Afghanistan Is Falling
By Leslie on November 23, 2007 at 6:21 PM in Current Affairs
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!
(Release: November 13)
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Good report, Leslie.
Thanks Taters! Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving?
P.S. Looking forward to your next music article too. Your first one was excellent.
Another total failure.
BTW isn’t A.Q. the enemy? The Taliban was accused of harboring AQ, but not involved in the attacks on 9-11. The major screw up was conflating the two, if the Taliban had been allowed to return to their homes, 90% of this bullshit would have been avoided.
Ihave become friends with a young man from Afghanistan who is getting his masters in Communications from Ohio University. He has four children, wife and a very large family back in Kabul. They were unable to come with him during his studies here in the states due to all of the restrictions after 9/11. He communicates weekly with his family and he has endlessly told me for th e last two years that the situation in Afghanistan has become far more dangerous for people due to the Talibans influence and power. He is afraid for his family (three of his cousins have been killed during the last several years for working with Americans) and his family is fearful for him when he returns
He (no need to mention his first name although I would to Larry, Val or Joe Wilson) along with 51 other students from Afghanistan are here in the states on Fulbrights. Many of them will go back to be leaders in Afghanistan. Yet no one in the states has contacted them for their insights or knowledge of what is taking place in Afghanistan. No one is interviewing them or asking their opinions about the situation in their homeland. I was sharing with my friend that the Diane REhm show had had a woman who had gone from the states to Afghanistan to open up beauty parlors and teach women how to westernize their hair styles we laughed and almost cried as we listened to the program together. It was ridiculous instead of focusing on the very serious problems in that country
We discussed Afghanistans needs from his viewpoint not Americas. If only someone in the states would tap into these 52 Fulbright scholars studying here in the states from that country.
Kathleen,
But you know the answer to your question: What Bushie profit would there be in consulting with Afghanis?
Kathleen, the MSM won’t even listen to AMERICANS who actually know something about Iraq (or Afghanistan). When was the last time Scott Ritter was on any mainstream radio or television program? Like, never? When has Dahr Jamail EVER been seen or heard on any mainstream broadcast or print medium?
The best they can do EVER in that direction is to briefly quote Juan Cole, whom they now present as an “Iraq expert”, despite the fact that Iraq has never been his area of study, and he has never set foot in that country. (I am not saying that Juan Cole as nothing of value to offer – he is certainly more qualified than most of the “experts” we see on the MSM, but he is not an expert on Iraq, has never even been there, and though he has lots of good information, his analysis on Iraq is often far off the mark.)
And by the way, Kathleen, it is highly unlikely that your friend or any of those Fulbright scholars will become leaders in Afghanistan unless things either change radically, or they are willing to turn to the dark side by becoming American puppets, or join the criminal element that has real power in Afghanistan.
But, they should definitely hold onto their ideas and dreams because one of these days maybe, just maybe Afghanistan will be free.
Who knows? I know many of them come from prominent Afghani families. My friend really feels the answer to the Taliban is integrate them into any plans for restructuring that they have some valid opinions and concerns. That efforts to eliminate them will not work, and again that they have some legitimate concerns.
Your friend sounds pretty sensible. I hope he and others like him will succeed.
Subsidize the opium farmers for five or more years so that they can transition from that most lucrative crop to growing almonds, pomegrantes, grapes which were all strong crops before the Russians invaded. My friend has shared how factories to process these crops need to be built, almonds into almond butter to organic markets in Europe and elsewhere.
He has many ideas and suggestions no one in the states tapping into these students studying here. So stupid
I read another idea, I think in the New Yorker … sell the opium to the pharmaceutical industry for use in legitimate pain medications. Whatever works best, the point is that there ARE ideas out there to change things.
You know, Susan, that idea occurred to me too, but I figured that if it was a viable option someone already would have thought of it, and tried to put something into motion to make it happen. Silly me! That requires the assumption that there are people with the means who actually WANT to solve these problems.
The Senlis Council report recommends regulating the opium industry.
NATO, the US and others could help Afghanistan by developing other cash crops, which could compete against opium profits.
Of course, if we legalized drugs that would take a lot of the profit out of it too.
Falling to whom? The people who’ve always controlled Afhganistan all along?
The Taliban didn’t rule until the 1990s. Here’s a brief history.
I do have to say that, from that photograph, the hotel looks stunning … what architecture!
The hotel is nice inside, not so much on the outside as far as architecture goes. And I don’t begrudge Afghanistan a nice five-star hotel. Heard Kabul has an equally luxurious shopping mall, and apartment rents have skyrocketed because of all the foreign consultants, etc. But Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Where are all those billions in aid dollars going—to build luxury hotels for future Taliban occupation?
General Dostrum has a new McMansion and pool. Did I mention that he’s also a drug lord?
Leslie,
You, Susan nor Kathleen’s friend will be listened to regarding our drug policy.
I even heard a US general on CNN this evening echoing what Susan said about buying the drugs!
You were right. Too much profit in it for certain people.
