Afghanistan's Progress, Security

Just as reconstruction in the country with the considerable practical assistance and funding from UN and NATO-allied countries is realizing success in producing greater numbers of desperately needed civic institutions, like health clinics and schools, the country's resurgent enemies - determined to erase all such examples of progress and modernity, to bring the country back to the stone age - is also progressing.

The country which, post-invasion, was relatively peaceful with the Taliban removed - despite the dire straits of destroyed infrastructure and extreme poverty - has now slowly begun to revert to its former unsettled state of destabilization. Bolder, more frequent and blatant attempts to instill fear in ordinary Afghans and increased attacks against NATO-deployed volunteer armies by terror and suicide raids have been unsettling.

So, where several years earlier, foreigners, both aid workers and allied militias involved in both reconstruction activities and protection from the Taliban were able to walk about freely without fear of attack, the clock has turned back to an earlier time. People live now behind compound walls and move about stealthily, warily, with armed guards at the ready.

Still, western-trained Afghan soldiers have now begun to take over patrol duties from NATO-allied soldiers. It is they now wearing new helmets and body armour, since NATO troops are increasingly handing over duties to the Afghan National Army. They must increase greatly in numbers and ability to attain the professional capabilities of a national army, allowing foreign troops to depart, but they're on the way.

The foreign presence cannot be stationed there forever. Yet the powerfully resurgent Taliban presence and their increasingly violent attacks resulting in the deaths of both civilians and armed personnel, both foreign and domestic, clearly indicate that a greater foreign presence of trained troops is required for the meanwhile. If the Taliban are to be finally defeated.

Security has been markedly increased in the wake of greatly increased attacks and the resulting deaths. Yet now Afghan families are able to make normal life plans, and those who can afford it travel by air to Mecca. To travel safely has necessitated that they and any foreign travellers must submit to no fewer than five hand-searches of their persons before embarking on their scheduled flights.

And then, also, the country's local businesses are coming to life. Producing Afghan specialities and produce once again for wide distribution within the country. More than three million additional young girls now are able to attend school in comparison to some seven years ago. Infant mortality rates have plummeted with greater numbers of babies surviving infancy.

Half-destroyed homes have been repaired. This, of course, is mostly in large urban areas, where some greater degree of control can be attained. In the rural areas where people feel less secure and the culture of conservative religious observation still mitigates against freedom for women, progress is slower. In the more remote rural areas, farmers and their families are often victimized by the Taliban.

Restoration is slowly taking place, with international funding. It will all be for naught if the allied troops prove, in the end, to be unsuccessful against the Taliban push forward. If the Afghan National Army and its police force prove incapable of pushing back against the resurgently confident Taliban.

Pakistan has yet much to answer for. And casting the net wider, Saudi Arabia as well.