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Afghan victims say only one U.S. soldier attacked
By Bill Rigby | Reuters
TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - An Afghan villager and two of his sons, who survived a night-time shooting rampage in March, testified on Saturday that they saw only one U.S. soldier attacking their compound, backing the U.S. government's account.
Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accusing him of killing 16 villagers, mostly women and children, when he ventured out of his remote camp on two revenge-fueled forays over a five-hour period in March.
The shootings in Afghanistan's Kandahar province marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and damaged already strained U.S.-Afghan relations.
The U.S. government says a coherent and lucid Bales acted alone and with "chilling premeditation".
Some villagers told reporters shortly after the attacks that more than one U.S. soldier was involved, but there have been no sworn statements to that effect made publicly.
Early on Saturday, three survivors answered questions via video-link from Kandahar Air Field to a hearing at a U.S. Army base in Washington state - the first time Afghan witnesses have testified under oath about what transpired on March 11.
"He shot me right here," said Haji Mohamed Naim, the father of nine sons in the village of Alkozai, the scene of the first shootings.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said all he could see was a strong light on the head of a soldier who was not more than half a meter (yard) away from him when he started shooting.
Naim said he was awoken in the night by sounds of shots and dogs barking, and then children from the next door house knocked on his door. He then described how an "American" jumped from a wall before confronting him and starting to shoot.
Two of Naim's sons, who were also in the compound, said they saw only one U.S. soldier on the night in question.
"Yes, I saw him, he came after me, I went to another room," said Naim's son Sadiquallah, who said he was 13 or 14 years old. He described how he hid behind a curtain in a storage room with one other child, and was hit in the ear with a bullet, but did not see who fired the shot.
"How many Americans did you see?" one of the prosecution attorneys asked Sadiquallah. "One," he replied.
His older brother Quadratullah, who said he was 14, was unscathed in the attack, but said he saw a U.S. soldier shooting other children.
"Yes I saw the American," he answered a government attorney. "I said 'We are children, we are children', and he shot one of the kids," Quadratullah said, through an interpreter.
"We saw only one American," he added.
At a courtroom at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Bales sat impassively throughout the proceedings, watching the witnesses on a TV screen in front of him.
FIRST AFGHAN TESTIMONY
The Afghan villagers testified on the fifth day of a hearing to establish whether there is enough evidence to put Bales before a court martial.
A veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.
Prosecutors have presented physical evidence to tie Bales to the crime scene, with a forensic investigator saying a sample of blood on Bales' clothes matched a swab taken in one of the compounds where the shooting occurred.
Bales' lawyers have not set out an alternative theory, but have pointed up inconsistencies in testimony and highlighted incidents before the shooting where Bales lost his temper easily or appeared unbalanced, possibly setting up an argument that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gathering evidence and witness statements was complicated by the speedy burial of victims, the inability of U.S. investigators to access the crime scenes for three weeks after the violence for fears of revenge attacks, and the dispersal of possible witnesses after treatment at a Kandahar hospital.
Bales' lead civil defense attorney John Henry Browne, who is in Kandahar to question the witnesses, complained early in the investigation that his team was denied access to villagers wounded in the attacks.
(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Alistair Lyon)
Afghanistan beckons India's business leaders to invest
Reuters – Sat, Nov 10, 2012
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Afghanistan is "ripe and ready" for Indian investments in mining and other sectors, President Hamid Karzai told business leaders in Mumbai on Saturday at the start of a trip to woo investors for his war-ravaged country.
"We'd like to welcome you with a red carpet, but you need to arrive at the red carpet," he told delegates at an Indian industry event in the financial capital.
"What I'd like to emphasize in particular is that Indian businesses need not be shy when thinking about Afghanistan. The Chinese businesses were there long before you came, five or six years before."
India has invested billions of dollars in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime's ouster in 2001 and has urged private firms to invest there, though many have misgivings about the security climate after 2014, when most foreign troops will leave. China is also looking to tap into Afghanistan's mineral reserves.
A consortium led by state-firm Steel Authority of India last year won the rights to develop a huge iron ore deposit in central Afghanistan and a nearby 6 million metric ton steel plant at a cost of around $11 billion.
China won a huge copper concession not far from Kabul, as well as oil blocks in the north.
However, both Asian giants have been held back in Afghanistan by security concerns as well as poor infrastructure in the landlocked, mountainous country.
India also has to tread carefully in Afghanistan because of the suspicions of arch-rival Pakistan, which sees New Delhi's expanding role in its neighbor as a move to encircle it.
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told the meeting with Karzai that New Delhi would look at engaging with Kabul to develop infrastructure such as highways, power projects, Chahbahar port and energy security.
(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Ron Popeski)
Indonesia, Afghanistan bolster bilateral relations
JAKARTA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai held bilateral talks in Bali, reaffirmed the long-standing bonds of friendship between the two nations, expressed their commitment to promote bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual benefit, local media reported on Saturday.
During bilateral talks on the sidelines of the fifth Bali Democracy Forum (BDF) in Nusa Dua, Bali, Yudhoyono expressed Indonesia's commitment to support Afghanistan in various fields, including technical vocational training, infrastructure, as well as in women's empowerment, higher education and mid-career diplomat training.
"We have asked relevant ministries to identify and work on concrete programs" President Yudhoyono said after the meeting with President Karzai.
The two countries welcomed the new treaty of friendship and cooperation to replace the previous friendship treaty, which concluded on April 24, 1955. The new treaty promotes political cooperation, economic and trade cooperation, in addition to academic and cultural cooperation.
Karzai underlined the positive economic prospects of his country and invited Indonesia to explore the possibility of direct trade and investment in Afghanistan.
"Indonesian businesses are welcomed to Afghanistan to participate in the development of Afghanistan and in the expansion of business between two countries," Afghan President Karzai said.
The value of two-way trade between the two countries stood at 37.78 million US dollars as of August this year.
Both leaders welcomed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Capacity Building for Law Enforcement Personnel, signed last September in Jakarta.
The MoU stipulates that Indonesian National Police will train 50 Afghanistan National Police officers on traffic management, police community services and crime investigation. Both leaders instructed the training to commence as soon as possible.
To promote good governance, the meeting encouraged closer cooperation between the corruption eradication agencies of the two countries. Both leaders also underlined the importance of promoting bilateral cooperation on counterterrorism and transnational organized crimes as well as a commitment to combating people smuggling and trafficking, the Jakarta Post reported.
"We will also explore cooperation in the fields of culture through a cultural exchange programs and cultural mission," President Yudhoyono said.
Following the talks, both leaders witnessed the signing of four agreements, respectively on friendship and cooperation, on visa exemption for holders of diplomatic and service passports, on bilateral consultations and on cultural exchange programs.
CIA Director Petraeus Resigns Over Affair
November 9, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
David Petraeus, the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has resigned.
Petraeus, in a statement on November 9, admitted to having an extramarital affair, which he said made him unfit to continue as U.S. intelligence chief.
The 60-year-old Petraeus, who has been married for 37 years, said he had shown "extremely poor judgment."
Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell has been named acting director.
President Barack Obama has accepted the resignation. In a statement, Obama praised Petraeus as one of the most outstanding generals of his generation and expressed confidence the CIA would continue to thrive.
Obama said his "thoughts and prayers" were with Petraeus and his wife.
Petraeus, a retired four-star general who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, took over as CIA chief in 2011.
In his statement, Petraeus said engaging in the affair was “unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader” of an organization such as the CIA.
It was not immediately clear whether the affair represented a purely personal problem for Petraeus, or if it also had raised security issues that could affect his work as head of the U.S. spy agency.
Reports have quoted U.S. officials as saying the affair was uncovered during an FBI investigation.
Officials are also quoted as saying Petraeus had been involved with Paula Broadwell, who this year published a biography of Petraeus and had traveled with him in Afghanistan.
Stellar Career
The November 9 resignation came three days after Obama was reelected to another four-year term in the White House, and just days before Petraeus was due to be questioned by lawmakers in the U.S. Congress next week over the September 11 attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
Petraeus has been criticized by some lawmakers over security and intelligence lapses before the attack, which also killed three other Americans.
Petraeus, a graduate of the West Point U.S. military academy, was considered a stellar soldier as well as an astute player of Washington’s politics. He was once viewed as a possible candidate for president.
Amid his military career, he earned masters and doctorate degrees from Princeton in the 1980s. In the mid-2000s, he helped develop the manual that instructs U.S. forces on how to fight a counterinsurgency campaign.
His reputation was enhanced by his performance in Iraq, where he is credited by some with saving the country from civil war by orchestrating the 2007 “surge” of U.S. troops there.
The strategy is praised by analysts for paving the way for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011.
In 2008, Petraeus was promoted to head of the U.S. Central Command, in charge of all U.S. military operations in the Middle East and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
In 2010, President Obama asked Petraeus to take over U.S. military operations in Afghanistan after General Stanley McChrystal was fired.
In Afghanistan, Petraeus commanded an Iraq-style “surge” of some 30,000 U.S. troops in an attempt to roll back Taliban fighters and improve security.
