Afghanistan Is Falling

From the Tribune India: A view of a hall in Kabul Serena Hotel, the first five-star hotel opened in Afghanistan on Tuesday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended the opening of the hotel on Tuesday [November 8, 2005], leaving his sick bed to mark the occasion. The hotel has been built at a cost of $36.50 million by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, an international development agency promoting private sector entrepreneurship. Its rooms cost between $250 and $1,200 a night for the presidential suite in a city where the average salary for a civil servant is about $20 per month. — Reuters

From the Guardian:

The Taliban has a permanent presence in 54% of Afghanistan and the country is in serious danger of falling into Taliban hands, according to a report by an independent thinktank with long experience in the area.

Despite tens of thousands of Nato-led troops and billions of dollars in aid poured into the country, the insurgents, driven out by the American invasion in 2001, now control “vast swaths of unchallenged territory, including rural areas, some district centres, and important road arteries”, the Senlis Council says in a report released yesterday.

[Here's a graphic showing the areas under Taliban control.]

The Taliban are slowly surrounding Kabul, primarily from the south and east. But, according to the Senlis Council, the Taliban have a substantial presence, about 38%, in Northern Afghanistan as well. While Taliban elements are also significantly present in North and South Waziristan, Pakistan. See the Senlis Council map here.

The Karzai government and NATO deny the conclusions of the Senlis report, which the Guardian quoted above. They claim the Taliban doesn’t control 54% of the country, and that percentage is an exaggeration.

If the Senlis report is accurate, however, the Taliban is becoming Afghanistan’s de facto government, with more and more control over the local economy and infrastructure, such as roads and energy supply.

Meanwhile, the costs of war for Iraq and Afghanistan may total $2.4 trillion through the next decade. Yet, one of the few successes Bush can boast about in Afghanistan is a five-star hotel, which few Afghanis can afford.

By the way, the release of the Senlis report coincided with the release of an Oxfam report saying:

Afghanistan is facing a humanitarian crisis in which millions face “severe hardship comparable with sub-Saharan Africa”. It highlights the fact that US spending on aid in the country, $4.4bn since 2002, was only a fraction of its military expenditure of $35bn in 2007 alone. ”As in Iraq, too much aid is absorbed by profits of companies and subcontractors, on non-Afghan resources and on high expatriate salaries and living costs,” said the report. “Each full-time expatriate consultant costs up to half a million dollars a year.”  

Compared to other nations, Afghanistan ranks among the lowest in terms of human development. So, aside from five-star hotels, where are the billions in humanitarian aid going? How much are we spending on fighting the Taliban? Where is the security? Violent incidents are up 20% this year.

Bush doesn’t do nation-building!