Besides being diverted into Iraq, our biggest mistake in Afghanistan had to have been not having more of the work be done by local contractors and workers. Doing so would have helped the country develop its own resources, and it would have put more money into the local economy. Unfortunately, the “trickle down” folks never seem to catch on to that idea.
I’ve been predicting that Afghanistan would end up back in the hands of the Taliban or political extremists for years. Sooner or later, I’m going to be right.
This is our biggest failure in the “War On Terrorism”.
I can’t wait to see Kite Runner. The book affected me profoundly as did Hosseini’s follow up, A Thousand Spendid Suns.
Here’s the trailer.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6710021147536897215
me too.
Cee, fyi: the general you heard on CNN was Brig Gen David Grange
Thank you! They repeated it again today!
If anyone is interested there’s a good sale on soviet era Afghan war rugs at ecarpet gallery (located in Canada) & attractive asking prices on both semi antique & contemporary Afghan tribal rugs, although they seem to have gone up about 20-30% in the last yr, they’re way below retail. Karzi & NATO unfortunately don’t seem able to secure the Chicken Street markets well enough to allow direct export of rugs from Kabal. Seems most of that trade still comes through Pakistan.
The way our government wages war is total joke.
The wars are meant solely to generate money for banks and defense contractors. That’s it.
All talk of rebuilding a country’s infrastructure is bogus (remember all the talk about Iraq’s Marshall Plan?)
All talk of providing security for locals is bogus (ask two million Iraqi refugees how secure their locales were in Iraq).
All talk of winning hearts and minds of locals is bogus. The locals in Iraq and Afghanistan hate our guts. It’s way past the point where we can change that. Especially not by blasting into their homes and carting off their fathers to be tortured somewhere.
All talk of avoiding civilian casualties is bogus. In the Iraq War, the conservative estimates of civilian casualties is hundreds of thousands, and they make up at least 80% of the total casualties.
The only people that make money are bankers and contractors. They profit off war spoils. Rebuilding is not nearly as profitable as defense contracting, so they aren’t nearly as interested.
The wars are created to put the people of both the USA and the invaded countries into deeper debt to the banks.
Destabilized countries that owe their soul to international banking corporations are the desired result of the invasions.
In this sense, neither the Iraq nor the Afghanistan War are failures. The people who started those wars knew exactly how destabilizing they would be, and how much profits they could generate as a result of the invasions and the instability. They also knew they could operate in lawless zones without the need for proper tracking of their activities.
They made gobs of money.
And now they have their greedy eyes set on Iran, where the desired result is remarkably similar to what they created in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And they’ll make gobs more money, and America will go deeper in debt to them.
Yogi – don’t confuse the government with the current administration. They are two different things.
Ah, the classic outcome.
We provided the best possible ‘live fire exercise’ experience for the Mujahideen which we funded, armed and otherwise supported in their efforts to drive back the Soviet ‘invaders.’
When we actually attacked Afghanistan, we failed to enter the country with sufficient forces to insure security, capture or kill the opposition and end the cooperative ‘reign’ of the Taliban and those allied with Osama bin Laden. We compounded that idiocy by diverting critical assets to the unnecessary invasion and occupation of Iraq. And, ultimately rewarded our then-CENTCOM commander with a medal for rebuffing pleas from the CIA for more assets to capture or kill the fleeing forces at Tora Bora. Simultaneously, we rewarded the then-Director of Central Intelligence the same medal.
We have continued to fail in Afghanistan, by failing to insure security and tranquility, win the hearts and minds of those wary of the Taliban, and by failing to provide an economically attractive alternative to the cultivation of poppies and the production of heroin.
We continue to support the government of General Musharraf in Pakistan, a military dictator whose secretive security forces—and, even units of its regular military—provided logistical support, arms and financial resources which resulted in the installation of the Taliban in the first place. A government which employed, supported and protected agents who almost single handedly boosted the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology. The very outcome that Valerie Plame worked so hard to prevent. And, we all know how well that effort turned out…
Until we invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, we failed to provide sufficient support to elements of the Northern Alliance, who fought the Taliban and its Pakistani benefactors.
Is there anyone—not still drinking the cool-aid—who actually wonders how things have turned out this way? A rookie intelligence analyst with a rudimentary knowledge of the nations involved, and of the historical, political and economic forces in play, would have seen this coming. I imagine, at that level, they all did.
Well said Michael.
And which congressman gave the Stinger to the Mujahideen?
You do have to ask yourself what agenda is being executed, given the absence of any apparent rational explanation, by they who kill when they are mentioned. The problem I encounter is how to make effective use of the pressure points within the lies, since those we elect won’t. And it would be a holiday gift to pin down who “they” are.
“Now it is not good for the Christian’s health
To hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles and the Aryan smiles,
And it weareth the Christian down.
And the end of the fight
Is a tombstone white
With the name of the late deceased
And the epitaph drear: “A fool lies here
who tried to hustle the East.”
Rudyard Kipling, Naulahka