Polly Toynbee went to Afghanistan and reported what she saw in the Guardian.
Ousting the Taliban was worth it. Everyone says that now. Ms Toynbee, writing in the Guardian, makes a nod toward the politics of being against the Taliban now. She needn't.
Afghan friends of ours, people who lived and worked in Afghanistan under the Taliban, were calling for US bombing in late September '01. The mood of the country was that here, now the US had a pretext to destroy the Taliban and liberate Afghanistan. No matter the cost on the ground, no matter the pain of the innocent, this was the battle worth fighting and dying for.1
What does Afghanistan need now?
Reconstruction is the watchword. But what does that mean? I will begin to answer that question with my own thoughts based upon my experience and that of my colleagues in the development field, not with what is being done or being recommended by the well intentioned.
No one ever develops someone else. Each country must develop itself. Outsiders can provide some types of assistance, but should never assume that people lack capacities or the capability to do the necessary work.
The international community does have to do something high profile, something that will get good press, something that will, on the one hand, make voters back home feel good about their generosity and, on the other, show Afghans and the world that something is being done. Hospitals and schools are always good for this purpose. But this, building these buildings, is not nearly enough, by any means.
Amazingly, hospitals and schools which are not appropriate to the circumstances are built all the time. Sometimes there is no electricity to the building or oil to keep the generators running. Sometimes there are no roads for the ambulances, but a great emergency room no one will ever use. Sometimes the school is so big that there aren't enough teachers to staff it--and no budget left over to buy books or paper or pencils. Ten good, sustainable hospitals are far better than one brilliant one which needs a large, trained staff and ongoing, massive influxes of assistance to continue--and cost about the same to build initially.
Often people talk about providing housing for returning refugees. Often this is a mistake. Ms Toynbee notes that markets and businesses have sprung up everywhere. They'll do that if there is no (or even low) conflict. She also mentions that people are rebuilding in some places with mud brick. People are building their own houses and their own business buildings. There is no reason for the international community to build these things.
There is considerable, unglamorous infrastructure that is necessary to run a hospital or school--or a town or country. Power plants for electricity, roads for the also necessary ambulances and school buses, and waste disposal systems to help preserve the environment are the big three. All can, and should, be extended to houses and small businesses.
1 This was the honest voice of Afghanistan. How could this voice be missed or dismissed as propaganda?
Great power, in this case US power, is very good at not hearing other voices, good at speaking for those who are thought to be incapable of speaking for themselves. Legitimacy demands that a voice be heard, a voice that represents the "people". But the "voice" of Afghanistan calling out to the US, to the world, for succor was propaganda. That voice came from the fighters of the Northern Alliance, from warriors that many Afghans--and critics of American power too--see as thugs and not as liberators.
The people were crying out for liberation, asking literally for bombs, but that voice was never sought out by our power--just in case it was saying the wrong things. And the case for helping Afghanistan was made a little weaker, even if it was the right thing to do, even if it was worth it.
Posted by Martial