Petraeus claimed progress. But critics of his strategy point out that the Taliban remains active, carrying out frequent attacks, and the U.S.-backed Afghan government remains riddled with corruption.
Despite continued indications of Taliban strength, U.S.-led combat troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP
Pakistanis Honor School Girl Shot by Taliban
VOA News November 10, 2012
Pakistani students and rights activists are honoring the 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban a month ago.
The United Nations designated Saturday to be "Malala Day" as a global tribute to Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by gunmen for promoting the right of girls to attend school and for documenting Taliban atrocities.
In her hometown of Mingora in the northwestern Swat Valley, hundreds of students prayed for her early recovery and vowed to continue her mission. Her supporters also gathered in Karachi and other Pakistani cities.
Taliban gunmen shot Malala Yousafzai in the head and neck in the Swat Valley. She was internationally recognized for her work.
She is now recovering from her wounds at a hospital in Britain.
On Friday, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented Pakistan's government with a petition with more than one million signatures in support of Malala.
Mr. Brown, the U.N.'s envoy for global education, says a new foundation has been created to honor Malala. The Malala Foundation will do the work the teenager told her friends just weeks before she was shot that she wanted to do -- campaign for the 32 million girls around the world who are not in school.
Nearly 90,000 people have signed another petition to have Malala nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Also Friday, Malala's father paid tribute to those around the world who have shown her support.
Ziauddin Yousafzai spoke from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where Malala is being treated. He said she is recovering well and wants everyone to know she has been inspired and humbled by the thousands of cards, messages and gifts she has received.
Kabul's Sex Workers Get Organized
Prostitutes Teach Colleagues About Condoms and Testing in Afghanistan's Highly Conservative Society
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB November 9, 2012
KABUL - Prostitutes in Afghanistan's capital, working in a society where adulterers can be stoned to death and the sexes are strictly segregated, have organized into a clandestine self-help network to halt the spread of disease, avoid detection by the state and flag abusive customers.
Freshta, a prostitute, has been visiting Kabul's beauty parlors—many of them fronts for the flesh trade—to teach colleagues about condom use and encourage them to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. "If we don't do this work, who will?" she said. "They'll go back and spread their diseases to the entire beauty parlor and then to the families."
The Wall Street Journal was given rare access to how this network operates on condition that surnames of the participants not be revealed. Prostitution in Afghanistan, by men and by women, is largely a hidden world, and much that is known about it is anecdotal, from the sex workers themselves.
Sex workers in many countries risk violence and disease, but they have particular risks in Afghanistan, a conservative society where sex education is virtually nonexistent and where families commonly kill female relatives for "dishonorable" acts such as premarital sex.
The risks of violent attack are high for male prostitutes as well, sex workers say, with little legal recourse; those who dress as women, for example, can be subject to arrest by police, who view the practice as immoral, though it isn't illegal.
The Kabul police are cracking down on "moral crimes" such as prostitution, alcohol consumption, gambling and sodomy, said Gen. Mohammed Zaher, head of the police criminal investigation department. Convicted prostitutes are ordinarily given six-month jail sentences; their clients tend not to be arrested, though solicitation is illegal.
"It's obvious that moral crimes exist in every country, and Afghanistan is no exception," Gen. Zaher says. "Although in some countries some of these things aren't considered a crime, we are actively pursuing people who commit them, especially the prostitutes in Kabul."
Yet the sex trade—which also flourished under Taliban rule, prostitutes say—apparently remains brisk in Kabul. Members of the recently established self-help network in the Afghan capital say it encompasses some 6,000 female prostitutes and 4,000 males, though these numbers couldn't be verified.
Part of the network's function is to alert the prostitutes about the clients who beat or rob them, sharing an informal blacklist. "If we die, who will notice?" said Seema, a 45-year-old prostitute. "Our deaths will never be reported."
Many of these prostitutes come from outside the capital and tell their families they work as maids, day laborers or government clerks. Out on the streets, they usually don the all-enveloping blue burqas that most Afghan women wear.
The prostitutes' self-help group is organized like a compartmentalized phone tree—where each person is responsible for contacting a designated list of people, limiting the risk of mass arrests. Peer educators within the network teach fellow sex workers who have turned tricks for years about condoms, a relative novelty in Afghanistan, and about how to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases.
HIV is still rare in Afghanistan: None of the sex workers in the Kabul network tested positive, said doctors who were hired by the prostitutes to conduct blood tests. Other sexually-transmitted diseases are more of a problem, especially hepatitis C, which is endemic in the country.
Kabul prostitutes in the network say they distribute some 9,000 condoms a month and pamphlets on deadly infections. An illustrated leaflet for illiterate workers lays out the risk of contagion: You can't get it by holding hands, it explains, but unprotected sex is a different proposition. The leaflets also encourage regular testing.
The Afghan doctors who are paid to run these blood tests once every three months say they are reluctant participants, employed because they are unable to find other work. "I worry that if the community knows, they will attack us. Or if the Taliban knows, they will slit me," a male doctor said in broken English, running a finger across his throat.
Not everyone is as concerned about the Taliban, who used to execute prostitutes and adulterers at Kabul's packed main stadium when they ruled the country before the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Shafiqa, also in her 30s, said she started as a sex worker when she was 17 and the Taliban ruled Kabul. Taliban officials, she recalls, weren't nearly as pious in private.
"The Taliban days were better. They paid us cash," Shafiqa said. "Now they all want to do it on credit, even the government officials."
Now a prosperous madam and a peer educator, Shafiqa wears thick gold bangles, exposing a mouth full of gold teeth—something common among wealthy Kabul prostitutes. She said she had over 350 women she introduces to customers for a cut. Female prostitutes say they can earn up to $1,200 for a night with a wealthy man and as little as $20 with regular customers, big money in the capital where monthly wages for most women hover around $150.
Male prostitutes can also earn good pay. Sohel, 20, said he was earning at least $100 a night singing and dancing, his face caked with the makeup—light foundation and rosy cheeks—that is a signature of his trade.
For sex, he can earn more. "I have slept with more men than the hairs on my head," he said, stopping in at a makeshift clinic to get tested for STDs.
Sohel, like most male prostitutes in Kabul, began working as a so-called dancing boy, a traditional practice in which boys as young as six are sold by their impoverished families to wealthy men, taught to wear makeup and dresses and dance for their patrons, and eventually used for sex.
When the boys start to grow beards, they are usually abandoned by their companions and, illiterate and unable to find work, often turn to prostitution, according to doctors working with the network said.
"They are stigmatized at the hospitals. Health service is their right," said a doctor working with the male prostitutes. "We don't encourage them to have sex, but it's their right to be treated."
Meanwhile, a truck driver was in the clinic to be tested for HIV; he said he had had sex with many male and female prostitutes, but didn't know what a condom was. The doctor on duty explained. —Ziaulhaq Sultani contributed to this article.
Write to Maria Abi-Habib at maria.habib@dowjones.com
Hard choices in Afghanistan for re-elected Obama
AFP 09/11/2012
KABUL - As he celebrated re-election, US President Barack Obama spoke of his desire to "shape a peace" in his second term, but he faces huge challenges in Afghanistan, where he must end his country's longest war.
From the very early days of his presidency in 2009, Obama has learned the hard way that plans laid in Washington often crumble in the hard realities of the land known as the "Graveyard of Empires".
He came to power in the middle of an economic crisis with the intention of bringing American troops home from Afghanistan but ended up sending a "surge" of 33,000 extra soldiers to try to quell the Taliban.
Now these reinforcements have come home and the 100,000-strong NATO force, nearly 70,000 of whom are American, are preparing to follow suit by the end of 2014.
But the land they will leave behind is not peaceful -- the insurgency led by the Taliban is not beaten and a growing number of analysts believe the 350,000 Afghan security forces supposed to take over after 2014 are not capable of preventing a return to civil war.
As the 2014 deadline approaches, Obama faces difficult questions over whether to negotiate with the Taliban to try to secure peace and how many US troops to leave in Afghanistan after that date to help the Afghan forces.
For Maleeha Lodhi, former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, the next two years will be crucial.
"It is what will happen between now and 2014 which will determine the course of post-2014 Afghanistan and post-war region," she said at a conference in Islamabad this week.
The best outcome, she said, would be a negotiated settlement following peace talks between the US and the Taliban, but she warned this was a distant prospect.
"For now there is no peace strategy, there is no framework, there is no road map to get to this destination. Everybody agrees they want to get there but nobody has charted a clear way forward," she said.
Preliminary contacts between the Taliban and the West began in Qatar but the process is now dead in the water, terminated in March by the insurgents after they failed to nail a deal with Washington on the release of five of their comrades imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.
Moreover, Washington's decision in September to blacklist the Haqqani militant network, a key Taliban faction close to Al-Qaeda, as a terrorist organisation will complicate any efforts towards talks with the insurgents, Pakistani analysts warn.
Pakistan, where a number of Haqqani leaders are believed to be hiding out and which has historically been close to the Taliban, will have a key role in any possible talks.
