Afghans have doubts about Obama’s strategy

By SAYED YAQUB IBRAHIMI

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan — The rest of the world may feel as if Afghanistan, along with the international financial crisis, were the main topic of discussion during the recent conference on Afghanistan in The Hague and President Obama’s visit to Europe.

But Afghans have a very different impression. They saw that the main news event emerging from The Hague conference was a brief conversation between the U.S. and Iranian envoys, rather than a breakthrough on how to help their beleaguered country.

Those who watched the proceedings, which were broadcast live on national TV, got a chance to see the sartorial splash made by their president, Hamid Karzai, who appeared in a green-and-purple striped chapan, or coat, topped by his trademark karakul hat.

But Karzai had little new to say. He listed achievements of his administration, including 6.5 million children in school, and thousands of miles of roads paved. He welcomed the world’s assistance and applauded the international community’s sudden interest in seeking a “regional solution to Afghanistan’s problems.” The irony, of course, is that Afghanistan has been saying for years that most of its problems originate outside of its borders, in Pakistan and Iran.

Objective

The main objective of the conference was to drum up support among American’s flagging allies for Obama’s recently announced new Afghan strategy.

The major outlines of this program are clear: more foreign troops for Afghanistan to combat insurgents, greater support for the country’s own security forces and increased financial assistance for Pakistan, which will receive $1.5 billion from the United States annually in non-military aid for the next five years.

Many Afghans were less than thrilled by Obama’s announcement. To them, it sounds like more of the same.

When American bombs sent the Taliban packing in 2001, the local population dreamed that mountains of cash and other aid would flow into the country. Instead, what they received was a small contingent of aid workers and a much larger number of foreign troops — many of whom appeared unable to tell the difference between an insurgent and a civilian.

Lavish praise

Karzai was hardly speaking for most Afghans when he lavished praise on Obama’s plan.

“I am in full agreement with the new strategy,” he said. “It is exactly what the Afghan people were hoping and looking for. Therefore, it has our support and backing.” Few Afghan lawmakers share his enthusiasm.

“Afghanistan is in need of economic and financial aid, and reconstruction programs,” said Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament. “But in the new strategy, the focus is once again on a military solution.” The influential newspaper Afghanistan Daily carried a scathing editorial in its March 28 edition.

“Pakistan has once again managed to sway America in its own interest,” read the editorial. “Pakistan has raised the Taliban like its own child, and has used al-Qaeda to destabilize the political situation in Afghanistan. Yet America is paying $1.5 billion a year for the reconstruction of Pakistan’s infrastructure.” Ordinary Afghans are suspicious that the new strategy is just another trick being played on them by the International community.

“I watched all this talk about the strategy last night on television,” said Mohammad Azim, 55, a resident of Kabul. “It’s all the same stuff. Since the fall of the Taliban, there have been dozens of promises. None of them has been kept. This one is the same thing.”

X Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is a reporter in Afghanistan who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.