Read and comment on this editorial from the Atlanta Journal Consitution by Cynthia Tucker that after Bush grandly signed a bill last December authorizing $3.3 billion for reconstruction over four years, he neglected to include any of that money in his 2003 budget request. Not one thin dime.
Afghanistan remains balanced on a knife edge. It could easily fall back into the anarchy that invited the Taliban and its guests, al-Qaida. Even as we pledge billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq, the United States must remain committed to "nation building" in Afghanistan. Of course, that won't be easy. Afghanistan has no history of democratic institutions. It has little infrastructure, centuries-old tribal tensions and a feudal economy. Nation building, if we do it right, will be costly. But if we don't do it right -- well, we've known since Sept. 11, 2001, how much that failure will cost. Read the editorial at:
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution April 27, 2003
If Afghanistan Stays Forgotten, It Won't Forget
By Cynthia Tucker
Remember Afghanistan?
It's the wretched Central Asian country that became a haven for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, which attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a year and a half ago. When U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan to drive out the Taliban, al-Qaida's hosts, President Bush promised that Americans would make a sustained commitment to helping the country rebuild.
And then he forgot about it.
The United States said it would promote stability, foster economic growth and encourage a progressive indigenous government that would not shelter terrorists. At least that was the game plan the Bush administration offered for public consumption.
But the United States is already reneging on its promise to Afghanistan. After Bush grandly signed a bill last December authorizing $3.3 billion for reconstruction over four years, he neglected to include any of that money in his 2003 budget request. Not one thin dime. Congress hastily penciled in $295 million, but that doesn't come close to Bush's pledge.
No wonder poor Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's interim president, was reduced to a round of begging in Washington in February. "Don't forget us if Iraq happens," he implored members of Congress.
But his plea for sustained support could not overcome the notoriously short American attention span. Afghanistan is already a distant memory for the news media, for most ordinary Americans and even for foreign-policy hands in the Bush administration. Whatever attention America has left for foreign policy will go to Iraq, where the fight for dollars for reconstruction is only beginning.
Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan still come under fire from Taliban and al-Qaida remnants, mostly operating in the mountainous eastern region near Pakistan. Military analysts believe al-Qaida still operates small camps with the assistance of sympathetic locals.
Only Kabul, the capital, is under the nominal control of Karzai's central government; the rest of the country is in the hands of heavily armed warlords, who keep their own armies, collect taxes and ignore dictates from Karzai. Indeed, Karzai, who has survived an assassination attempt, rarely leaves his compound. When he does, he is accompanied by his American bodyguards.
Because the international peacekeeping force is small and restricted to the area around Kabul, rival warlords are free to attack one another, ambush aid workers and sabotage reconstruction efforts. And the opium trade is booming once again.
While human rights violations are less severe now that the Taliban has been displaced, warlords are hardly democratic. Take Ismail Khan, the undisputed commander of western Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch has accused his security forces of "widespread political intimidation, arrests, beatings and torture."
And he's "nothing special" in a region full of brutal warriors used to tribal rule, said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch. "He's just one of the worst cases."
There has been some progress toward reconstruction. Humanitarian workers have been able to deliver food throughout much of the country; medical care has improved; schools have reopened. The United States is training an Afghan army and a police force.
But Afghanistan remains balanced on a knife edge. It could easily fall back into the anarchy that invited the Taliban and its guests, al-Qaida. Even as we pledge billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq, the United States must remain committed to "nation building" in Afghanistan.
Of course, that won't be easy. Afghanistan has no history of democratic institutions. It has little infrastructure, centuries-old tribal tensions and a feudal economy. Nation building, if we do it right, will be costly.
But if we don't do it right -- well, we've known since Sept. 11, 2001, how much that failure will cost.
Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Click on a link below for more stories on PCOL
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Afghanistan; Speaking Out
