New Special Forces Soldiers To 'Shock And Awe' Taliban

Lessons for Iraq in Afghanistan
Faltering rebirth there suggests challenges ahead

By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press


KABUL, Afghanistan -- Police officer Saifullah says he hasn't seen a salary in months. His police station has just one car and two radios, shared among 115 officers. If he runs into trouble while on foot patrol, he has to race back to the station to summon help.

It has been 18 months since U.S.-led forces swept the Taliban religious regime from power, when the Bush administration is declaring major combat operations to be over in their country, people like Saifullah are disillusioned and worry the chance to create a new Afghanistan is slipping away.

Attempts to assemble a national army and police force are floundering, regional warlords are increasingly powerful and the Taliban itself shows signs of making a comeback. The government's writ does not run far beyond Kabul, the capital, and even here, protection is guaranteed not so much by Afghan cops as by nearly 5,000 international peacekeepers.

If the pace of reconstruction in Afghanistan is anything to go by, the challenge posed in Iraq seems even more daunting. It's not too late to turn things around, says Afghanistan's interim president, Hamid Karzai, but "we are really at the 11th hour."

Billions in international aid was promised for Afghanistan, but the $1.8 billion that has flowed in has gone mostly to emergency aid for refugees and war victims -- help that's badly needed, but not the sort that generates jobs and improves living standards.

The big test begins now. At a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, last month, the international community promised $2 billion for the 2003-04 fiscal year, with the biggest chunk, $820 million, coming from the United States.

Meanwhile, a constitution is being drafted and elections are planned for June next year. A successful outcome depends heavily on whether the aid is spent rebuilding dams, roads and cities, and giving Afghans security.

Similar conflicts

Afghanistan and Iraq have much in common. Both have suffered years of conflict and are divided by centuries-old ethnic rivalries. They are similar in size and population, overwhelmingly Muslim and strategically positioned -- each bordered by a half-dozen countries of various degrees of friendliness.

There are also immense differences. Afghanistan has scant natural resources. Iraq has the world's second largest oil reserves, and its populace is much better educated, its infrastructure more advanced.

Both pose a similar challenge of the West's ability to plant democracy and roll back the forces of Islamic extremism.

Apart from improving lives, Afghan reconstruction means pacifying a lawless land ruled by warlords. Private armies mean weak central government, and Karzai aides say the U.S.-led coalition isn't helping by arming and financing warlords to help hunt down Taliban and al-Qaida members.

The Taliban have an alliance with rebel forces led by Gulbudin Hekmatyar, a former U.S. ally now declared a terrorist and hunted by U.S. special forces. Hekmatyar loyalists control a mountainous swath of the northeast where attacks against U.S. forces are common.

Western intelligence sources and former Taliban say Taliban have re-established a command structure and have divided the country among fugitive leaders who have been ordered to organize and carry out guerrilla attacks.

Infrastructure critical

The country badly needs a national army. But the United States and France have trained only 2,000 Afghan soldiers. Some recruits went home when the Defense Ministry refused to incorporate them. Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim is an ethnic Tajik and didn't want non-Tajiks diluting his ranks.

The Kandahar police chief, Mohammed Akram, said he wants 50 extra police officers in each district where the Taliban have a stronghold. But he says his officers haven't been paid in months, and hundreds have gone home.

The German government gave $13 million to the police force and has delivered 120 police cars and 150 motorcycles. But the aid spreads thinly. Money for salaries was to have come from the central government, but Karzai says it's either not enough or has been whittled down by corruption.