The withdrawal of the public conscience.

The relationship between NATO and Afghanistan hit rock bottom yesterday with the news that a lone US serviceman had killed 16 villagers, 11 of them children. After a difficult few months, where Afghan anger reached a peak after the burning of Korans by US soldiers, this tragedy is another blow to the fragile situation. The agreement to gradually hand over the Parwan detention facility to Afghan control is a positive step, but the plans that are reportedly in the works to end the "lead combat role" in the country show a worrying policy of desertion being increasingly favoured by NATO. After Nicolas Sarkozy's insistance that French soldiers would be withdrawn if the security situation did not improve, and rising numbers of comment articles advocating the withdrawal of NATO troops, it seems as if we are already beginning think about the War in Afghanistan in the perfect tense. As the country reaches its most difficult hour, when foreign troops leave a poorly trained national army to keep the peace in a deeply divided and fragmented country, it would be criminal of the global community to erase the Afghan people from our collective consciousness and neglect our obligation to help once we have left in a military capacity. It is of vital importance to keep the Afghan people in our thoughts and not excuse our conduct of the last decade as part of an ill-fated jaunt in South Asia. The citizens of Afghanistan have been abused for decades. Lest we forget that we have been intimately involved.

Afghanistan at boiling point

Sixteen Afghan civilians, nine of them children, were killed by a rogue US Army soldier in the early hours of Sunday morning. The soldier, stationed at a base in Panjwai, Kandahar province, acted alone in what many speculate was a pre-meditated attack. Eye-witness accounts are confused and contradictory but suggest a helicopter was present in the area, perhaps sent out to apprehend the rogue soldier. The soldier has not been named but the AP news agency quoted officials saying that he is 38, married with at least two children. He had served three tours of duty in Iraq - being deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in December - and has served in the army for 11 years. It is believed he may have suffered a nervous breakdown.

This is not the first time soldiers have intentionally killed civilians. In 2010, four soldiers killed three unarmed men in Maiwand district. But the timing of these killings are significant. Afghans are still reeling from the accidental burning of Qurans in late February which led to widespread riots which left over 30 people dead, including two U.S. military officers killed Saturday in a heavily guarded Afghan government ministry. This came shortly after a video leaked showing US Marines urinating on the corpses of men they had killed. The Taliban have threatened a violent retaliation to the killings which has reignited anti-American sentiment and further undermined the delicate American battle for Afghan hearts and minds.

The great irony in Afghanistan is that the efforts American generals and senior government officials to gain local support for the Western military presence has been undermined not by the large number killings of civilians which have come as the result of intentional drone strikes or other forms of military engagement. Rather it is a few random, unpredictable scandals for which the US is not at fault that have led to a break down in Afghan-American relations.  

Obama has interpreted the growing frequency of such scandals as an indication that it is time to withdraw, but perhaps it is the withdrawal itself which has strained relations. The announced withdrawal has changed the mind set of both Afghans and Americans. The top command insist that America continues to have a long term interest in a stable and prosperous Afghanistan but it is hard to communicate these sentiments down through the chain of command to the soldiers on the ground. Ordinary troops no longer feel the US has a great stake in the future of Afghanistan and even fear they have lost the support of the American people. Similarly, ordinary Afghans are preparing for the near future when western troops will be gone which means revaluating their alliances and where they invest their support.

Over the next few days, Afghanistan will be on a knife edge. Some bases have doubled the number of soldiers on watch duty while others have begun guarding their barracks as well. Initial reports suggest protests have not reached the levels seen last week after the accidental burning of Qurans but regardless of whether Afghans choose to take to the streets, their faith in the American presence is waning. 

In the UK Parliament

There was an Afghan forum last Thursday in the House of Commons organised by Khalid Nadeem of the SOUTH ASIA & MIDDLE EAST FORUM. Hamad Ghailani, head of the Hadra sufi sect, was a speaker. His comments were fairly tame and largely supportive of Karzai. He claimed that the West had been wrong to make 2014 a date for troop withdrawal and that the National Dialogue (in which the major players are the Taliban and the Northern Alliance) was of some importance.
Tobias Elwood MP spoke rather better, talking of the importance of infrastructure. For instance the tarmac road to Lashkagar has made people in that region more prosperous to such a degree that the locals report I.E.D.s more readily. He views Herat and Kandahar as economic hubs. He says that economic development might make the difference - if Afghanistan had more credible politics. But to this day Afghanistan has no proper political parties and way too much power for the President. Tobias favours the Single Transferable Vote system rather than the current first past the post system for Afghanistan. But he laments the state of the Afghan armed forces with an army that is largely Tajik and Uzbek and a police force that is largely Pushtu.
We were reminded that the West currently has 130,000 troops in Afghanistan and intends to leave 20,000 behind after 2014.
Sabrina, an Afghan MP, reminded us of the importance of UN resolution 1325 (see below).
We were reminded that the USA does not want to stay in Afghanistan. Another questioner emphasised the importance of dealing with the warlords if you want to control drugs because they are the ones forcing the farmers to produce them,
The NCF suggested that the proxy war between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan had to end - and that meant resolving the Kashmir issue.