"Any efforts towards substantial talks with the Taliban before 2014 would have to be shared with other regional players, including Pakistan," a senior western diplomat in Kabul said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The militants also have the option simply to wait until NATO forces leave.
Stephen Biddle, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University, warned "announcements of troops withdrawals... tend to reduce our leverage for bargaining".
Obama must also decide on what level of military presence to leave once the torch finally passes to the Afghans -- Washington has not yet said how many "non-combat" troops will remain in the country after 2014.
For this he needs to reach an understanding with his Afghan allies on two thorny issues: keeping US bases in Afghanistan long-term and the legal status of the US soldiers who will stay to train Afghan forces.
Kabul has warned that there could be problems in agreeing to legal immunity for American soldiers, as Washington demands.
Several American analysts have voiced optimism about a future deal on these issues, though Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution think tank warned talks would be "ugly and slow".
It is a crucial point -- in Iraq the failure to secure legal immunity led to Washington pulling out its troops completely.
Brian Hutchinson: Afghanistan progress slow despite Canada’s money and spilled blood
Brian Hutchinson | Nov 10, 2012 Nov 10, 2012 7:38 PM ET National Post (Canada)
Another year passes. The long road isn’t finished; the interminable war carries on. In southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, in Panjwaii district, where Canadian sacrifices were greatest, the killings continue.
Canada’s combat role in Kandahar ended with a formal ceremony in July 2011, after five years of heavy toil. All of Kandahar’s districts — including Panjwaii, the Taliban’s birthplace and spiritual home — were turned over to U.S. troops and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), which include the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police.
The Afghans are slowly taking control of their own security details, and are planning and leading counterinsurgency operations against such enemies of the state as the Taliban. The ANSF are now bigger, more equipped and better trained than they’ve been in decades. But analysts doubt they will be fully autonomous and capable of maintaining order inside Afghanistan by 2014, when American and other international troops are scheduled to leave the country.
The Taliban still move freely in Panjwaii, wandering the district in groups and intimidating civilians. “The Taliban have warned people to leave their guest rooms open, because they need a warm place to spend the night,” says Mahmood Noor, head of Panjwaii’s shura council, a group of elders who help settle disputes and direct policy in the district. “When the sun sets, people are not allowed to come out from their homes. There are fears of clashes and IEDs [improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs].”
In that respect, nothing has changed in the 16 months since Canadian troops left the province. The Taliban haven’t left, and they likely never will. Security has improved incrementally, according to local elders and government officials, but there’s no clear path to victory there, let alone the rest of Kandahar. Afghanistan as a whole remains a quagmire. Islamists still concede nothing to the national government and its powerful Western allies. Serious peace talks are just rumours, nothing more.
Money raised from the sale of illicit drugs continues to leave Kandahar and other provinces, usually ending up in offshore banks. Money and equipment used to sustain the insurgency still arrives from neighbouring countries such as Iran and Pakistan.
Earlier this year, insurgents targeted the Panjwaii district governor. A burly, straight-talking man named Haji Fazluddin Agha, he was appointed to the influential position in 2010, after senior Canadian soldiers and diplomats raised concerns about his predecessor, an illiterate and allegedly corrupt individual named Haji Baran. Thanks in part to Mr. Agha, some 30 Taliban fighters put down their arms to join the Afghan government side.
In January, Mr. Agha was travelling with two of his sons from Panjwaii district centre to Kandahar city. A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle rammed into their vehicle; everyone was killed. His replacement is said to be ineffective and is widely disliked.
Trust is hard won and easily lost in Kandahar. U.S. forces are less sensitive to this fact than Canadians, Mr. Noor told the National Post in an interview from Kandahar. Picking fights with peaceful civilians doesn’t help. In one notorious incident in March, a deranged American soldier walked into a district village compound and shot to death nine innocent children and seven adults. People in that village now support the Taliban.
Commitments haven’t been honoured, Mr. Noor complains. “The difference between American and Canadian soldiers is that the Canadians were keen to work more on reconstruction, making people busy and arranging more meetings with people and respecting their problems.”
Mr. Noor describes the 14-kilometre road that Canadians left behind. A legacy project, and more: It cuts across the middle of Panjwaii, straight through Taliban strongholds and their supply routes, connecting the remote western tip, called the Horn, to population clusters and markets in the centre.
The entire route was to have been paved. Hard asphalt would prevent insurgents from planting their IEDs beneath the road’s surface. “The Americans promised they would pave the remaining part,” says Mr. Noor. “The work stopped when the Canadians left. Since then, nobody has touched it.”
Villages in the Horn “are not secure at all,” says Mr. Noor. “The Taliban have safe havens there.” To the east, closer to bustling Kandahar city, Panjwaii and neighbouring Dand district feel more secure. But only in daylight. “We cannot travel at night beyond two kilometres of the district centre,” says Mr. Noor.
More than 700 Canadian soldiers and a small number of civilians remain engaged in a training mission in Afghanistan; most personnel are stationed in Kabul, the capital. Canada’s direct military involvement comes to “a firm and final end” on March 31, 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced earlier this year.
However, Canada will deliver $110-million in financial assistance to help “sustain” the ANSF until 2017. “Canada will insist on strict accountability measures for this fund,” says our government.
Since 2001, when Canadian soldiers first touched ground in Afghanistan, Canada has spent more than $12-billion on military operations and reconstruction projects there.
Of course, the vast majority of spending was in Kandahar. Towards the end of Canada’s combat mission, with more American troops arriving and helping tie down hotspots throughout the province, soldiers were able to place more emphasis on reconstruction efforts.
Many of the schools that Canadian soldiers helped build and secure remain open. Teachers — whom civilian Canadians helped train — still risk life and limb, just getting to their classrooms every day.
Life has almost returned to normal in little Salavat, a village in eastern Panjwaii that the Taliban used to own.
“Security is improving here,” says the village’s appointed leader, Mussa Kalim. “People are busy in their fields, and others are coming back after having been away. Now we have 30 local police and 10 Afghan National Police. The Taliban are around but they dare not come into Salavat. The people and the police don’t allow them.”
A local school that reopened under Canadian auspices last year has struggled, but at least it hasn’t closed. “We have only three teachers,” says Mr. Kalim. “They still aren’t willing to come to Salavat. The salary is not enough, only 4,250 Afghanis [per month, about Cdn $82], which is very little.”
Further east, in Kandahar city, conditions are better. “It’s much improved, security-wise, compared to a few years ago,” says a local journalist. “We have no suicide attacks lately, and there have been fewer explosions and assassination attempts than we had two years ago.”
On the other hand, he says, “there are even fewer jobs for young people now, because foreign NGOs [non-government organizations] have stopped working here. There are no funds for their projects, and no new contracts for local workers. And people are thinking things will get worse in 2014,” when American and other international troops withdraw.
Samira Hellah is a 23-year-old law student who attends Mirwais Nika University in Kandahar city. If she can’t find a job soon, she says she may have to leave school. Her family can’t help her with tuition fees. “They have financial problems too,” she says.
Finding money isn’t her biggest concern. “Some relatives and neighbours don’t like that I’m attending school,” she says. “They especially don’t like that I’m studying law. They say this is not good for women in Kandahar. Women should only be doctors, that all.”
Ms. Hellah says she must take “extra precautions when going to the university. I change my timing and my routes every day.”
Without doubt, the impulse to ‘go big or go home’ was present on the side of the planners and military
.
Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa acknowledges that conditions for students are far from ideal; however, there’s been much improvement since 2008, when he returned to his native province from Canada, where he was an agronomist.
“We’ve made lots of progress opening schools in Kandahar,” he said in an interview. “So, far, we’ve opened 316 out of a possible 433. And almost 200,000 students are enrolled.”
The numbers he cites are impressive, but impossible to verify. Enrolment changes by the day, depending on threat levels. Gov. Wesa makes other claims that conflict with eyewitness accounts from districts and villages outside the provincial capital. “There is no area in Kandahar that is under the control of Taliban,” he told the National Post. “All the areas are controlled by our government.”
He did concede that IED strikes remain a serious issue. “These are powerful tools which the insurgents are trying to use against Afghan forces,” he said. “They are causing casualties both to security forces and to Afghan civilians. We have teams of IED experts to detect and neutralize [the bombs], but they lack the necessary equipment to do their work. That’s really a matter of worry and concern for us, and it’s causing us serious problems.”
In April, Gov. Wesa was the target of another assassination attempt, at least the second since he was appointed governor four years ago. He is aware of the rumours — that he will soon be leaving his post, that he has already offered his resignation to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and will return to Canada.
“You hear many things which are not true,” he says. “If the Afghan people need my experience and knowledge, I will stay. If not, I will look for another job. Time will answer this question.”
Time will answer everything, eventually. Now is time to remember those whom we sent to Afghanistan. The 158 men and women who never returned. Master Corporal Byron Garth Greff, from Swift Current, Sask., was last to fall. He was killed Oct. 30, 2011, in Kabul.
