandahar road. Much of the money has been eaten up by emergency relief — food, medicine, blankets and tents.

Haji Abdul Khaliq, 54, arrived in Kabul exhausted by 14 hours on the shattering, rocky track of a highway from Kandahar. It was inconceivable to him that $2 billion had been spent in his country since January last year.

"From what we can see, they didn't spend more than a dollar," he spluttered angrily. "There are no paved roads, no reconstruction of government buildings, no help for the people and no government salaries.

"I think at first people were very hopeful, [but] day by day they lose hope," said Khaliq, a turbaned, white-bearded general from a Kandahar military base who is fighting Taliban militants in the south.

The term Taliban can be a little confusing in a city like Kandahar, where most people in power were once with the Taliban.

Typical of many Afghan moujahedeen fighters, Khaliq is loyal only to his commander. Though he's fighting anti-government militants, he is contemptuous of Americans and despises Karzai and his government.

Khaliq said Taliban forces in the region were growing bolder. A June 30 explosion at a Kandahar mosque that injured more than a dozen was apparently aimed at the anti-Taliban mullah there. A day later another anti-Taliban mullah was shot dead in Nakobak village, six miles south of Kandahar.

In the same week, said Khaliq, Taliban fighters from Pakistan set up a base northeast of Kandahar in Zabul province. Afghan forces attacked, killing a dozen Taliban fighters and capturing about five.

The Taliban rebels offer local people good salaries — more than $100 a month — to fight, while Khaliq grumbled that he and his men are not being paid at all. Afghanistan's severe budgetary problems are leaving many civil servants unpaid.

In Afghanistan, U.S. forces have not suffered the steady casualties borne by the much larger force in Iraq. But anti-government militants in recent months have killed aid workers, attacked mine-clearers and burned girls schools. In June, a suicide bomb attack in Kabul killed four German soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

The security problem delaying the Kabul-Kandahar road project is denying the country the economic fillip of a six-hour trade route between the cities. Taxis can do the road in 14 hours, but truck transport takes at least two days.

Taxi drivers working the road daily tell hair-raising tales of armed attacks by thieves and bandits. With something akin to nostalgia, they recall the security of the Taliban era, when they could drive all night without fear.

U.S. forces are focused on eradicating remnants of the Taliban. But to many Afghans, a more immediate problem is bandits, often associated with the venal commanders and warlords who control the roads.

Sher Alimad, 38, a driver from the western city of Herat, said he was attacked in mid-June by five gunmen at Gereshk, about 40 miles west of Kandahar. He was beaten, tied up and thrown into his trunk, driven to a deserted road and robbed of 12,000 Afghanis (about $250).

A surge in trade by small businessmen after the Taliban's fall is being slowly strangled by extortion and banditry.

A group of truck drivers sat wearily in the dust at Dashte Deh Sabz on the northern outskirts of Kabul, after their loads of gravel for the thriving brick industry were seized by a local commander named Maulana. They said he had taken over the gravel trade.

"He's collecting from everyone. No one else can bring it into the city except for him," said driver Khalifa Yakub, 21, who said he was beaten by checkpoint soldiers and jailed for three days when he tried to protest. His dream of running his own small gravel transport business has died. He's become an employee.

"These people, they're commanders, they're dealers, they're businessmen, they're killers, they're everything," he said ruefully.

President Karzai has repeatedly called for the deployment of ISAF forces outside Kabul, a request echoed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and international aid agencies, but resisted by U.S. and European leaders. Last month an open letter from 80 aid organizations called for a national ISAF presence, warning that efforts to rebuild and hold elections were at risk.

Karzai has called for international donors to offer $20 billion over five years to help the country rebuild. CARE International called for at least $10 billion.

Playing down the security problem on a recent visit, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs — military-civilian teams of 50-100 people deployed to rebuild infrastructure — would play a key role in improving security. Four are working, independent of ISAF, and eight are planned.

Lt. Gen. Norbert van Heyst, the German commander of ISAF forces in Kabul, described the city as a "safe island" because of ISAF's presence, but expressed concern that militant attacks in the south and east could spill into the capital. However, he said, extending ISAF beyond Kabul was unrealistic.

"For the entire country you would need 10,000 additional troops, and nobody is willing to do that," he said, adding that PRTs were a more realistic first step. "I'm convinced that this concept can improve security."

