Afghan "Nation Building" On Back Burner

by Mushahid Hussain

For instance, the October election results in Pakistan may have thrown a monkey wrench into the works of AmericaÕs Afghanistan strategy given U.S. concerns over the triumph of Islamist parties in two provinces bordering that country.

These parties had campaigned against the American bombing of Afghanistan and oppose any U.S. troop presence inside Pakistan.

Other developments, like possible American military action against Iraq and unfulfilled promises of massive, much-needed foreign aid to Kabul, could complicate an already difficult situation.

The U.S.-led "war on terror" is already in stalemate, given that Osama bin Laden, his chief lieutenant Dr Ayman al Zawahiri, who allegedly sent an audiotaped message of defiance to Qatar-based Al Jazeerah television, and former Taliban supremo, Mullah Omar, remain at large.

In an Oct. 14 interview, Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah expressed his concern that "in the event of any attack on Iraq, the terrorists will try to destabilise Afghanistan."

He did not mention the probable backlash among the population in Muslim Afghanistan.

Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of the U.S. Central Command, visited Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he made statements intended to assure Afghanistan on both counts.

Addressing American troops at Bagram base outside Kabul, Franks said: "Any conflict in Iraq will not affect our mission in Afghanistan."

He added that he was "pleased with Pakistan's cooperation in the war against al-Qaeda, and the Pakistanis have worked very, very hard on the terror problem inside Pakistan because they recognise it is a problem internationally to be sure, but it is also a problem for them and across this region."

However, irrespective of Frank's comments, the U.S. mission -- or the stated goal -- in Afghanistan is yet to be accomplished.

President George W. Bush had wanted bin Laden "dead or alive," and the money pledged to Afghanistan is not yet forthcoming. A long-term U.S. commitment, deemed crucial to bringing stability to Afghanistan, is competing with Washington's obsession with Iraq, if not North Korea as well.

On Pakistan, while the State Department has officially welcomed the elections as a "welcome step towards democracy," Washington's officially unstated concerns were voiced by the conservative Washington Times, which is close to the Bush administration.

In its Oct. 21 editorial, the Times said: "The power that fundamentalists have gained in the election is without precedent in Pakistan, and will probably affect U.S. efforts to ferret out al-Qaeda terrorists along the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan."

However, the main problem in Afghanistan is not any potential political fallout from the Pakistani polls but the fact that the situation in the country has not stabilized nearly a year after the Taliban's forced exit in November last year.

American forces continue to be under attack, mostly through hit-and-run snipers or rockets, forcing, for example, the closure of Kabul airport to UN planes last week.

On Oct. 12, three U.S. bases in eastern Afghanistan were subjected to sniping and rockets apparently launched by remote control.

There were no casualties, but none of the attackers were identified or captured. Days later, four Afghan refugees, allegedly al-Qaeda suspects, were captured from a refugee camp near Peshawar in a joint raid conducted by the Pakistani police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Testifying before the U.S. Congress, CIA Director George Tenet warned that the "al-Qaeda is reconstituting, the level of threat is the same as it as last summer and they are coming after us."

But he remained clueless regarding the group's main leaders since they remain at large, sending periodic threats through audiotaped messages whose source has yet to be traced.

Prior to the bombing at Kuta beach in the Indonesian island of Bali, the bin Laden aide, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, had warned about "attacks on America and its allies." There have been attacks in Kuwait, which killed a U.S. Marine, parcel bombs in Karachi and Kamra in Pakistan, and explosions in the southern Philippines.

Afghanistan has also been disappointed at the lack of foreign aid, despite promises of $4.5 billion during the donors' conference in Tokyo in January.

Only $900 million of the $1.8 billion pledged for 2002 has arrived this year. However, the Oct. 14 summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Istanbul decided to set up a special fund to help rebuild Afghanistan. ECO has 10 members including the Central Asian republics plus Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan.

The ECO summit also supported a project to build a Western gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan. Pakistan provides the shortest outlet to the sea for the landlocked Central Asian region.

The 1,450-kilometer pipeline will cost $2 billion, and once operational, would supposedly provide Afghanistan with $300 million dollars in annual transit revenues.

But the project is inextricably linked to stability in Afghanistan, which could again become a question mark should the United States devote its attention entirely to Iraq.