Afghan eyes for Afghan issues

Jan.28, 2008

Afghan eyes for Afghan issues

THE friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the British government is heating up, with Karzai reportedly blocking the appointment of Britain's Lord Ashdown as the UN special envoy in Afghanistan.
The immediate link the dispute might have is with Karzai’s criticism of the role of the 7,800 British troops in Afghanistan. He has charged that British forces had failed in their mission in Helmand province. British officials counter that had it not been for the British troops, Karzai would never have any control in the area and the flourishing poppy trade there.
Ashdown had been the top candidate to become a so-called “superenvoy” — an overall co-ordinator of international aid and political efforts in Afghanistan. But Karzai’s opposition has undermined Ashdown’s candidacy. There are others in the line, including a British general, and it would seem that his chances of becoming the envoy have also been undermined by Karzai's rift with the British government.
Well, these are issues on the surface. Deep within, Karzai seems to resent the US-led foreign domination of his country that has left him politically paralysed and unable to push his way towards national reconciliation.
Essentially, Karzai believes that things in Afghanistan have to be done the Afghan way and he has little faith in the Western/British approah to Afghanistan. The Afghan way dictates that the rulers in Kabul have to work with local warlords whereas the Western way has little room or patience for such arrangements. That was highlighted when the British forces objected to Karzai’s choice of local officials to run the Helmand administration and the security forces, particularly that of Sher Mohammed Akhunzada, his chosen and trusted governor in Helmand.
According to Karzai, his forces were in control of Helmand before the British forces deployed there. Now, he says, the province is under the control of the Taleban, who have staged a comeback as a result of what Kabul calls British inefficiency.
Afghanistan is unique in many ways and that has always been the reason the failure of external powers to control the country. The foreign powers now involved in Afghanistan with their own formulas and recipes to address the problems there do not seem to take into consideration that the goverment of Karzai knows better than them on how to deal with the situation. They seem to believe that the fact that they spent billions of dollars in trying to defeat the Taleban entitles them to second-guess the Kabul government.
This time around, Karzai seems to have put his foot down and made clear his position to some of the Western leaders during the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davois.
We do not know yet how the American and European leaders view Karzai's newfound toughness, but we do know that they need to use Afghan eyes to realise Afghan issues and come up with Afghan solutions.