It's a view contested by many in the humanitarian sector. Barbara Stapleton of ACBAR, the coordinating body for Afghan relief, said the military should focus on improving poor security, not duplicate the role of humanitarian agencies.

PRTs "have neither the mandate nor the resources to have a significant impact on either reconstruction or security," she said, adding that the teams eroded Afghan confidence in the neutrality of humanitarian agencies. "In a highly complex security situation, they further muddy the waters."

Stapleton said some U.S. military anti-terrorist forces had conducted crude searches in a village in southern Afghanistan, bursting into homes and offending cultural sensibilities.

"Then they went in later with sweeteners and built wells. And the people refused to use them. It's actually a crude way of dealing with a highly sophisticated and very intelligent people."

Dixon was recently on assignment in Afghanistan.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

With so much attention focused on Iraq, what of Afganistan?

We've actually just approved additional investments for it, and the economy there is booming. The lawlessness really isn't that much--a bit like the wild west and all--and most of the trouble with the warlords we heard of a few months back has quieted down. The usual media distortion in that article, and scare tactics in the intro.

[Dahak]

With so much attention focused on Iraq, what of Afganistan?

We've actually just approved additional investments for it, and the economy there is booming. The lawlessness really isn't that much--a bit like the wild west and all--and most of the trouble with the warlords we heard of a few months back has quieted down. The usual media distortion in that article, and scare tactics in the intro.

if you mean by blooming, the growing of drugs, you may be right.
Fact is that Karzai is basically the mayor of Kabul, and the rest of the country is firmly in the hand of the different warlords.
Hurray!

[The Duchess of Zeon]

if you mean by blooming, the growing of drugs, you may be right.

We need to pay them enough to start growing other crops, and then start providing markets for those crops. That's long term but it can work. The Thais have done it successfully to basically reduce their share of the Golden Triangle to the point where the Meth trade is a bigger concern for them than Opium, and we can do the same thing in Afghanistan--it'll just take time.

Fact is that Karzai is basically the mayor of Kabul, and the rest of the country is firmly in the hand of the different warlords.
Hurray!

Well, this changes what from before? That's the way Afghanistan has always been run. It's a basically feudal country. The Taleban were the same way, running the country based on the loyalty of the Pashtun Warlords. Now we run the country based on the loyalty of non-Pashtun warlords, who keep the pro-Taleban Pashtun warlords in line, along with some pro-U.S. Pashtun warlords doing the same thing, and, oh, there's the occasion non-Pashtun who steps out of line, and then of course they fight each other and we have to break them up by dropping bombs.

So what? It's about normal. Probably more peaceful than the area around your hometown in the 15th century. At least there's no major combat going on now, and even in the areas with skirmishes improvement is still coming. If you're afraid of having a few bullets flying in the area you're in, just don't go there. Other people will; there are always people who like adventerous regions. Lots of Aghanis moving back, you know, and Kabul is already a boom-town, while out in the frontier wells are being dug, public buildings being restored.

Oh sure, it'll take time to centralize, to quash the power of the warlords, but the Afghanis do have a national identity, and we're training Karzai up a good national army--and the combination is really all you need. There will be a lot more bloodshed in Afghanistan, undoubtably (and the context, of course, in terms of the modern western squemishness sense of "bloodshed"), before the country is fully peaceful and prosperous, but the end result is not in much doubt now. The Afghanis, I think, the average ones, know that. It's just that most of the western liberal elitists like to forget it for their own purposes.

[Next of Kin]

We've actually just approved additional investments for it, and the economy there is booming. The lawlessness really isn't that much--a bit like the wild west and all--and most of the trouble with the warlords we heard of a few months back has quieted down. The usual media distortion in that article, and scare tactics in the intro.

Do you actually believe what you write?

[HemlockGrey]

Eventually, the combination of a trained, national army and a growing capitalist economy will present Kabul with all the tools it needs to reign in the warlords.

And what the hell would you do? Use cropdusters to spread magic fairy powder?

[kojikun]

Anyone that shoots at aide and reconstruction workers cares more about
his own power then for the future of his country. Anyone found attempting
to thwart the reconstruction effort should be public beheaded or something.

[Peregrin Toker]

Afghanistan... from what I know, the land is in anarchy save for Kabul. And it actually seems like the USA bears a bit of the guilt.

However, for some reason it appears like Iraq is in less disorder than Afghanistan - even though the media tells more about it.

