When there’s talk in the U.S about “the war,” most of us immediately think about Iraq and our ongoing problems there. But there’s that other war we started against the country that was actually responsible for sponsoring the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Remember Afghanistan?
This was supposed to be the war we “won” before we moved on to launching a preemptive invasion of a country that wasn’t a threat to the United States. The problem is that the war in Afghanistan may have ended, but the country is still slowly (indeed, at times quickly) sliding backwards.
Just this week there was a report in the New York Times that the Taliban, which was supposed to have been destroyed, was claiming responsibility for a bombing that killed five Afghan intelligence officers near Kabul’s international airport on Sunday afternoon, “casting a shadow of concern over the grand assembly meeting in Kabul to approve a new constitution.”
This was not an isolated incident in an otherwise secure country. Just the opposite is true: Afghanistan’s grip on stability is tenuous and getting worse. As the United Nations explained last month, “[I]nsecurity caused by terrorist activities, factional fights and drug related crime remain the major concern of Afghans today.” The same U.N. report said local militias control much of the country and terrorist attacks by “suspected members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda” are slowing the country’s rebuilding and drive towards consistent government. It’s gotten so bad that elections planned for June may be called off because no one believes that voters’ safety can be ensured.
Just as the security environment in Iraq appears to be getting worse as time goes on, the same is true in Afghanistan, where, as the Center for American Progress recently noted, violence “has worsened dramatically in the last six months” and now “at least five of Afghanistan’s 32 provinces are virtually off-limits to foreigners.”
As for the Bush administration’s follow-through on his first war, Afghanistan has barely received a fraction of the money it was promised. The attention and commitment we’ve shown for Iraq and Afghanistan couldn’t be more different.
The Bush administration is spending over $750 for every person in Iraq and has deployed a U.S. solider for every 189 people in Iraq. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, Bush is spending just $41 per person and has sent a U.S. soldier for every 1,913 people in Afghanistan, which I’d like to remind you, was the country that actually helped sponsor 9/11 and Osama bin Laden.
And, as icing on the cake, CNN and Reuters have reported that poppy production in Afghanistan is thriving once again, producing 2,865 metric tons of opium, used to make heroin and morphine. Reuters reports that “opium production complicates the task of restoring central government authority in Afghanistan because it enables the warlords to run small armies and gives them extra financial incentives to retain their autonomy.”
To get a more detailed analysis on the persistence of terrorism — from the Taliban, Al Queda, and a narco-mafia — in Afghanistan, consider recent remarks from Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, brought to my attention by Nathanael at I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts. It’s not a pretty picture.