Afghanistan, Free and Peaceful

Pity about Afghanistan. Pity about the West's heartfelt determination to make a wholehearted effort in human lives, ingenuity, treasury, and hope, to improve the lives of Afghans, particularly the lives of women and children. Whose lives were circumscribed in the most oppressive and violent manner under the rule of the Taliban.

And whose lives, since temporarily relieved of the encumbrance of humble chattel that forced upon them, will soon be returned to the misery of old.

Not only is NATO, the United States, the Afghan Government itself eagerly seeking to communicate with the Taliban leadership to forge an eventual agreement on 'power sharing' between it and the Western-backed government of Hamid Karzai to bring an end to the decade-old insurgency that has proven so deadly to all concerned, but Pakistan too is rubbing its hands with satisfaction.

President Karzai's will and determination to bring his country out of despondency and dependency, to become free and independent and capable of looking after its own security and economic future simply wasn't much in evidence. He surrounded himself with tribal warlords far more invested in corruption, in siphoning off aid funding, in acquiring the proceeds of the opium trade, than with the potential for a parliament that would care about the people and the country.

But this is a country that is steeped in the culture of xenophobic Islamism, that shuns and detests contact with foreigners. It is the most socially backward of backwardly social cultures. It is a patriarchal society where women will continue to be treated as inferiors to be controlled and oppressed. It is a country that, disgusted with the level of corruption it wallows in is prepared to accept the Taliban back to control its fortunes.

Transparency International identifies Afghanistan as the world's fourth most corrupt country. The estimated $50-billion that the international community has invested in infrastructure and humanitarian aid and government administrative mentoring has hardly made a dent; there is no real accounting for how the funding has been allocated, no way to measure its effectiveness. Other than to see the dismal results of the a country flailing helplessly within the mire of its own misery.

A country with a history of violence, tribalism, and political intrigue, where no one trusts anyone else, and with good reason. The Afghan government, as feeble as it is, does not extend its influence beyond its cities. The tribal villages are accountable for their own existence, their security assured not by government, its police and other agencies, but by traditional methods of meagre existence, justice meted out in accord with medieval practise.

The people are illiterate, the place of women and children mere property, and non-Muslims viewed as a threat to be avoided. Although if funding is offered through such sources, it will be taken, with no measure of obligation to the giver extended. Utter alienation from the malign presence of the outside world reigns supreme.

The West's notions of civilization entering the lives of Afghans was a noble one, but Afghanistan is still struggling within the 16th Century.

It is as free and as peaceful now as it will be for the foreseeable future.