Rebuilding Afghanistan

NATO’s mission in Afghanistan not only signifies the frontline against Al Qaeda, but also signals the renewed importance that Afghanistan has gained in the context of potential future focal points, namely Iran and the Central Asian Republics. We do not want to sound too presumptuous, however, suffice to say that Afghanistan’s present geopolitical prominance is not only due to its status as the frontline in the US led war against terrorism. NATO’s role in Afghanistan within this multifaceted context is further evidence of the renewed importance of Afghanistan to western conceptions of security and strategic alliances. The formation of the coalition of the willing against Al Qaeda was not a mere show of solidarity of the US allies, it was an attempt by the US and its allies to consolidate their foothold at the door step of Central Asia. Within this context, Canada’s participation in the NATO mission in Afghanistan is in perfect concord with its relations with the US and by extension Canada’s geo-strategic interests in the region.

The folks at CIDA are well aware of Canada’s interest in Afghanistan and in the region, what might be needed is a concise understanding of the troubles of Afghanistan since the invasion of the Soviet Union. Therefore, before we indulge into a discussion of the development challenges of Afghanistan, it is imperative that we briefly analyze the contemporary conflict patterns which have so thoroughly dominated the Afghanistan agenda of most countries. To better understand the impact of the war in Afghanistan, we can divide the war into three phases and its impact can be defined as all encompassing.   The initial phase of the war in Afghanistan was the resistance period from 1979-1989 against the USSR backed communist regime. During this period, the war was primarily fought in rural areas partly as a consequence of the communist government’s determination to implement rural reform. It follows that this concentration of resistance severely damaged rural areas. Traditionally, the rural areas have been a major source of income for the majority of Afghans particularly those who depend on the agriculture sector. Due to shortage of space and time the author will only claim, and it is well documented, that this phase of war was a major cause of displacement, environmental degradation, human casualties, and financial loss for the people of Afghanistan. It is enough to say that the legacy of this period of the protracted war continues to challenge both the international community and the Karzai administration in their development efforts.

            The Second phase of the war was the civil war between the different factions of the resistance groups to the USSR which lasted from 1992 to 1996. During this period the conflict was primarily focused but not limited to urban centers, whereby most of the Afghan urban centers as well as rural areas were destroyed.   This period of war also caused massive displacement and most importantly it further enflamed the fragile national cohesion and solidarity that existed between the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The different parties involved in the civil war adopted an ethnic identity, which more or less transformed the war into a civil war between the different ethic groups. Another important adverse impact of this phase of the conflict was the destruction of the governance apparatus as well as the physical infrastructure, which was further damaged during the Taliban regime.

            The third phase of war was the period from 1996-2001, during which the Taliban ruled most of the country. Even though this period did not have the same level of fighting, it exacerbated damages to the country. This period had a major impact on the psyche of the population; such as constant harassment of the people to live a distorted and manipulated version of Islamic life. It is well noted that the Taliban regime was responsible for many injustices to minority groups, particularly women. Furthermore, the ethnic agenda was never discarded. Suffice to say that the Taliban were not known for their accommodation of the non-Pashtun ethnic groups. The divisions between the ethnic groups were further pronounced by deliberate policies of Taliban against non-Pashtun ethnic groups highlighted by the Taliban incursions into the Shomali plains north of Kabul.

An important yet disturbing contribution of the Taliban to this protracted episode of destruction in Afghanistan was their policies towards cultural symbols such as the Buddha statues and other important artifacts. This policy can only be identified as ‘identicide’ whereby groups deliberately attempt to destroy national symbols as a means of cultural domination. We will not venture into the reasons behind such Taliban policies as this would take us beyond the scope of this analysis.

The impact of the protracted period of war beginning with the communist coup and culminating with the US intervention and the trauma of the most recent decades of conflict will have a significant impact on the development of Afghanistan as a unified entity, the resistance to the Soviet Union and the ensuing civil war has heightened internal ethnic and social difference to a high point which leaves the door open for a plethora of eventualities, including the disintegration of the country.