British Parliamentary Committee Warns Afghanistan May Implode

In the war against Facsislam, the right war was the destruction of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Not only did its regime harbor the terrorist training camps from which the Al-Qaeda murderers came, but also it shielded Usama bin Laden and his flunkies. One can point to the quite proper approach the Bush administration took: hand over the killers' accomplices and nothing more need be done. However, when Mullah Omar's theocrats resisted, they were removed from power by America with a large number of allies -- a real coalition. Almost three years later, the effort to fix Afghanistan is in danger of failure. The House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs most recent report explains why.

The report says in painful detail that there just aren't enough pro-government forces, not enough coalition forces, and too many freelancing warlords. "It is particularly unfortunate that efforts to create a functional and effective Afghan army have failed to make sufficient progress to ensure the protection and safety of aid workers." Indeed, the medical humanitarian group Medicins sans Frontieres just pulled out because they lost some workers.

The American forces come in for some criticism for doing some of the reconstruction work themselves. Rightly or wrongly, the report says, "they have seriously undermined the humanitarian neutrality and impartiality the NGOs [non-governmental organizations] working in Afghanistan have taken 15 years to build up, and it is now highly dangerous for the aid community to work anywhere where PRTs [Provincial Reconstruction Teams] exist."

Despite being the poorest country in the world, Afghanistan has a ready source of foreign currency -- the opium crop for the year is in the ground and growing. Thanks to the prohibition laws of the west, "A hectare planted with opium poppies will yield over £7,000, whereas the same land planted with wheat pays only about £120." Smack will buy more weapons and influence than wheat, and compose 50% of GDP. And since it's illegal, the people who get it will not be pro-government. Rivals to the government is more accurate, and that is the last thing Afghanistan needs.

The country needs more troops to provide security to allow the people to rebuild. Those troops are now misdeployed in Iraq where they are inadequate in numbers to accomplish their goal there either. And so the committee's report ends with these cheerless words, "There is a real danger if these [NATO] resources are not provided soon that Afghanistan—a fragile state in one of the most sensitive and volatile regions of the world—could implode, with terrible consequences. We recommend that the Government impress upon its NATO allies the need to deliver on their promises to help Afghanistan before it is too late, both for the credibility of the Alliance and, more importantly, for the people of Afghanistan." And that, Mr. Bush, is why one needs as many real allies as one can get.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


Home