AFGHANISTAN UPDATE….Patrick Belton at OxBlog posts a letter from a friend working on employment programs in southern Afghanistan:
I’ve been working in districts that neighbor on Mullah Omar’s hometown. During the mujahidin era, they produced fratricidal, drug-trafficking, arch-conservative commanders (one of whose sons is now a major provincial governor)….But now war-weariness and the desire for calm seems as prevalent here as anywhere. When I talk to villagers, they mention how glad they are that pseudo-official bands of armed men are no longer able to stop cars on the road or roam the countryside, extorting at will. The UN-led disarmament program has had a noticeable impact even in these areas.
….Meanwhile, the prospect of permanent US bases in the country is greeted with tremendous relief by most Afghans I talk to, whose primary fear at the moment is that America “will abandon us again as they did in the 1990s.” And the international military presence throughout the country is becoming ever more international, as US Provincial Reconstruction Teams retire and are replaced by Canadians, Italians, Brits. The securing and rebuilding of Afghanistan is not the simple act of American empire perceived by many critics.
At the moment, I think Iraq is more the focus of “empire” critiques than Afghanistan, but it’s an interesting perspective anyway and includes both positive and negative observations about how the rebuilding of Afghanistan is going. Worth reading.
