The invasion of Afghanistan was overwhelmingly supported in the U.S. even by most of those who later opposed the war in Iraq. One of the more powerful arguments among those who opposed it was that the Bush administration simply couldn't be trusted to follow through with the promised "Marshall Plan" for Afghanistan and to provide the real security and economic revitalization needed to provide a stable country.
The worst case scenario in which the country descended back into the factional fighting and anarchy that followed the withdrawal of the U.S.S.R. from Afghanistan and which opened the door for the Taliban to take over has not come to pass. However, the reality has not been a lot better in many respects.
From the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist we have the following report from Sarah Chayes on conditions southern Afghanistan around Kandahar.
Sarah Chayes runs Arghand, a cooperative business in Kandahar, where she has lived since late 2001. She was a Paris-based reporter for National Public Radio from 1997-2001. In describing the climate of fear prevalent among villagers in the area, she writes:
"In reality, the four years since the Taliban's demise have been characterized by a steady erosion of security in distinct phases. The most recent phase, signaled by the rebuffs I received from the farmers, may represent a point of no return. These rebuffs are the consequence of a highly effective intimidation campaign that has been carried out in tightening circles around Kandahar by, for lack of a better term, resurgent Taliban. Handbills appear in village mosques threatening anyone who dares collaborate with foreigners or the Afghan government. Homes receive armed visitors, demanding provisions or other assistance. One of my farmer friends, afraid even to pronounce their name, refers to them as "fairies who come at night."
A word about fear. Afghans, legendary for their tenacity in battle, have had their courage shattered by the gruesome bloodletting of recent decades. The odds were stacked so heavily against them, the weapons so mismatched, the perpetrators--Afghan and foreign alike--so insensitive to the strictures of honorable conflict, that courage became irrelevant. Afghans are now internally injured. They constitute an entire society suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. And so, it does not take much to intimidate them.
A scattering of menacing handbills, some judiciously executed murders--outrageous enough in the choice of victims or venues, such as the night watchman who was hanged on the grounds of the middle school he protected just east of Kandahar--suffice to scare ordinary Afghans. They no longer have the psychological resources to take risks. And so, the arduous task of rebuilding one of the most isolated, war-shattered, and strategic countries in the world is now complicated not just by the danger to those delivering the aid, but also because the beneficiaries are growing afraid to be seen receiving the help. "
After describing the ineffective response by both Afghan and U.S. forces, she mentions the rather stunning conclusion reached by the Kandaharis:
"This state of affairs is so bewildering that Kandaharis have reached an astonishing conclusion: The United States must be in league with the Taliban. They reason that America, with its power and riches, could bring an end to the "insurgency" in a month, if it so chose. They figure that America remains a close and munificent ally of Pakistan, the country that is sponsoring the "insurgency," and so the continuing violence must be a deliberate element of U.S. policy. The point is not whether there is any factual basis for this notion, it's that everyone here believes it. In other words, in a stunning irony, much of this city, the Taliban's former stronghold, is disgusted with the Americans not because of their Western culture, but because of their apparent complicity with Islamist extremists."
If this really does represent a common viewpoint among the people of that region, recovering the reputation of the United States may be an almost hopeless task.
By way of Pacific Views and Instahog.