While the Bush administration appears determined to expand its campaign against terrorism to Iraq, a growing chorus of experts inside and outside the U.S. government is cautioning against turning attention away from the war’s first front: Afghanistan.
Since vanquishing the Taliban, the United States has failed to devote enough resources to the tougher job of remaking Afghanistan into a stable nation, these critics fear. They say the mission of American troops is changing from military action to the uncertain, risky task of enforcing a tense peace.
“The peace is a lot harder to win than the war,” Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) told the Senate last week. “We’re not doing nearly enough, in my view, to secure Afghanistan so that it can be rebuilt and so that it does not again become a haven for terrorists.”
The 10-month fight to rid Afghanistan of its Taliban government and the Al Qaeda terrorists it shielded has become a search-and-destroy effort. Meanwhile, the business of establishing order has been plagued with problems and setbacks.
Aid experts, members of Congress and some in the Bush administration have raised concerns about Afghanistan’s economy, bleak humanitarian conditions, tapestry of warlord-ruled fiefdoms and its wobbly, nascent government that threatens to crumble into violent rivalries.
There have been many signs of just how violent and precarious post-Taliban Afghanistan can be. A vice president and transport minister have been assassinated, and last week Kabul police nabbed a would-be suicide bomber when his explosives-laden car got into a minor traffic accident. His intended target was said to be Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Bush administration officials involved in the rebuilding effort acknowledge the inherent instability of the place and the difficulty of their task. But they also point to the progress in human rights and freedoms that have been attained in just 10 months of American intervention.
“The Taliban have been driven from power; Al Qaeda is on the run. Afghanistan is no longer a base for terrorist operations or a breeding ground for radical Islamic militancy,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress on Thursday. “The beatings by religious police and executions in soccer stadiums have stopped. A humanitarian crisis has been averted. International workers are no longer held hostage. Aid is once again flowing, and the Afghan people have been liberated.”
Internal friction not inevitable
Administration insiders also disagree with assessments that Afghanistan’s traditional tribal factions can’t find a way to coexist.
“We are trying to consolidate this new order for Afghanistan to become as self-reliant as possible,” a senior Bush administration official said. “We do not want Afghanistan to be a kind of security welfare state indefinitely.”
Some members of Congress and foreign policy and military analysts say the White House has not moved forcefully enough on important fronts.
The White House has been slow to follow its military gains with social assistance, they argue. Afghan leaders recently complained about not getting promised aid, especially for projects that employ people and demonstrate that the new government works.
David Johnson, the State Department’s coordinator for Afghanistan, said most of the assistance has gone for food and relief supplies. The U.S.-led coalition has delivered 500 metric tons of food assistance, according to the government. Future aid, officials said, would go to building and agricultural projects.
“We have spent the bulk of the money on refugee relief and food assistance,” Johnson said, “and a lot of what we have done so [far] is not terribly noticeable to the outside observer.”
The U.S. has pledged $300 million in aid, and the administration has asked Congress for another $250 million. The international community has pledged $1.8 billion for 2002, but just a third of that has been delivered.
“Whatever label you want to use, there has to be nation-building,” said Larry Goodson, a professor at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. “We have to have reconstruction, economically and physically, and we have been very slow off the mark.”
Critics also fault the administration for its reluctance to acknowledge the necessity of a sizeable, military peacekeeping force, either American or international.
“The Bush administration is only gradually learning that it has no other choice than to try,” said Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “And yet all of its warnings and qualifications about the problems in nation-building are just as correct in Afghanistan as they are in other places we have had to do it. It is a difficult, costly and time-consuming activity.”
A few months ago, Afghanistan appeared to be a stunning success for the U.S. forces, which have suffered relatively few–18–combat fatalities.
Yet, two primary targets, Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and the Taliban’s Mullah Mohammed Omar, have escaped capture.
Nevertheless, with the threat of Taliban and Al Qaeda reduced, the U.S. and its allies entered a different sort of fight: bringing peace to a place that hasn’t seen it in decades.
More Top Picks Best Framing Nailers For Home Builders
Their plans included the installation of a democratic government, the delivery of humanitarian relief, the establishment of a new currency and banking system and managing the return of more than 1.2 million refugees.
The Bush administration has been heavily involved in Afghanistan’s recovery although some actions seem contrary to President Bush’s earlier pledges to avoid nation-building.
The White House had a significant hand in June in managing Afghanistan’s grand council, called the loya jirga, where Karzai was given a two-year term as president. A top National Security Council aide, Zalmay Khalilzad, served as Bush’s emissary and was consulted throughout the process.
GIs helping civilians
The U.S. military’s civilian affairs units have helped dig wells, build hospitals, repair roads and bridges, and rebuild 49 schools, according to the Pentagon. U.S. forces have taken over Karzai’s personal security.
The U.S. has not been doing all the work alone.
Inside Kabul, a 5,000-person international police contingent led by Turkey helps maintain order. The German government is training a local police force, and an Italian contingent is leading reforms of the judiciary.
Perhaps the most direct role of the U.S. military is training an Afghan army. Sixty-thousand soldiers are proposed; so far, 350 have graduated. Some original recruits have dropped out because the pay is only $30 a month.
U.S. officials hope the national army eventually will assert authority over Afghanistan’s warlords and local militias. At present, the major warlords and regional commanders pay allegiance to the central government, but as long as they continue to command private armies, they threaten the stability of the country.
“On the one side, we need their loyalty. On the other side, this country should move toward civilian rule,” said Abdullah, Afghanistan’s foreign minister. “This I think is a big challenge.”
Warlords as allies
U.S. Special Forces work closely with some of the local warlords. “We’re still looking for Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden and company, and that also entails paying a lot of Afghan militias to fight for us,” said Barnett Rubin, director of studies at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University and an expert on Afghanistan. “If they have a bunch of Special Forces hanging around them all the time, it looks to them like they’re being supported by the U.S., which they are.”
A senior White House official said the interaction of the U.S. forces with the warlords has defused tensions.
“We do not want the regional leaders or warlords to go to war against each other, to start a new conflict,” the official said. “We will use the influence we have with them . . . to disabuse them from going to war.”
Throughout Afghanistan, it is widely understood that the sizeable U.S. force deters any major challenge to the central government. No single warlord has enough power to take on the United States.
“The presence of U.S. forces,” said Abdullah, “is already stabilizing the country.”