The world’s attention has recently been rightly focused upon Iraq. Unfortunately the story of what is happening in Afghanistan, the place that the United States struck its first and arguably best-directed blow against international terror, has slipped from the front pages. This is a mistake. The story in Afghanistan is not an encouraging one.
It is not that the Taleban appear to have managed to hang on in the country’s remote southeast. It is not that the traditional warlords have reasserted their power and that the central government in Kabul really only controls the area around the capital. These are all circumstances that were predictable given the difficult nature of the Afghan terrain and the long-established loyalties of the people. What is not encouraging is that the international community has, with a few honorable exceptions, failed to fulfill its generous promises of aid. Without that aid and accompanying assistance, the opportunity for Afghans to embrace change and escape from the troubles of their past will never arise.
Part of the promised help was to allow the people to express their views through the ballot box. That ambitious project has already run into trouble because of the difficulty officials have in registering voters in remote and hostile regions. where they — and the foreign workers helping them — have been attacked and killed. But even if the registration process were as complete as it could be, the democratic elections that Western donors see as so important could not take place because those self-same donors have failed to deliver the aid needed to carry out the elections.
Of the $101 million that is needed, only $70 million has been promised but not a cent of that amount has actually arrived. Under these circumstances, Afghan leaders can be forgiven for feeling that the outside world is treating them shoddily.
The Americans are still engaged in Afghanistan, fighting a nasty little war against the Taleban in the southeast. The Japanese, along with Saudi Arabia, have been delivering promised aid. Several other countries are also providing assistance to train bureaucrats, the police and the armed forces — but the tidal wave of billions of dollars that was so widely publicized about a year ago, is still actually only just a trickle.
The UN warned in March this year that if some $27.5 billion does not arrive in Afghanistan in the next few years, the country could sink “into chaos and lawlessness.”
This is simply a disaster waiting to happen. Narcotics cultivation is already increasing. Among many Afghans, the sense of disappointment is growing. It will not be long before they feel betrayed. All the fine foreign talk of an invigorated Afghanistan will prove to have been empty. It is not just the fate of the Afghan people that is at stake here. The credibility of the international community is on the line. What kind of cooperation can it possibly expect the next time it seeks to intervene and bring about change? Intervention is easy but change is not: Change requires not only commitments and promises but real efforts to turn them both into reality.
Afghanistan received commitments and promises. It is well past time for delivering them.
