Whatever Happened to Afghanistan?

Published March 6, 2007

By Max C. Bookman

Our Bad: The Water Tower apologizes for a misprint of this article in the printed paper. We stupidly only printed the first half, so please read on here for the full article, it is well worth it.

Try and spin this one, Mr. President: The Taliban controlled government of
Afghanistan had everything to do with September 11th and the Government of Iraq had nothing to do with it. Afghanistan had everything to do with September 11th, and Iraq had nothing to do with it. We invaded both nations, and deposed two oppressive governments. Although conditions in both countries are ripe for spawning anti-American terrorists, we are sending more troops to only one of those countries, the country that had nothing to do with September 11th.

As we move toward graduation and out of college, we will inherit the positions of power in this country. In just a few years we will inherit this country, along with the problems of Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism, and anti-Americanism.

Today, in 2007, the situation in Iraq is by far the number one foreign policy concern for the United States. But what has been going on in Afghanistan over the past six years?

September 11th, 2001. By October, American troops were on the ground in Afghanistan with a mission to oust the Taliban, the oppressive regime that harbored al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the attacks on our country. By 2004, Osama bin Laden was on the run, the Taliban was gone forever, and the newly freed people of Afghanistan had democratically elected a government. That’s where the story ends in our minds.

Although there are those in our government who would like the story of Afghanistan to end with images of Afghans sporting purple-dyed thumbs in a triumphant democratic election, the current reality is not so rosy.

President Hamid Karzai’s government has control of the capital city of Kabul, but beyond that, there is a power vacuum. The Taliban have regrouped, and have even taken control of rural regions in Afghanistan, especially along the Pakistani boarder. The Human Rights Watch has reported that armed conflicts with the Taliban are now on the rise, and have even turned into a new round of open warfare in the south. Mullah Omar, the Taliban Supreme Leader, is still alive and planning terrorist operations. On Tuesday, a suicide bomb directed at visiting Vice President Dick Cheney was detonated at a US military base outside of Kabul. 20 died and countless more were injured.

Instead of consolidating government power, President Karzai has delegated control of much of the country to local warlords who have no interest in preventing the reestablishment of al-Qaeda training camps in their regions. Irregular militias roam freely across the countryside, killing indiscriminately, and hampering economic growth. Almost half of the country’s income is from the poppy crop, a key ingredient in heroine. This is not the news of progress that we expected to hear from Afghanistan nearly six years after the invasion. However, in our media, Afghanistan is secondary news, overshadowed by our presence in Iraq.

Our generation has the most at stake, so in November 2008, we must show the country and world that we will never stand for the blatant incompetence like that of George W. Bush.

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