[Stormbringer]

Afghanistan is a craphole of a country. It's going to take a long time to rebuild it from the ground up. The nation's got nothing left and it takes a long time to fix two decades of war ravages. We're making progress but there's no quick fix.



If anyone does have a magic quick fix call Bush directly at 1-800-GET-ACLUE.

[Wicked Pilot]

How about if Europe sends some more troops. That may be helpful.

[The Dark]

Afghanistan... from what I know, the land is in anarchy save for Kabul. And it actually seems like the USA bears a bit of the guilt.

However, for some reason it appears like Iraq is in less disorder than Afghanistan - even though the media tells more about it.

True...Iraq's managed to organize into a bunch of groups dedicated to shooting American soldiers, while the Afghans are just shooting anyone not from their warlord's band. Much better.

[Vympel]

Actually Karzai has been consistently complaining that Afghanistan has been largely forgotten and they're getting jack shit funding- that's the problem.

[Bob McDob]

From what I've heard I've surprised Karzai lasted this long.

ACBAR, the coordinating body for Afghan relief

hehehe

[Bob McDob]

I also think it's kind of odd nobody's brought up the drug war in response to funding Afganistan. I mean, it's perfect; like Columbia except we're in power and nobody seems to care. But then, fueling Afganistan's economy would cost money, and taxpayers apparently don't want to stem the drug flow if it'll mean higher taxes. Or maybe Congress just doesn't trust Bush with handling another economy. I dunno, what do you think?

[Darth Wong]

How about if Europe sends some more troops. That may be helpful.

Touche.

[Dahak]

How about if Europe sends some more troops. That may be helpful.

I think our commitment is sufficient, although Bush managed to squeeze some more troops out of our CHancellor.
After all, we didn't bomb it to pieces. I don't really feel like it would be our job to send troops there.

[Colonel Olrik]

How about if Europe sends some more troops. That may be helpful.

I think our commitment is sufficient, although Bush managed to squeeze some more troops out of our CHancellor.
After all, we didn't bomb it to pieces. I don't really feel like it would be our job to send troops there.

Yes, we did. At least, he helped to do it. The Afheganistan war was a NATO effort, and we have much more responsability there than in Iraq. I don't know how many European troops are currently deployed there, so I won't say if the number is enough or not.

[Wicked Pilot]

I don't know how many European troops are currently deployed there, so I won't say if the number is enough or not.

Accourding to the article there are 8,500 U.S. military personnel leading the 11,500 anti-terrorist coalition forces in Afghanistan. An additional 5,000 international troops secure the capital city, Kabul.

Troops from Europe aren't the only thing that would help, oil rich Islamic nations like Saudi could help immensively in the reconstruction with financial and technical support. That is of course if they wanted to.

[Stormbringer]

Troops from Europe aren't the only thing that would help, oil rich Islamic nations like Saudi could help immensively in the reconstruction with financial and technical support. That is of course if they wanted to.

Osama will sooner turn up on a video chomping on a ham sandwich while he swills cheap beer. The oil shieks only give a damn about their "brother muslims" in so far as it makes them look good and they can do it with out any sort of sacrifice.

[Joe]

Troops from Europe aren't the only thing that would help, oil rich Islamic nations like Saudi could help immensively in the reconstruction with financial and technical support. That is of course if they wanted to.

They could have also resettled the Palestinian refugees almost 60 years ago. Most Arab leaders don't give a shit about the people they cry crocodile tears for on a daily basis. Nothing new.

[Wicked Pilot]

They could have also resettled the Palestinian refugees almost 60 years ago. Most Arab leaders don't give a shit about the people they cry crocodile tears for on a daily basis. Nothing new.

Coulda woulda maybe, but the fact is that right now they could help immensively with the problems in Palestein, Iraq, and Afganistan if they'd just get off their fucking ass and spend the money on something other than another gold palace and BMW for the royal bitches and brats.

[Bob McDob]

I'm considering writing to my senator on the Afganistan issue - I just can't believe that NO politician is brave enough to consider the billions reforming Afganistan's economy would save in the long term. Maybe we should elect our senators for life.

[Vympel]

They could have also resettled the Palestinian refugees almost 60 years ago. Most Arab leaders don't give a shit about the people they cry crocodile tears for on a daily basis. Nothing new.

That would also have the effect of legitimizing what Israel did, unfortunately. That was higher priority to them than resettling Palestinians on their own land- which is pretty frigging unfair, even though they aren't the most wonderful countries in the world.