Remember those who did come home, many of them with physical injuries and emotional scars. Ask why we committed them to this fight. What was their purpose in Afghanistan, particularly in Kandahar, and what was achieved?
Too much wasn’t known, or disclosed, leading to Canada’s combat deployment. Analysts still question why the federal government under then-prime minister Paul Martin, its defence and foreign affairs departments, and senior military leadership pushed the mission forward in 2004 and 2005.
They had other options: Deploy troops to “easier” provinces, where there was less chance of conflict and serious casualty; limit the military’s involvement to training and reconstruction; don’t go to Afghanistan at all.
“Ostensibly, the [Canadian] military was seeking redemption after a decade of unremarkable performances in unremarkable (read: peacekeeping) theatres,” writes Matthew Willis, a research associate with the Royal United Services Institute, a London, U.K.-based think-tank that specializes in defence and security issues. “Or perhaps it really wanted to show the U.S., the Canadian public and other key allies that it really could do combat if called upon…Without doubt, the impulse to ‘go big or go home’ was present on the side of the planners and military.”
Hubris, ambition, self-interest. Wars have been fought for less. In Afghanistan, there were other considerations, too. It was a failed state, where terrorists trained and plotted and threatened a country, a region, the entire world. Canada spent enormous sums and spilled blood in the attempt to remove those threats and beat back and insurgency, to save lives.
Question the mission, the outcomes, but never the effort. The long road that Canadians started hasn’t ended; it’s up to Afghans to finish the job.
No breakthrough in Afghan peace efforts before 2014: official
Reuters By Michael Georgy and Hamid Shalizi Fri Nov 9, 2012
KABUL - Afghanistan's government has failed to secure direct talks with the Taliban and no significant progress is expected before 2014, when most NATO combat troops withdraw, a senior Afghan official closely involved with reconciliation efforts said on Friday.
"No breakthrough is expected before the 2014 election," the official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A political settlement between the Afghan government and insurgents is widely seen as the best way of delivering stability to the country before most NATO combat troops pull out at the end of 2014.
Afghan officials were also hoping to make progress in reconciliation efforts before presidential elections in April of 2014 to decrease the chances of prolonged instability in a nation that has suffered through decades of war.
"There have been contacts here and there but no face-to-face talks have taken place," the Afghan official said of the bid to engage the Taliban.
"There have been none in Afghanistan or other countries."
There has also been scant progress on other fronts. The Taliban said in March they were suspending nascent peace talks with the United States held in Qatar, blaming "erratic and vague" U.S. statements.
The Afghan official suggested the contacts that have been made with the Taliban have been limited.
"The contacts have taken place mostly at the provincial level. For instance, an official may meet Taliban commanders and urge them not to attack schools," he said.
BANKING ON PAKISTAN
Regional power Pakistan, which has a long history of ties to Afghan insurgent groups, was in a strong position to help stabilize Afghanistan but needed to do more than issue statements of support, said the official.
Afghan officials have often seen Pakistan as a reluctant partner in attempts to broker talks with the Taliban. Islamabad denies accusations that it uses Afghan insurgent groups as proxies in Afghanistan and had pledged to do all it can to end the fighting.
"In practice, they need to facilitate faster," said the official, adding that Afghanistan's High Peace Council would soon present Pakistan with a roadmap on how it could help bring peace.
In August, senior officials from both countries said Afghan officials have held secret talks with the Taliban's former second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is in detention in Pakistan.
Afghan officials, hopeful that direct contact with top Taliban commanders could give them the most leverage in any peace talks, want Islamabad to hand over Baradar and other Afghan Taliban leaders they say are in Pakistan.
"Mullah Baradar can be useful when he is released. He was the number two Taliban leader so he still has influence," said the Afghan official.
Afghanistan is known to want access to Taliban leaders belonging to the so-called Quetta Shura, or council, named after the Pakistani city where they are believed to be based.
Pakistan has consistently denied giving sanctuary to insurgents and says no Taliban leaders are in Quetta.
Pakistani officials have said they would urge all Afghan insurgents to pursue peace, including the Haqqani network. The faction, allied with the Taliban and operating on northwest Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, is seen as the most lethal Afghan militant group.
On Monday, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on the Haqqani network, and Washington has designated it a terrorist organization.
The Afghan official expressed caution over the U.N. move, which he said would deepen the isolation of a group blamed for some of the most high-profile attacks in Afghanistan.
"There have been some contacts with the Haqqanis in the past. The U.N. listing of the Haqqanis will make it difficult for the High Peace Council to keep contact with them," he said.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
Afghanistan: One Cheer for Obama
More complaints than congratulations from local commentators.
IWPR By Mina Habib 9 Nov 12
Afghanistan - Afghan commentators interviewed by IWPR greeted Barack Obama’s re-election as United States president with muted enthusiasm and a list of concerns about his record in his first term.
Afghanistan did not figure large in Obama’s election campaign, and the perception in Kabul was that he was treating it as if it was done and dusted, even though huge challenges will remain beyond the projected 2014 withdrawal of NATO forces.
Fatana Gailani, director of the Afghan Women Society, reeled off what she saw as the many failings of recent US policy.
“Obama speaks of major positive changes in Afghanistan over the past four years, but there’s been no tangible change for the Afghan people,” Gailani said. “The war continues, narcotics production has risen, and more than a million Afghans have become addicts. Furthermore, no attention has been paid to reconstruction or to the Afghan economy. The situation of women is worse now than it was four years ago. I therefore believe Obama's policies have failed Afghanistan."
Moin Marastial is deputy head of the Right and Justice Party, an opposition force that emerged last year. His main criticisms focused on the US strategy of negotiating with the Taleban, as well as the failure to adequately train and equip the Afghan armed forces.
"The Democrats' policies have generally been better than those the Republicans pursued in the region – but not with regard to Afghanistan,” he told IWPR. “The US paid the Afghan government vast amounts of money to talk to the Taleban by means of the High Peace Council. They [insurgents] will never want peace. Obama should have spotted that disconnect.”
Commenting on the Obama victory, Taleban spokesman , Zabihullah Mojahed said the American leader should pull out his troops from Afghanistan and focus instead on domestic concerns.
Nurollah, a student in Kabul, warned that the insurgents had been emboldened by news of the troop withdrawal.
"This announcement gave new life to the Taleban and countries that support them like Iran and Pakistan, at a point where they were on the verge of defeat and demoralisation,” he said. “The security situation worsened, warlords rearmed, and there was capital, investment and intellectual flight from the country. In my view, all this stems from Obama's mistaken policies."
In mitigation, some commentators said the Obama administration had been hamstrung by an often fraught relationship with President Hamid Karzai.
"Obama’s policies in Afghanistan have not been carried through successfully because his and Joe Biden's vision differed from Karzai's, the latter has opposed US policies in Afghanistan, and a difficult relationship has developed,” political analyst Ahmad Sayidi said.
Sayidi said it would be important for the new US administration to prevent that the Karzai team dominating and directing the next Afghan presidential election, due in 2014.
Ramazan Bashardost, a member of parliament known for his robust attacks on corruption and maladministration, had harsh words for Obama, who he said had assisted only one microcosm of Afghan society, a tiny elite.
“Future generations of those Afghans will never forget the sweet memories – they became billionaires on the taxes paid by poor Americans. They own luxury palaces and their children drive 100,000-dollar cars, at a time when the US has 15 million unemployed and 50 million others short of food,” Bashardost said. “As for the other Afghanistan, with a population of 26 million, Obama has delivered nothing in the past four years other than poverty, war, civilian deaths, unemployment, lack of security and disaster. He failed there."
Marastial and other interviewees were highly critical of the way former warlords had been brought into positions of power since 2001 and allowed to act with apparent impunity.
"The Americans were initially the guilty party as they granted privileges to these individuals at the [2001] Bonn Conference and gave them a share in power. When the Americans later stopped backing them, Karzai embraced them and he’s been supporting them ever since," Marastial said.
Karzai spokesman Siamak Herawi acknowledges that the US-Afghan ties have experienced some turbulence in the Obama years. But he said none of the problems was really serious and many had been resolved.
On the plus side, Herawi noted that the two countries had signed a strategic pact, international troops were beginning their phased withdrawal, and international donor conferences had resulted in new aid pledges.
Faizollah Jalal, a law lecturer at Kabul University, is among the minority offering praise for Obama’s handling of Afghanistan.
“He pursued liberal policies; he dealt patiently with the sometimes harsh positions taken by the Afghan president, and he passed over in silence the broken promises [from Karzai] to curb corruption, eradicate poppy cultivation and end trafficking – all in order to avoid creating tensions in the relationship,” he said.
As for the future, Sayidi said the Obama administration should move towards practical action, rather than empty promises, to tackle “nests of terrorism” in Pakistan, and adopt new focus on building Afghanistan's economy, infrastructure and education system.
"Obama's team has four years’ experience of the issues facing the region, particularly concerning Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. I do not believe Iran will be attacked. Pakistan will come under more pressure, and Afghanistan will become more closely aligned with India. Such a policy will help improve the situation in Afghanistan," he said.
Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained reporter in Afghanistan.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Bill Rigby | Reuters
TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - An Afghan villager and two of his sons, who survived a night-time shooting rampage in March, testified on Saturday that they saw only one U.S. soldier attacking their compound, backing the U.S. government's account.
Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accusing him of killing 16 villagers, mostly women and children, when he ventured out of his remote camp on two revenge-fueled forays over a five-hour period in March.
The shootings in Afghanistan's Kandahar province marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and damaged already strained U.S.-Afghan relations.
The U.S. government says a coherent and lucid Bales acted alone and with "chilling premeditation".
Some villagers told reporters shortly after the attacks that more than one U.S. soldier was involved, but there have been no sworn statements to that effect made publicly.
Early on Saturday, three survivors answered questions via video-link from Kandahar Air Field to a hearing at a U.S. Army base in Washington state - the first time Afghan witnesses have testified under oath about what transpired on March 11.
"He shot me right here," said Haji Mohamed Naim, the father of nine sons in the village of Alkozai, the scene of the first shootings.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said all he could see was a strong light on the head of a soldier who was not more than half a meter (yard) away from him when he started shooting.
Naim said he was awoken in the night by sounds of shots and dogs barking, and then children from the next door house knocked on his door. He then described how an "American" jumped from a wall before confronting him and starting to shoot.
Two of Naim's sons, who were also in the compound, said they saw only one U.S. soldier on the night in question.
"Yes, I saw him, he came after me, I went to another room," said Naim's son Sadiquallah, who said he was 13 or 14 years old. He described how he hid behind a curtain in a storage room with one other child, and was hit in the ear with a bullet, but did not see who fired the shot.
"How many Americans did you see?" one of the prosecution attorneys asked Sadiquallah. "One," he replied.
His older brother Quadratullah, who said he was 14, was unscathed in the attack, but said he saw a U.S. soldier shooting other children.
"Yes I saw the American," he answered a government attorney. "I said 'We are children, we are children', and he shot one of the kids," Quadratullah said, through an interpreter.
"We saw only one American," he added.
At a courtroom at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Bales sat impassively throughout the proceedings, watching the witnesses on a TV screen in front of him.
FIRST AFGHAN TESTIMONY
The Afghan villagers testified on the fifth day of a hearing to establish whether there is enough evidence to put Bales before a court martial.
A veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.
Prosecutors have presented physical evidence to tie Bales to the crime scene, with a forensic investigator saying a sample of blood on Bales' clothes matched a swab taken in one of the compounds where the shooting occurred.
Bales' lawyers have not set out an alternative theory, but have pointed up inconsistencies in testimony and highlighted incidents before the shooting where Bales lost his temper easily or appeared unbalanced, possibly setting up an argument that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gathering evidence and witness statements was complicated by the speedy burial of victims, the inability of U.S. investigators to access the crime scenes for three weeks after the violence for fears of revenge attacks, and the dispersal of possible witnesses after treatment at a Kandahar hospital.
Bales' lead civil defense attorney John Henry Browne, who is in Kandahar to question the witnesses, complained early in the investigation that his team was denied access to villagers wounded in the attacks.
(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Alistair Lyon)
Afghanistan beckons India's business leaders to invest
Reuters – Sat, Nov 10, 2012
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Afghanistan is "ripe and ready" for Indian investments in mining and other sectors, President Hamid Karzai told business leaders in Mumbai on Saturday at the start of a trip to woo investors for his war-ravaged country.
"We'd like to welcome you with a red carpet, but you need to arrive at the red carpet," he told delegates at an Indian industry event in the financial capital.
"What I'd like to emphasize in particular is that Indian businesses need not be shy when thinking about Afghanistan. The Chinese businesses were there long before you came, five or six years before."
India has invested billions of dollars in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime's ouster in 2001 and has urged private firms to invest there, though many have misgivings about the security climate after 2014, when most foreign troops will leave. China is also looking to tap into Afghanistan's mineral reserves.
A consortium led by state-firm Steel Authority of India last year won the rights to develop a huge iron ore deposit in central Afghanistan and a nearby 6 million metric ton steel plant at a cost of around $11 billion.
China won a huge copper concession not far from Kabul, as well as oil blocks in the north.
However, both Asian giants have been held back in Afghanistan by security concerns as well as poor infrastructure in the landlocked, mountainous country.
India also has to tread carefully in Afghanistan because of the suspicions of arch-rival Pakistan, which sees New Delhi's expanding role in its neighbor as a move to encircle it.
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told the meeting with Karzai that New Delhi would look at engaging with Kabul to develop infrastructure such as highways, power projects, Chahbahar port and energy security.
(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Ron Popeski)
Indonesia, Afghanistan bolster bilateral relations
JAKARTA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai held bilateral talks in Bali, reaffirmed the long-standing bonds of friendship between the two nations, expressed their commitment to promote bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual benefit, local media reported on Saturday.
During bilateral talks on the sidelines of the fifth Bali Democracy Forum (BDF) in Nusa Dua, Bali, Yudhoyono expressed Indonesia's commitment to support Afghanistan in various fields, including technical vocational training, infrastructure, as well as in women's empowerment, higher education and mid-career diplomat training.
"We have asked relevant ministries to identify and work on concrete programs" President Yudhoyono said after the meeting with President Karzai.
The two countries welcomed the new treaty of friendship and cooperation to replace the previous friendship treaty, which concluded on April 24, 1955. The new treaty promotes political cooperation, economic and trade cooperation, in addition to academic and cultural cooperation.
Karzai underlined the positive economic prospects of his country and invited Indonesia to explore the possibility of direct trade and investment in Afghanistan.
"Indonesian businesses are welcomed to Afghanistan to participate in the development of Afghanistan and in the expansion of business between two countries," Afghan President Karzai said.
The value of two-way trade between the two countries stood at 37.78 million US dollars as of August this year.
Both leaders welcomed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Capacity Building for Law Enforcement Personnel, signed last September in Jakarta.
The MoU stipulates that Indonesian National Police will train 50 Afghanistan National Police officers on traffic management, police community services and crime investigation. Both leaders instructed the training to commence as soon as possible.
To promote good governance, the meeting encouraged closer cooperation between the corruption eradication agencies of the two countries. Both leaders also underlined the importance of promoting bilateral cooperation on counterterrorism and transnational organized crimes as well as a commitment to combating people smuggling and trafficking, the Jakarta Post reported.
"We will also explore cooperation in the fields of culture through a cultural exchange programs and cultural mission," President Yudhoyono said.
Following the talks, both leaders witnessed the signing of four agreements, respectively on friendship and cooperation, on visa exemption for holders of diplomatic and service passports, on bilateral consultations and on cultural exchange programs.
CIA Director Petraeus Resigns Over Affair
November 9, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
David Petraeus, the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has resigned.
Petraeus, in a statement on November 9, admitted to having an extramarital affair, which he said made him unfit to continue as U.S. intelligence chief.
The 60-year-old Petraeus, who has been married for 37 years, said he had shown "extremely poor judgment."
Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell has been named acting director.
President Barack Obama has accepted the resignation. In a statement, Obama praised Petraeus as one of the most outstanding generals of his generation and expressed confidence the CIA would continue to thrive.
Obama said his "thoughts and prayers" were with Petraeus and his wife.
Petraeus, a retired four-star general who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, took over as CIA chief in 2011.
In his statement, Petraeus said engaging in the affair was “unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader” of an organization such as the CIA.
It was not immediately clear whether the affair represented a purely personal problem for Petraeus, or if it also had raised security issues that could affect his work as head of the U.S. spy agency.
Reports have quoted U.S. officials as saying the affair was uncovered during an FBI investigation.
Officials are also quoted as saying Petraeus had been involved with Paula Broadwell, who this year published a biography of Petraeus and had traveled with him in Afghanistan.
Stellar Career
The November 9 resignation came three days after Obama was reelected to another four-year term in the White House, and just days before Petraeus was due to be questioned by lawmakers in the U.S. Congress next week over the September 11 attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
Petraeus has been criticized by some lawmakers over security and intelligence lapses before the attack, which also killed three other Americans.
Petraeus, a graduate of the West Point U.S. military academy, was considered a stellar soldier as well as an astute player of Washington’s politics. He was once viewed as a possible candidate for president.
Amid his military career, he earned masters and doctorate degrees from Princeton in the 1980s. In the mid-2000s, he helped develop the manual that instructs U.S. forces on how to fight a counterinsurgency campaign.
His reputation was enhanced by his performance in Iraq, where he is credited by some with saving the country from civil war by orchestrating the 2007 “surge” of U.S. troops there.
The strategy is praised by analysts for paving the way for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011.
In 2008, Petraeus was promoted to head of the U.S. Central Command, in charge of all U.S. military operations in the Middle East and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
In 2010, President Obama asked Petraeus to take over U.S. military operations in Afghanistan after General Stanley McChrystal was fired.
In Afghanistan, Petraeus commanded an Iraq-style “surge” of some 30,000 U.S. troops in an attempt to roll back Taliban fighters and improve security.
