perfidy

Mike, your mother was a hamster, and your father... 

well, you know. 

The Boston Phoenix, a newspaper whose reporting is always cutting-edge but often gratingly shrill, writes this week about reconstruction in Afghanistan. Taking a glass-half-empty approach to the issue that some may scoff at, the Phoenix nevertheless argues convincingly that Bush is abandoning any serious efforts to rebuild the nation, and wonders whether Iraq will follow a similar pattern of Reconstruction. 

White House officials apparently forgot to request funds to rebuild the country they bombed to such hoopla shortly after the September 11 attacks. Congressional staffers who caught the slip eventually requested $300 million for reconstructing Afghanistan. It's a lot more than [the 73 cents [I left the house with this morning], but less than a scratch on the bumper of the president's $75 billion initial request to fund a new war in Iraq. . . .  

At present, however, the only things that seem to be enduring in Afghanistan are the chaos and violence that have afflicted that country over the last 34 years, which have seen an invasion by the Soviet Union, bitter internecine warfare, brutal unification under the repressive Islamic fundamentalism of the Taliban, and a US military campaign to oust that regime. To wit:

• Far from achieving a stable environment for reconstruction and democratization, US troops and international peacekeepers have come under increasing attack by remnants of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and disgruntled warlords. Tribal unrest and power struggles between warlords who have not declared outright opposition to the US or the Afghan central government have undermined the formation of even a loose central governmental structure.
• Due to the continuing instability and violence, much of Afghanistan is considered "unsafe" for the United Nations (UN), the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC), and other non-governmental aid agencies. On March 29, the ICRC shut down all its field operations after the execution-style killing of one of its employees by Taliban fighters who ambushed an ICRC convoy.
• If instability is leading to the possible reformation of terrorist cells, it's also aiding in the resurgence of Afghanistan's drug trade. In March, Afghanistan's finance minister warned a donor conference in March that a lack of "predictable finance" would lead the country to backslide into a "narco-mafia state."
• The much-vaunted goals of democratization, particularly enhancing the role of women in Afghan society, are also suffering as a result of continued instability in areas outside the Afghan capital of Kabul  - the only city with a strong international presence. As a March report by the International Crisis Group on "Women and Reconstruction" bluntly noted: "A renewed and expanded international commitment to security is urgently needed if the limited gains women have made in Kabul are to be institutionalized and emulated in other Afghan cities." . . . .

In short, Afghanistan may be largely free of the Taliban's iron-fisted repression, but that doesn't mean the country is secure. Rather, Islamic fanaticism has made way for a more traditional patchwork of violent and competing regional fiefdoms. At best, international forces maintain uneasy oversight of the country; at worst, they are ready targets for Afghan warlords.... The piece finishes up with a summations of the "lessons of Afghanistan" and how the administration has and has not applied them in Iraq that I find less meaty, but the article as a whole is an interesting read nonetheless. 

So, to sum up: Afghanistan is now resuming its historical patterns, the efforts to institute a strong free national government notwithstanding, and Iraq could go down the same road if help is not given in the mid- to long-term. Many would argue that now that the Taliban is mostly gone, it's up to Afghanistan to rebuild their own country. Well sure. The US isn't the boss of Afghanistan. But rebuilding would be an easier task, though, if the US and other coalition nations were to provide monetary and advisory aid to the struggling nation, as well as help in rebuilding national infrastructures. Without this kind of lasting assistance, the likelihood of a stable Afghanistan-- the showpiece of the new style of American foreign relations-- is ever more remote. Same goes for Iraq. I'm very very glad Hussein's power has been broken and the Iraqi people freed from his egomaniacal brutality. Now for the hard part. 

A last note: I see in the Phoenix that Sonic Youth are playing with Wilco later this spring in Manchester. Woo hoo!!