A Miserable Record in Afghanistan

The United States and Western nations satisfy themselves with a minimal security goal. All the big promises to the Afghan people have been forgotten.

When Afghan President Hamid Karzai says “terror” is gaining ground, he’s talking about the Taliban, a nationalistic and complex movement all the way down to just plain criminals — international, but neither active nor interested. But it wasn’t the Taliban; it was the ethnic Arab fanatics of al-Qaida who popularized suicide bombing as a weapon against the global dominance of the West. Had the Taliban not made the mistake of offering them a safe haven, they would still be at the helm and could merrily continue publicly torturing and executing their unpopular fellow citizens in Kabul’s stadiums.

Differentiating between al-Qaida and the Taliban is important because it sheds light on American and NATO policy. Osama bin Laden’s death appears to have caused al-Qaida’s ultimate weakening. The concept of international jihad has failed and the threat has receded. Why, then, should young Americans and Europeans continue to die in Afghanistan? And for whom? It has long been known that if Afghanistan could be prevented from ever again becoming a safe haven for global jihad, the withdrawal could begin.

And that’s exactly what’s happening, but the West appears satisfied with a minimum security goal: As long as the Taliban’s reign of terror can be kept inside Afghan borders and al-Qaida kept from establishing another foothold there, the Hindu Kush ceases to be problem number one. In other words, it’s up to the Afghan people to keep an eye on them — under the watchful eye of the ever-present West, naturally.

So much for security policy. Other than that, the past decade presents a pretty miserable picture. While under the leadership of the United States and NATO, Pakistan and Iran — along with the eternally corrupt Afghan political and economic elite — have succeeded in wrecking one of the most promising projects of the 21st century. At the end of 2001, Afghans celebrated the downfall of the Taliban, longing for the peaceful democracy the West promised them in their future. And now? The same old warlords are back in power, the radical Islamists are seen in many regions as the least corrupt and the specter of civil war looms. What a shame.