Petraeus claimed progress. But critics of his strategy point out that the Taliban remains active, carrying out frequent attacks, and the U.S.-backed Afghan government remains riddled with corruption.
Despite continued indications of Taliban strength, U.S.-led combat troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP
Pakistanis Honor School Girl Shot by Taliban
VOA News November 10, 2012
Pakistani students and rights activists are honoring the 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban a month ago.
The United Nations designated Saturday to be "Malala Day" as a global tribute to Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by gunmen for promoting the right of girls to attend school and for documenting Taliban atrocities.
In her hometown of Mingora in the northwestern Swat Valley, hundreds of students prayed for her early recovery and vowed to continue her mission. Her supporters also gathered in Karachi and other Pakistani cities.
Taliban gunmen shot Malala Yousafzai in the head and neck in the Swat Valley. She was internationally recognized for her work.
She is now recovering from her wounds at a hospital in Britain.
On Friday, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented Pakistan's government with a petition with more than one million signatures in support of Malala.
Mr. Brown, the U.N.'s envoy for global education, says a new foundation has been created to honor Malala. The Malala Foundation will do the work the teenager told her friends just weeks before she was shot that she wanted to do -- campaign for the 32 million girls around the world who are not in school.
Nearly 90,000 people have signed another petition to have Malala nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Also Friday, Malala's father paid tribute to those around the world who have shown her support.
Ziauddin Yousafzai spoke from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where Malala is being treated. He said she is recovering well and wants everyone to know she has been inspired and humbled by the thousands of cards, messages and gifts she has received.
Kabul's Sex Workers Get Organized
Prostitutes Teach Colleagues About Condoms and Testing in Afghanistan's Highly Conservative Society
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB November 9, 2012
KABUL - Prostitutes in Afghanistan's capital, working in a society where adulterers can be stoned to death and the sexes are strictly segregated, have organized into a clandestine self-help network to halt the spread of disease, avoid detection by the state and flag abusive customers.
Freshta, a prostitute, has been visiting Kabul's beauty parlors—many of them fronts for the flesh trade—to teach colleagues about condom use and encourage them to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. "If we don't do this work, who will?" she said. "They'll go back and spread their diseases to the entire beauty parlor and then to the families."
The Wall Street Journal was given rare access to how this network operates on condition that surnames of the participants not be revealed. Prostitution in Afghanistan, by men and by women, is largely a hidden world, and much that is known about it is anecdotal, from the sex workers themselves.
Sex workers in many countries risk violence and disease, but they have particular risks in Afghanistan, a conservative society where sex education is virtually nonexistent and where families commonly kill female relatives for "dishonorable" acts such as premarital sex.
The risks of violent attack are high for male prostitutes as well, sex workers say, with little legal recourse; those who dress as women, for example, can be subject to arrest by police, who view the practice as immoral, though it isn't illegal.
The Kabul police are cracking down on "moral crimes" such as prostitution, alcohol consumption, gambling and sodomy, said Gen. Mohammed Zaher, head of the police criminal investigation department. Convicted prostitutes are ordinarily given six-month jail sentences; their clients tend not to be arrested, though solicitation is illegal.
"It's obvious that moral crimes exist in every country, and Afghanistan is no exception," Gen. Zaher says. "Although in some countries some of these things aren't considered a crime, we are actively pursuing people who commit them, especially the prostitutes in Kabul."
Yet the sex trade—which also flourished under Taliban rule, prostitutes say—apparently remains brisk in Kabul. Members of the recently established self-help network in the Afghan capital say it encompasses some 6,000 female prostitutes and 4,000 males, though these numbers couldn't be verified.
Part of the network's function is to alert the prostitutes about the clients who beat or rob them, sharing an informal blacklist. "If we die, who will notice?" said Seema, a 45-year-old prostitute. "Our deaths will never be reported."
Many of these prostitutes come from outside the capital and tell their families they work as maids, day laborers or government clerks. Out on the streets, they usually don the all-enveloping blue burqas that most Afghan women wear.
The prostitutes' self-help group is organized like a compartmentalized phone tree—where each person is responsible for contacting a designated list of people, limiting the risk of mass arrests. Peer educators within the network teach fellow sex workers who have turned tricks for years about condoms, a relative novelty in Afghanistan, and about how to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases.
HIV is still rare in Afghanistan: None of the sex workers in the Kabul network tested positive, said doctors who were hired by the prostitutes to conduct blood tests. Other sexually-transmitted diseases are more of a problem, especially hepatitis C, which is endemic in the country.
Kabul prostitutes in the network say they distribute some 9,000 condoms a month and pamphlets on deadly infections. An illustrated leaflet for illiterate workers lays out the risk of contagion: You can't get it by holding hands, it explains, but unprotected sex is a different proposition. The leaflets also encourage regular testing.
The Afghan doctors who are paid to run these blood tests once every three months say they are reluctant participants, employed because they are unable to find other work. "I worry that if the community knows, they will attack us. Or if the Taliban knows, they will slit me," a male doctor said in broken English, running a finger across his throat.
Not everyone is as concerned about the Taliban, who used to execute prostitutes and adulterers at Kabul's packed main stadium when they ruled the country before the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Shafiqa, also in her 30s, said she started as a sex worker when she was 17 and the Taliban ruled Kabul. Taliban officials, she recalls, weren't nearly as pious in private.
"The Taliban days were better. They paid us cash," Shafiqa said. "Now they all want to do it on credit, even the government officials."
Now a prosperous madam and a peer educator, Shafiqa wears thick gold bangles, exposing a mouth full of gold teeth—something common among wealthy Kabul prostitutes. She said she had over 350 women she introduces to customers for a cut. Female prostitutes say they can earn up to $1,200 for a night with a wealthy man and as little as $20 with regular customers, big money in the capital where monthly wages for most women hover around $150.
Male prostitutes can also earn good pay. Sohel, 20, said he was earning at least $100 a night singing and dancing, his face caked with the makeup—light foundation and rosy cheeks—that is a signature of his trade.
For sex, he can earn more. "I have slept with more men than the hairs on my head," he said, stopping in at a makeshift clinic to get tested for STDs.
Sohel, like most male prostitutes in Kabul, began working as a so-called dancing boy, a traditional practice in which boys as young as six are sold by their impoverished families to wealthy men, taught to wear makeup and dresses and dance for their patrons, and eventually used for sex.
When the boys start to grow beards, they are usually abandoned by their companions and, illiterate and unable to find work, often turn to prostitution, according to doctors working with the network said.
"They are stigmatized at the hospitals. Health service is their right," said a doctor working with the male prostitutes. "We don't encourage them to have sex, but it's their right to be treated."
Meanwhile, a truck driver was in the clinic to be tested for HIV; he said he had had sex with many male and female prostitutes, but didn't know what a condom was. The doctor on duty explained. —Ziaulhaq Sultani contributed to this article.
Write to Maria Abi-Habib at maria.habib@dowjones.com
Hard choices in Afghanistan for re-elected Obama
AFP 09/11/2012
KABUL - As he celebrated re-election, US President Barack Obama spoke of his desire to "shape a peace" in his second term, but he faces huge challenges in Afghanistan, where he must end his country's longest war.
From the very early days of his presidency in 2009, Obama has learned the hard way that plans laid in Washington often crumble in the hard realities of the land known as the "Graveyard of Empires".
He came to power in the middle of an economic crisis with the intention of bringing American troops home from Afghanistan but ended up sending a "surge" of 33,000 extra soldiers to try to quell the Taliban.
Now these reinforcements have come home and the 100,000-strong NATO force, nearly 70,000 of whom are American, are preparing to follow suit by the end of 2014.
But the land they will leave behind is not peaceful -- the insurgency led by the Taliban is not beaten and a growing number of analysts believe the 350,000 Afghan security forces supposed to take over after 2014 are not capable of preventing a return to civil war.
As the 2014 deadline approaches, Obama faces difficult questions over whether to negotiate with the Taliban to try to secure peace and how many US troops to leave in Afghanistan after that date to help the Afghan forces.
For Maleeha Lodhi, former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, the next two years will be crucial.
"It is what will happen between now and 2014 which will determine the course of post-2014 Afghanistan and post-war region," she said at a conference in Islamabad this week.
The best outcome, she said, would be a negotiated settlement following peace talks between the US and the Taliban, but she warned this was a distant prospect.
"For now there is no peace strategy, there is no framework, there is no road map to get to this destination. Everybody agrees they want to get there but nobody has charted a clear way forward," she said.
Preliminary contacts between the Taliban and the West began in Qatar but the process is now dead in the water, terminated in March by the insurgents after they failed to nail a deal with Washington on the release of five of their comrades imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.
Moreover, Washington's decision in September to blacklist the Haqqani militant network, a key Taliban faction close to Al-Qaeda, as a terrorist organisation will complicate any efforts towards talks with the insurgents, Pakistani analysts warn.
Pakistan, where a number of Haqqani leaders are believed to be hiding out and which has historically been close to the Taliban, will have a key role in any possible talks.
