Afghanistan today

 

Sydney Morning Herald,

by ADELE HORIN, - February 8, 2003.

 

As the United States and its willing allies move closer to an invasion of Iraq, consider the fate of Afghanistan,

the last country the posse liberated from a hateful ruler. Afghanistan has slipped from the headlines in the excitement over the new adventure. But most of its 28 million people are still waiting to feel the benefits of "regime change". And they wait still for $300 million of the $1.8 billion the rich nations had promised to send by last December for reconstruction.

The coalition that pledged undying devotion to the new Afghanistan is now distracted by the thrill of making a new conquest. Like a philanderer, its eyes have strayed. With billions being poured into the subjugation and resurrection of Iraq, Afghanistan may find itself dumped like a troublesome old mistress, or tossed a few baubles to keep it quiet.

 

The case of Afghanistan demonstrates how regime change can backfire on the people it was supposedly meant to help. The Kabul success story appears to have blinded the world to the misery and oppression still experienced by the 80 per cent of Afghans who live in the rural areas in the grip off the warlords. . .  For most Afghans the rulers the US installed or backed have been no better than the old ones. Indeed they are the old ones. In the countryside, the US resurrected the feudal warlords to help fight the Taliban. In the past year, according to Human Rights Watch, most of these warlords have become more, not less, entrenched in power, thanks to US arms and money and the support of some of Afghanistan's neighbors.

 

To perpetuate its own interests in fighting the Taliban, the US supported the very men who inflicted 20 years of internecine war and human rights abuses on Afghanistan. With the coming of peace at the end of 2001, the US blocked proposals by Afghan nationalists to extend the reach of the international security force beyond Kabul. The warlords were given free rein.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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