Sober realities of Afghanistan

Last night I went to hear Ahmed Rashid and Hamida Ghafour speak at the Frontline Club. It was a night for sober contemplation of the ineptitude and outright corruption of outside actors (the US, NATO, Pakistan, the Saudis) and local warlords in Afghanistan.

Rashid explained that 80% of funding provided to reconstruct Afghanistan either went to foreigners working in Afghanistan or was embezzled by politicians and warlords. The amounts given to Afghanistan were a drop in the ocean compared to other humanitarian missions such as East Timor (which isn't exactly a resort-like location these days) and Kosovo. The Pakistan Army is assisting the Taliban as it is still unwilling to let go of the Frankenstein it so lovingly created previously, even though it is now a major American ally. And the Taliban are far from a homogenous bunch, instead consisting of a complex mixture of hardcore and more realist Pashtuns, many of the latter merely being people who feel it is more wise to stick to the Taliban than the American-backed Government because when the Americans and NATO leave, and they most certainly will, the Taliban will get back into power. Current polls in major European NATO countries indicate that a majority of the population want their soldiers out of Afghanistan, so there might be some credence to this mode of thought.

Most alarmingly, Rashid said that if America invades Iran, this might cause fissures between Afghanistan's Shia and Sunni, something that hitherto has not appeared in any major way. It would also increase hostility to the Western presence in Afghanistan.

Hamida described the difficulties of being a woman reporter in Afghanistan, particularly as an expatriate Afghan who also has to face the resentment of those Afghans who were not lucky enough to leave the country before it was destroyed by decades of civil war. It is easy enough for her to interview other women, but often not as easy to speak to the major actors in Afghanistan who are almost always men.

Both noted that most Afghans are strongly in favour of a productive Western presence in the country, such is the desperation and devastation in Afghanistan. I would add that there is a moral obligation for the West to invest in Afghanistan. Pakistan, and the Gulf Arab states which exported their petro dollars and young men to Afghanistan during the civil war, have a similar moral obligation.

Hamida has also just published a memoir of her life and work as a journalist in Afghanistan. Check it out.