"Any efforts towards substantial talks with the Taliban before 2014 would have to be shared with other regional players, including Pakistan," a senior western diplomat in Kabul said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The militants also have the option simply to wait until NATO forces leave.
Stephen Biddle, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University, warned "announcements of troops withdrawals... tend to reduce our leverage for bargaining".
Obama must also decide on what level of military presence to leave once the torch finally passes to the Afghans -- Washington has not yet said how many "non-combat" troops will remain in the country after 2014.
For this he needs to reach an understanding with his Afghan allies on two thorny issues: keeping US bases in Afghanistan long-term and the legal status of the US soldiers who will stay to train Afghan forces.
Kabul has warned that there could be problems in agreeing to legal immunity for American soldiers, as Washington demands.
Several American analysts have voiced optimism about a future deal on these issues, though Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution think tank warned talks would be "ugly and slow".
It is a crucial point -- in Iraq the failure to secure legal immunity led to Washington pulling out its troops completely.
Brian Hutchinson: Afghanistan progress slow despite Canada’s money and spilled blood
Brian Hutchinson | Nov 10, 2012 Nov 10, 2012 7:38 PM ET National Post (Canada)
Another year passes. The long road isn’t finished; the interminable war carries on. In southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, in Panjwaii district, where Canadian sacrifices were greatest, the killings continue.
Canada’s combat role in Kandahar ended with a formal ceremony in July 2011, after five years of heavy toil. All of Kandahar’s districts — including Panjwaii, the Taliban’s birthplace and spiritual home — were turned over to U.S. troops and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), which include the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police.
The Afghans are slowly taking control of their own security details, and are planning and leading counterinsurgency operations against such enemies of the state as the Taliban. The ANSF are now bigger, more equipped and better trained than they’ve been in decades. But analysts doubt they will be fully autonomous and capable of maintaining order inside Afghanistan by 2014, when American and other international troops are scheduled to leave the country.
The Taliban still move freely in Panjwaii, wandering the district in groups and intimidating civilians. “The Taliban have warned people to leave their guest rooms open, because they need a warm place to spend the night,” says Mahmood Noor, head of Panjwaii’s shura council, a group of elders who help settle disputes and direct policy in the district. “When the sun sets, people are not allowed to come out from their homes. There are fears of clashes and IEDs [improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs].”
In that respect, nothing has changed in the 16 months since Canadian troops left the province. The Taliban haven’t left, and they likely never will. Security has improved incrementally, according to local elders and government officials, but there’s no clear path to victory there, let alone the rest of Kandahar. Afghanistan as a whole remains a quagmire. Islamists still concede nothing to the national government and its powerful Western allies. Serious peace talks are just rumours, nothing more.
Money raised from the sale of illicit drugs continues to leave Kandahar and other provinces, usually ending up in offshore banks. Money and equipment used to sustain the insurgency still arrives from neighbouring countries such as Iran and Pakistan.
Earlier this year, insurgents targeted the Panjwaii district governor. A burly, straight-talking man named Haji Fazluddin Agha, he was appointed to the influential position in 2010, after senior Canadian soldiers and diplomats raised concerns about his predecessor, an illiterate and allegedly corrupt individual named Haji Baran. Thanks in part to Mr. Agha, some 30 Taliban fighters put down their arms to join the Afghan government side.
In January, Mr. Agha was travelling with two of his sons from Panjwaii district centre to Kandahar city. A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle rammed into their vehicle; everyone was killed. His replacement is said to be ineffective and is widely disliked.
Trust is hard won and easily lost in Kandahar. U.S. forces are less sensitive to this fact than Canadians, Mr. Noor told the National Post in an interview from Kandahar. Picking fights with peaceful civilians doesn’t help. In one notorious incident in March, a deranged American soldier walked into a district village compound and shot to death nine innocent children and seven adults. People in that village now support the Taliban.
Commitments haven’t been honoured, Mr. Noor complains. “The difference between American and Canadian soldiers is that the Canadians were keen to work more on reconstruction, making people busy and arranging more meetings with people and respecting their problems.”
Mr. Noor describes the 14-kilometre road that Canadians left behind. A legacy project, and more: It cuts across the middle of Panjwaii, straight through Taliban strongholds and their supply routes, connecting the remote western tip, called the Horn, to population clusters and markets in the centre.
The entire route was to have been paved. Hard asphalt would prevent insurgents from planting their IEDs beneath the road’s surface. “The Americans promised they would pave the remaining part,” says Mr. Noor. “The work stopped when the Canadians left. Since then, nobody has touched it.”
Villages in the Horn “are not secure at all,” says Mr. Noor. “The Taliban have safe havens there.” To the east, closer to bustling Kandahar city, Panjwaii and neighbouring Dand district feel more secure. But only in daylight. “We cannot travel at night beyond two kilometres of the district centre,” says Mr. Noor.
More than 700 Canadian soldiers and a small number of civilians remain engaged in a training mission in Afghanistan; most personnel are stationed in Kabul, the capital. Canada’s direct military involvement comes to “a firm and final end” on March 31, 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced earlier this year.
However, Canada will deliver $110-million in financial assistance to help “sustain” the ANSF until 2017. “Canada will insist on strict accountability measures for this fund,” says our government.
Since 2001, when Canadian soldiers first touched ground in Afghanistan, Canada has spent more than $12-billion on military operations and reconstruction projects there.
Of course, the vast majority of spending was in Kandahar. Towards the end of Canada’s combat mission, with more American troops arriving and helping tie down hotspots throughout the province, soldiers were able to place more emphasis on reconstruction efforts.
Many of the schools that Canadian soldiers helped build and secure remain open. Teachers — whom civilian Canadians helped train — still risk life and limb, just getting to their classrooms every day.
Life has almost returned to normal in little Salavat, a village in eastern Panjwaii that the Taliban used to own.
“Security is improving here,” says the village’s appointed leader, Mussa Kalim. “People are busy in their fields, and others are coming back after having been away. Now we have 30 local police and 10 Afghan National Police. The Taliban are around but they dare not come into Salavat. The people and the police don’t allow them.”
A local school that reopened under Canadian auspices last year has struggled, but at least it hasn’t closed. “We have only three teachers,” says Mr. Kalim. “They still aren’t willing to come to Salavat. The salary is not enough, only 4,250 Afghanis [per month, about Cdn $82], which is very little.”
Further east, in Kandahar city, conditions are better. “It’s much improved, security-wise, compared to a few years ago,” says a local journalist. “We have no suicide attacks lately, and there have been fewer explosions and assassination attempts than we had two years ago.”
On the other hand, he says, “there are even fewer jobs for young people now, because foreign NGOs [non-government organizations] have stopped working here. There are no funds for their projects, and no new contracts for local workers. And people are thinking things will get worse in 2014,” when American and other international troops withdraw.
Samira Hellah is a 23-year-old law student who attends Mirwais Nika University in Kandahar city. If she can’t find a job soon, she says she may have to leave school. Her family can’t help her with tuition fees. “They have financial problems too,” she says.
Finding money isn’t her biggest concern. “Some relatives and neighbours don’t like that I’m attending school,” she says. “They especially don’t like that I’m studying law. They say this is not good for women in Kandahar. Women should only be doctors, that all.”
Ms. Hellah says she must take “extra precautions when going to the university. I change my timing and my routes every day.”
Without doubt, the impulse to ‘go big or go home’ was present on the side of the planners and military
.
Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa acknowledges that conditions for students are far from ideal; however, there’s been much improvement since 2008, when he returned to his native province from Canada, where he was an agronomist.
“We’ve made lots of progress opening schools in Kandahar,” he said in an interview. “So, far, we’ve opened 316 out of a possible 433. And almost 200,000 students are enrolled.”
The numbers he cites are impressive, but impossible to verify. Enrolment changes by the day, depending on threat levels. Gov. Wesa makes other claims that conflict with eyewitness accounts from districts and villages outside the provincial capital. “There is no area in Kandahar that is under the control of Taliban,” he told the National Post. “All the areas are controlled by our government.”
He did concede that IED strikes remain a serious issue. “These are powerful tools which the insurgents are trying to use against Afghan forces,” he said. “They are causing casualties both to security forces and to Afghan civilians. We have teams of IED experts to detect and neutralize [the bombs], but they lack the necessary equipment to do their work. That’s really a matter of worry and concern for us, and it’s causing us serious problems.”
In April, Gov. Wesa was the target of another assassination attempt, at least the second since he was appointed governor four years ago. He is aware of the rumours — that he will soon be leaving his post, that he has already offered his resignation to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and will return to Canada.
“You hear many things which are not true,” he says. “If the Afghan people need my experience and knowledge, I will stay. If not, I will look for another job. Time will answer this question.”
Time will answer everything, eventually. Now is time to remember those whom we sent to Afghanistan. The 158 men and women who never returned. Master Corporal Byron Garth Greff, from Swift Current, Sask., was last to fall. He was killed Oct. 30, 2011, in Kabul.
