Pak shaky politics fuels Afghan instability
Jonathan Manthorpe | Saturday, 14 June 2008
It has always been clear that the ability of NATO forces to bring the necessary level of security to Afghanistan to allow for reconstruction depends in large part on the willingness of neighbouring Pakistan to close down the Taliban and al-Qaida safe havens in its lawless border provinces.
That said, the refuges in Pakistan for the insurgents are not the only challenge to bringing security to Afghan-istan. The corruption and incompetence of the administration of President Hamid Karzai is at least as important.
From that rot at the top flows problems like the presence of regional warlords with their own militias within his government, as well as men who oversee Afghanistan's dominance of the world's illegal heroin and opium trades.
Add to that a national police force of extraordinary uselessness and predatory instincts, and Karzai's near total failure to extend his rule or the sense of nationhood beyond a few districts in the capital Kabul, and it is a dismal picture.
But down the long trail of history, regional geography and politics have always meant that the battle for Afghanistan can never be won in Afghanistan alone.
A report by the Rand Corp. published this week underlines yet again that unless Taliban and al-Qaida bases in Pakistan are eliminated, NATO allies, including Canada, of course, "will face crippling long-term consequences in their efforts to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan."
Now, the Rand report was funded by the United States department of defence, and in these circumstances the people paying the bill usually get the report they want.
But the report's assertion that individuals within Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and the military Frontier Corps are still aiding the Taliban and al-Qaida meshes with other recent reports.
One of Pakistan's English-language newspapers, Daily Times, for example, reported last Sunday it had details of secret agreements included in peace deals made between the Pakistan government and tribal leaders in the border territory of North Waziristan.
These deals, which usually involve the Islamabad government agreeing to withdraw its troops in return for guarantees from tribal leaders that Taliban will be restrained and al-Qaida forced to leave, have been loudly criticized by NATO as little more than a licence for the insurgents to operate.
The Daily Times said the document it has seen says al-Qaida members will be allowed to remain "as long as they pledge to remain peaceful." That means peaceful in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.
That said, the refuges in Pakistan for the insurgents are not the only challenge to bringing security to Afghan-istan. The corruption and incompetence of the administration of President Hamid Karzai is at least as important.
From that rot at the top flows problems like the presence of regional warlords with their own militias within his government, as well as men who oversee Afghanistan's dominance of the world's illegal heroin and opium trades.
Add to that a national police force of extraordinary uselessness and predatory instincts, and Karzai's near total failure to extend his rule or the sense of nationhood beyond a few districts in the capital Kabul, and it is a dismal picture.
But down the long trail of history, regional geography and politics have always meant that the battle for Afghanistan can never be won in Afghanistan alone.
A report by the Rand Corp. published this week underlines yet again that unless Taliban and al-Qaida bases in Pakistan are eliminated, NATO allies, including Canada, of course, "will face crippling long-term consequences in their efforts to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan."
Now, the Rand report was funded by the United States department of defence, and in these circumstances the people paying the bill usually get the report they want.
But the report's assertion that individuals within Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and the military Frontier Corps are still aiding the Taliban and al-Qaida meshes with other recent reports.
One of Pakistan's English-language newspapers, Daily Times, for example, reported last Sunday it had details of secret agreements included in peace deals made between the Pakistan government and tribal leaders in the border territory of North Waziristan.
These deals, which usually involve the Islamabad government agreeing to withdraw its troops in return for guarantees from tribal leaders that Taliban will be restrained and al-Qaida forced to leave, have been loudly criticized by NATO as little more than a licence for the insurgents to operate.
The Daily Times said the document it has seen says al-Qaida members will be allowed to remain "as long as they pledge to remain peaceful." That means peaceful in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.