ON UNSCR 1325: PeaceWomen.org writes: The first resolution on women, peace and security, Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR1325), was unanimously adopted by United Nations Security Council on 31 October 2000. SCR1325 marked the first time the Security Council addressed the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women; recognized the under-valued and under-utilized contributions women make to conflict prevention, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and peace-building. It also stressed the importance of women’s equal and full participation as active agents in peace and security. SCR1325 is binding upon all UN Member States and the adoption of the Resolution marked an important international political recognition that women and gender are relevant to international peace and security.

Parwan raises questions over Afghan sovereignty

The disagreement over the role that the United States will play within Afghanistan after their scheduled withdrawal in 2014 has become more pronounced recently, with some observers suggesting that advisors with ‘anti-western’ agendas are becoming more influential within the Hamid Karzai’s close circle.  A New York Times article published yesterday describes how the Parwan detention facility has become the latest focal point in the escalating war of words between the Afghan government and the United States. The issue revolves around the ‘sudden’ demand for the full transfer of the prison from US control to Afghanistan. This is despite the Americans’ claims that a programme specialising in the training of Afghan prison officers is behind schedule and that there is definite timetable for the handing-over of the prison.

The escalating tension over the future of Parwan can be seen as a metaphor for the issue of sovereignty in a post-US Afghanistan. Obama’s administration has been accused of interfering with sovereignty before, most notably by Pakistan, and it is now the turn of the Afghan government to blame the United States of sidestepping the correct diplomatic channels and making unilateral decisions about the country’s future. Allegations of torture at the base are being used as the primary reason for requesting it to be transferred to Afghan control, but the whole case is also being used as a political exercise by Karzai to show the US that he and his government are willing to go public if they feel that private negotiations are leading nowhere.

With a timetable for withdrawal finalised, the question of what the USA’s involvement in Afghanistan will be after 2014 needs to be answered. The ‘strategic partnership document’ that will be published at some point this year will go some way in describing how the United States will maintain a presence in the country that it has been in seemingly forever. How this document will be received by Karzai’s government, however, remains to be seen, and it will be of utmost importance to the Afghan administration that national sovereignty is not threatened.

A Kabul visit!

Sadly our friends are leaving Afghanistan and I think that things seem to be getting worse.
We thought that these friends had been caught in the suicide bomb that had killed a number of people europeons along with Afghans but luckily they weren't! There are more and more attacks even Kabul doesn't appear to be safe. Last time I wrote it was 194 casualities, but to date it's 383 British service men and women.
God bless Akghanistan and all the brave men and women that live there.

Recent events

Yesterday there was a blow to peace in Afghanistan as Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed. He was the man whom Karzia was trying to work with to stabalise the country, working towards a peaceful solution in Afghanistan. But the Taliban envoys look ready to tip the country into an even deeper crisis, and this must be what they want.
I have friends in the country, who are now preparing to leave. Sadly as they have made so many friends amongst the Afghans, who were sad to see them go.
A difficult time for any of us to go to the Afghanistan, but we should try for the sake of people there!

Taliban Attack in Kabul

On Tuesday 13th September, the US Embassy and NATO Headquarters in Kabul were the targets of Taliban suicide bombers and rocket- launched attacks. Four civilians and three police officers were reportedly killed in the preliminary attacks, and a further ten civilians and nine police officers were killed in three smaller incidents on the second day of the assault. It is significant in itself that it took Afghani forces two days to suppress the insurgents; this is the first time in the capital that an attack has lasted this length of time, and its implications are worrying.

The indication that the Taliban are growing in strength is particularly concerning in the aftermath of July’s ‘security transition’ from US to Afghan- led forces. Kabul and six other regions have now been taken over from foreign troops, in the build- up to complete US withdrawal in 2014. Despite President Karzai’s assurances that that this attack will not impact on the smooth running of the security transition, and will actually strengthen the resolve of people to fight the Taliban, the incident does pose a question in terms of the strength of the Afghan forces. Kabul is normally considered to be more secure than other parts of Afghanistan, but the recent concentration in raids on Western targets does, to some degree, represent the resentment felt towards the foreign occupation.

The fact that Taliban forces attacked a region where the US had largely relinquished control merely exposes the weakness of the Afghan army on their part, and it signals that as the US prepare to step- up their withdrawal, it may only be a matter of time before the Taliban gain more and more influence in Afghanistan. This attack on the US Embassy in Kabul questions whether the Afghan army are sufficiently equipped to reckon with the persistence of the Taliban, especially when the civilian death toll is taken into account. Indeed, questions have been raised in regard to the wounding of an RTA reporter in the attack; steps need to be taken to ensure that there are adequate safeguards in place in order to protect members of the press. Hillary Clinton vowed that they would continue to work for the safety of people at the US Embassy, whilst the Head of News National Television explicitly condemned the injuring of the RTA reporter. Combating the threat to the free press is of paramount importance to the overall stability of Afghanistan, and whilst President Karzai is limited in his capacity to stop the Taliban’s attacks, he does need to ensure that the freedom of the press is regulated.