Remember those who did come home, many of them with physical injuries and emotional scars. Ask why we committed them to this fight. What was their purpose in Afghanistan, particularly in Kandahar, and what was achieved?
Too much wasn’t known, or disclosed, leading to Canada’s combat deployment. Analysts still question why the federal government under then-prime minister Paul Martin, its defence and foreign affairs departments, and senior military leadership pushed the mission forward in 2004 and 2005.
They had other options: Deploy troops to “easier” provinces, where there was less chance of conflict and serious casualty; limit the military’s involvement to training and reconstruction; don’t go to Afghanistan at all.
“Ostensibly, the [Canadian] military was seeking redemption after a decade of unremarkable performances in unremarkable (read: peacekeeping) theatres,” writes Matthew Willis, a research associate with the Royal United Services Institute, a London, U.K.-based think-tank that specializes in defence and security issues. “Or perhaps it really wanted to show the U.S., the Canadian public and other key allies that it really could do combat if called upon…Without doubt, the impulse to ‘go big or go home’ was present on the side of the planners and military.”
Hubris, ambition, self-interest. Wars have been fought for less. In Afghanistan, there were other considerations, too. It was a failed state, where terrorists trained and plotted and threatened a country, a region, the entire world. Canada spent enormous sums and spilled blood in the attempt to remove those threats and beat back and insurgency, to save lives.
Question the mission, the outcomes, but never the effort. The long road that Canadians started hasn’t ended; it’s up to Afghans to finish the job.
No breakthrough in Afghan peace efforts before 2014: official
Reuters By Michael Georgy and Hamid Shalizi Fri Nov 9, 2012
KABUL - Afghanistan's government has failed to secure direct talks with the Taliban and no significant progress is expected before 2014, when most NATO combat troops withdraw, a senior Afghan official closely involved with reconciliation efforts said on Friday.
"No breakthrough is expected before the 2014 election," the official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A political settlement between the Afghan government and insurgents is widely seen as the best way of delivering stability to the country before most NATO combat troops pull out at the end of 2014.
Afghan officials were also hoping to make progress in reconciliation efforts before presidential elections in April of 2014 to decrease the chances of prolonged instability in a nation that has suffered through decades of war.
"There have been contacts here and there but no face-to-face talks have taken place," the Afghan official said of the bid to engage the Taliban.
"There have been none in Afghanistan or other countries."
There has also been scant progress on other fronts. The Taliban said in March they were suspending nascent peace talks with the United States held in Qatar, blaming "erratic and vague" U.S. statements.
The Afghan official suggested the contacts that have been made with the Taliban have been limited.
"The contacts have taken place mostly at the provincial level. For instance, an official may meet Taliban commanders and urge them not to attack schools," he said.
BANKING ON PAKISTAN
Regional power Pakistan, which has a long history of ties to Afghan insurgent groups, was in a strong position to help stabilize Afghanistan but needed to do more than issue statements of support, said the official.
Afghan officials have often seen Pakistan as a reluctant partner in attempts to broker talks with the Taliban. Islamabad denies accusations that it uses Afghan insurgent groups as proxies in Afghanistan and had pledged to do all it can to end the fighting.
"In practice, they need to facilitate faster," said the official, adding that Afghanistan's High Peace Council would soon present Pakistan with a roadmap on how it could help bring peace.
In August, senior officials from both countries said Afghan officials have held secret talks with the Taliban's former second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is in detention in Pakistan.
Afghan officials, hopeful that direct contact with top Taliban commanders could give them the most leverage in any peace talks, want Islamabad to hand over Baradar and other Afghan Taliban leaders they say are in Pakistan.
"Mullah Baradar can be useful when he is released. He was the number two Taliban leader so he still has influence," said the Afghan official.
Afghanistan is known to want access to Taliban leaders belonging to the so-called Quetta Shura, or council, named after the Pakistani city where they are believed to be based.
Pakistan has consistently denied giving sanctuary to insurgents and says no Taliban leaders are in Quetta.
Pakistani officials have said they would urge all Afghan insurgents to pursue peace, including the Haqqani network. The faction, allied with the Taliban and operating on northwest Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, is seen as the most lethal Afghan militant group.
On Monday, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on the Haqqani network, and Washington has designated it a terrorist organization.
The Afghan official expressed caution over the U.N. move, which he said would deepen the isolation of a group blamed for some of the most high-profile attacks in Afghanistan.
"There have been some contacts with the Haqqanis in the past. The U.N. listing of the Haqqanis will make it difficult for the High Peace Council to keep contact with them," he said.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
Afghanistan: One Cheer for Obama
More complaints than congratulations from local commentators.
IWPR By Mina Habib 9 Nov 12
Afghanistan - Afghan commentators interviewed by IWPR greeted Barack Obama’s re-election as United States president with muted enthusiasm and a list of concerns about his record in his first term.
Afghanistan did not figure large in Obama’s election campaign, and the perception in Kabul was that he was treating it as if it was done and dusted, even though huge challenges will remain beyond the projected 2014 withdrawal of NATO forces.
Fatana Gailani, director of the Afghan Women Society, reeled off what she saw as the many failings of recent US policy.
“Obama speaks of major positive changes in Afghanistan over the past four years, but there’s been no tangible change for the Afghan people,” Gailani said. “The war continues, narcotics production has risen, and more than a million Afghans have become addicts. Furthermore, no attention has been paid to reconstruction or to the Afghan economy. The situation of women is worse now than it was four years ago. I therefore believe Obama's policies have failed Afghanistan."
Moin Marastial is deputy head of the Right and Justice Party, an opposition force that emerged last year. His main criticisms focused on the US strategy of negotiating with the Taleban, as well as the failure to adequately train and equip the Afghan armed forces.
"The Democrats' policies have generally been better than those the Republicans pursued in the region – but not with regard to Afghanistan,” he told IWPR. “The US paid the Afghan government vast amounts of money to talk to the Taleban by means of the High Peace Council. They [insurgents] will never want peace. Obama should have spotted that disconnect.”
Commenting on the Obama victory, Taleban spokesman , Zabihullah Mojahed said the American leader should pull out his troops from Afghanistan and focus instead on domestic concerns.
Nurollah, a student in Kabul, warned that the insurgents had been emboldened by news of the troop withdrawal.
"This announcement gave new life to the Taleban and countries that support them like Iran and Pakistan, at a point where they were on the verge of defeat and demoralisation,” he said. “The security situation worsened, warlords rearmed, and there was capital, investment and intellectual flight from the country. In my view, all this stems from Obama's mistaken policies."
In mitigation, some commentators said the Obama administration had been hamstrung by an often fraught relationship with President Hamid Karzai.
"Obama’s policies in Afghanistan have not been carried through successfully because his and Joe Biden's vision differed from Karzai's, the latter has opposed US policies in Afghanistan, and a difficult relationship has developed,” political analyst Ahmad Sayidi said.
Sayidi said it would be important for the new US administration to prevent that the Karzai team dominating and directing the next Afghan presidential election, due in 2014.
Ramazan Bashardost, a member of parliament known for his robust attacks on corruption and maladministration, had harsh words for Obama, who he said had assisted only one microcosm of Afghan society, a tiny elite.
“Future generations of those Afghans will never forget the sweet memories – they became billionaires on the taxes paid by poor Americans. They own luxury palaces and their children drive 100,000-dollar cars, at a time when the US has 15 million unemployed and 50 million others short of food,” Bashardost said. “As for the other Afghanistan, with a population of 26 million, Obama has delivered nothing in the past four years other than poverty, war, civilian deaths, unemployment, lack of security and disaster. He failed there."
Marastial and other interviewees were highly critical of the way former warlords had been brought into positions of power since 2001 and allowed to act with apparent impunity.
"The Americans were initially the guilty party as they granted privileges to these individuals at the [2001] Bonn Conference and gave them a share in power. When the Americans later stopped backing them, Karzai embraced them and he’s been supporting them ever since," Marastial said.
Karzai spokesman Siamak Herawi acknowledges that the US-Afghan ties have experienced some turbulence in the Obama years. But he said none of the problems was really serious and many had been resolved.
On the plus side, Herawi noted that the two countries had signed a strategic pact, international troops were beginning their phased withdrawal, and international donor conferences had resulted in new aid pledges.
Faizollah Jalal, a law lecturer at Kabul University, is among the minority offering praise for Obama’s handling of Afghanistan.
“He pursued liberal policies; he dealt patiently with the sometimes harsh positions taken by the Afghan president, and he passed over in silence the broken promises [from Karzai] to curb corruption, eradicate poppy cultivation and end trafficking – all in order to avoid creating tensions in the relationship,” he said.
As for the future, Sayidi said the Obama administration should move towards practical action, rather than empty promises, to tackle “nests of terrorism” in Pakistan, and adopt new focus on building Afghanistan's economy, infrastructure and education system.
"Obama's team has four years’ experience of the issues facing the region, particularly concerning Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. I do not believe Iran will be attacked. Pakistan will come under more pressure, and Afghanistan will become more closely aligned with India. Such a policy will help improve the situation in Afghanistan," he said.
Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained reporter in Afghanistan.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com