Caught between past and future

The security horizons of NATO, and Europe, are expanding in South Asia. On Thursday, 12,000 US troops in eastern Afghanistan...

The security horizons of NATO, and Europe, are expanding in South Asia. On Thursday, 12,000 US troops in eastern Afghanistan transferred to the 31-nation International Security Assistance Force ISAF which was created under UN Security Council resolution 1386 in December 2001. The joining of American British, Canadian and Dutch forces in ISAF, numbering about 31,000 in all, marks the largest deployment of NATO and American troops since the end of the Second World War, interesting not least because NATO was originally conceived in 1949 as an alliance to defend western Europe.

Much has changed in Afghanistan since the Americans overthrew the Taliban in 2001. With the help of the UN, the Afghans agreed on a new constitution under which elections were held and Hamid Karzai became Afghanistan8217;s first elected president in 2004. Parliamentary elections were conducted in 2005. However the Taliban remain at large; indeed extremist violence has spiralled over the last year. More than 2,000 have been killed this year. This is partly because there were not enough trained troops to confront them; partly because Karzai has yet to consolidate his sway over the whole country.

Meanwhile the Pakistani military and intelligence have educated and sustained Taliban fighters, as they did before 2001 to destabilise Karzai8217;s government perhaps because they hope to regain the influence they lost when the US toppled the Taliban. Indeed, some of the Taliban captured by NATO forces in last week8217;s fighting are Pakistanis.

General David Richardson, the British commander of the NATO forces, affirms that the main aim of NATO troops is to prepare the ground for Afghanistan8217;s reconstruction as the best long-term strategy to contain the Taliban. But 8216;reconstruction8217; in Afghanistan is an euphemism for fighting the Taliban, countering the growth and export of opium and the warlords wanting to retain control over their poppy-producing fiefs, containing tribal tensions, disarmament, and training Afghan police and a new national army, which is not expected to attain its intended strength of 70,000 before 2009.

Narcotics provide most Afghan farmers with their livelihood. Opium poppies earn them ten times more 8212; 180 per kilogram 8212; than wheat. They are also intimidated by extremists and some of America8217;s warlord allies, both of whom make good money out of the international narcotics trade. Indeed there is some irony in the fact that 90 per cent of the opium that reaches Britain comes from Afghanistan, where its troops are leading the counter-narcotics campaign. Moreover, a weak rule of law and a fragile, underfunded and corrupt administration make it difficult fight extremism, build good governance and lay the foundations for economic progress, yet this is precisely what 8216;reconstruction8217; entails.

Law and order remains a prerequisite for development in Afghanistan. The advancement of governance and development, and the armed fight against terrorism, are inseparable.