Afghanistan: Reason For Hope?

The situation in Afghanistan is neither helpless nor hopeless. It's possible that this nation is stabilizing. Perhaps there is reason for some extremely guarded hope for the future. This owes in some measure to the leadership of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the nation's chief executive. It's so easy to be cynical about the never-ending wars in Afghanistan over many centuries, endemic corruption and record opium production, let alone wicked warlords and police officials who rape little boys chained to their beds (see my September 22nd entry, "This Is Not Why We Fight"), but Abdullah may be what is needed there right now. He's certainly an improvement over former President Hamid Karzai.

Abdullah joined us this afternoon at the Council on Foreign Relations. He rightly took Pakistan to task for providing "sanctuaries" to various terrorist groups, such as the Haqqani Network that he named. He added that China can be a "positive influence on Pakistan, "convincing them to be more helpful in security matters" such as, I suppose, not harboring blood-thirsty terrorist groups. Interestingly, our host Robert Rubin interjected at that point, "Or at least (convincing Pakistan to be) less unhelpful." He read our minds.

Abdullah spoke repeatedly of achieving a "dignified peace" in Afghanistan, especially where the Taliban are involved. I'm not sure the words "dignified" and "Taliban" belong in the same sentence. That aside, there can be no dignity in Afghanistan or in the U.S. relationship with Kabul until Abdullah dares to take on the child pedophiles and rapists to be found among the warlords, military officials and police in his nation. Our allies? Recipients of our tax dollars?

Sure the subject matter is horrifying, and it may have seemed impolite to raise such a brutal question with  Chief Executive Abdullah in this setting, but I was disappointed that nobody broached the subject with him today. I always attend these heads of state and heads of government meetings every September, but chose not to deal with today' Papal traffic in Manhattan. I joined this particular session via phone. Maybe I wouldn't have asked the question in person, either, but it must have been difficult for attendees to see Abdullah at all with that elephant in the room.


Photo courtesy of The Hindu.