Afghanistan, the forgotten project

Sentiment among the Afghani population of the foreign troops in their country is deteriorating.  Riots have become more commonplace in response to any perceived misconduct committed by the foreign soldiers.  In May, a military cargo truck accidentally plowed into a line of vehicles which led to accusations that American troops opened fire on a crowd of civilians afterwards.  The incident led to riots which smashed store windows and burned property on the headquarters of CARE International in Kabul.  These riots are symptomatic of the growing distrust of the foreign presence, resulting from the air strikes, the lack of tangible improvements and the perceived attacks on Islam.

In order to combat the resentment, the U.S. and its allies must do more in urban areas to distribute aid and improve the lives of common people.  Focus has seemingly been on the rural countryside where isolated villages have hardly seen any 21^st century technology, but the cities must also be looked after.  These are the places where the riots and demonstrations are held and used as propaganda for al Qaeda and Taliban to continue their fight and for pacifists to demand a foolhardy withdrawal.  NATO must endear itself to the population and not take their gratitude for granted or else they risk losing their valuable support.

Though huge amounts of foreign aid have poured into Afghanistan with much more promised in the years to come, many have claimed that the money is not being translated into tangible improvements for the Afghan people.  A former planning minister Ramazan Bashardost said that his people were wondering “If these billions of dollars have been donated, which of our pains have they remedied? What ointment has been put on our wounds?”^[lxxiii]  His rhetoric raises concerns that the Afghans will view the world’s promises as empty and resort to extremism instead.

The Afghan Compact signed at the London Conference in January implemented methods to streamline procedures and eliminate bureaucratic inefficiencies in providing aid while also monitoring progress of development against pre-determined benchmarks.  Now, there must also be a way to eliminate corruption.  One way to do so is for the Afghans to set up an independent aid commission with reputable members to verify that the aid money is distributed to its rightful target.  This commission should have policing power with presidential authority to punish any sign of mismanagement, whether accidental or intentional.  U.S. assistance would be needed in this endeavor to ensure its success.

On the issue of accepting disreputable people into Parliament, the solution is complex.  In a country that has experienced the turmoil it has, Afghanistan will certainly be tainted with the sins of the past.  It is the decision of Afghanistan as a sovereign nation whether to pursue active prosecution of past crimes.  Many experts recommend this course of action.  Both the Human Rights Watch and the Afghanistan Justice Project released reports in 2005 documenting the ascension of people with human rights violations into high-level government positions and recommended their immediate purge.

In a perfect world, all people who had committed atrocities and other crimes should be instantly barred from office, but the threat of them openly joining the insurgents’ cause may be too much currently when NATO and Afghan forces have their hands full with a growing unrest.  In the meantime, strict standards must be upheld to prevent any lawmaker from impeding progress in the country.  Anti-corruption devices, such as independent investigative inquiries, must be enacted to crack down on anybody corrupting the system or preventing improvements from being made to the country.

In other matters concerning governance, the mixture of Islam and democracy has been hotly debated.  Experts have feared that combining democracy and Islam would be a fruitless enterprise, pointing to the strong conservative element still persisting in Afghanistan.  Even though there might not be the public beatings anymore, many Islamic clerics still hold a strict interpretation of the Quran.  However, there is hope that moderates will provide a strong enough counterweight.  Approval of a centrist Supreme Court shows that there is still hope for a cordial blend.  Despite the strong presence of conservatism in the country, there are still moderates and they must be encouraged to speak out and make their presence known.  They will provide a line of defense to make sure that Afghanistan does not lapse into an Islamic theocracy.