‘Touch wood,’ Karzai said to me. You hear it all the time
28 May 2008
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From the President downwards, all Afghans know that the peace in Helmand is precarious.Fraser Nelson reports from a shattered land of corruption and murky power where warlords wait to see if the West has what it takes to stay the course and thwart a horrific new conflict
On base, British officers can be seen with bushy beards grown to gain kudos with locals. Anglicised names for local villages (Esma’il Kariz is ‘Cardiff’, Golstãn Kalag ‘Newport’) have been dropped. Care is taken not to impose Western priorities on tribesmen. ‘Life expectancy here is 43, so if you tell a 40-year-old man what you’ll do for him in three years he’s not too interested,’ one officer explains. ‘The link between education and a better life is not obvious to them. But they do see speaking English as a ticket out, to Kandahar or to Kabul.’
Deeper local knowledge, and links with the Afghan army, have vastly improved intelligence. Mr Browne’s trip into the local village was cancelled, for example, on advice that the risk of insurgents attack had heightened that morning. He made up the time in being briefed on the local justice system (appalling) and a project to renovate the Kajaki Dam.
Afghanistan has so far proved a graveyard of many Western aid projects. Horror stories abound about schools opening with no teachers, of contracts being eaten up in consultancy fees and roads built at £500,000 a mile. The economy is so fragile that each pound spent there has unintended consequences. ‘Within six months of starting my job as finance minister, my best people had been stolen by international aid organisations offering 40 to 100 times the salary we could,’ said Ashraf Ghani, who quit soon after. Yet schools are hugely popular, with a national roll of 6.4 million pupils against 900,000 five years ago.
It is hard to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan for any length of time, because loyalty is cheap and easily bought. The best form of loyalty is to provide economic security, which is why the initial counter-narcotics strategy posed so many problems. When Tony Blair first justified the intervention in Afghanistan, he argued that the country supplied 90 per cent of the heroin in British streets. The impression was that the wicked Taleban were funding a narco-economy which would collapse when the mullahs were deposed.
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Water
May 29th, 2008 11:02am Report this comment"Only in Afghanistan could the rockets being fired into the Kandahar airbase be seen as a sign of progress" surreal.
Water
May 29th, 2008 11:15am Report this comment"Only in Afghanistan could the rockets being fired into the Kandahar airbase be seen as a sign of progress" surreal.
Water
May 29th, 2008 11:55am Report this commentGlad to see the posting system is working as normal.
Ray
May 31st, 2008 10:13am Report this commentThe most cutting comment on this whole tragic imbroglio comes from Charles moore writing in the Telegraph... "Why have we allowed ourselves to fantasise about ideal states, rather than exerting our power to make the best of real ones? Afghanistan won't have democracy as we know it; it won't suddenly want its women to wear jeans and choose their boyfriends; it won't forget tribe and embrace diversity. Perhaps this is a statement of the obvious, but, in our rather sanctimonious politics, the obvious is not always easily stated."
Ed Hummer
May 31st, 2008 2:41pm Report this commentHe was probably told to say ¨touch wood¨instead of the ubiquitous and equally meaningless Inshallah to any infidels he met.
Praetorian
May 31st, 2008 10:01pm Report this commentI am returning to Helmand for a tour of duty this Sep. I thoroughly recommend this article as it is the most informative and accurate one I have read on the situation in both Helmand and wider Afghanistan. Our presence in Helmand guarantees nothing except that the Taliban will not regain control. However, that is worth fighting for, the alternative is a terrorist sanctuary from which further attacks will be launched against the West. I hope the politicians keep their nerve and start to make a better case for our engagement.
Mungo Lockhart
June 9th, 2008 2:16am Report this commentA very good article - we are in for the long haul.
Note the milder comparison with Mexico where I live. Narcotics bosses apparently offer their front line Governmnent opponents a choice between cooperation or a bullet. This is not a choice.
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