Afghanistan's Progress and Unfinished Business Provide Gauges for Iraq's Future

By Andrew Cochran

Afghani political and private sector leaders are touring the U.S. to make the case that the country has turned the corner and welcomes foreign investment. The Afghan government says that more than 3,000 new investment projects have been registered in the country in the last 2 years, with almost half of the investment coming from outside the country. The leaders are taking advantage of Afghanistan's historic strategic position in Asian trading routes, which made it attractive to invaders, and the need for oil pipeline routes from Turkmenistan or Kazakhstan to India or Pakistan. Afghanistan will also host the third meeting of the ten-member Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Kabul next month. The ECO, founded by Iran, Turkey and Pakistan in 1985, now includes many of the countries in Central Asia and the "Stan" republics. These are very positive developments which can only bear fruit if the vast majority of the country is secure from remnants of the Taliban & al Qaeda.

Peter Baker, one of two Washington Post reporters who spent months in Afghanistan after we liberated the country. He recently visited there to determine its progress and wrote of his impressions in yesterday's edition. He described "dozens of new two- and three-story buildings" being erected by Afghan businessmen in one town - new Chinese, Thai, Italian, Indian and French restaurants in Kabul, along with a number of gleaming new glass buildings, what he calls "a mind-boggling act of optimism in a city where not long ago nearly every windowpane was shattered by years of rocket attacks." But "most Afghans still grind out the same subsistence lives they did under the Taliban, living in mud houses, growing their own food, maybe selling soap or shoes in the bazaar. Poppy harvesting and the drug trafficking it spawns still account for roughly half of the Afghan economy. Corruption is endemic." Today's attack in Kandahar is another reminder that security from terrorist elements requires continous attention. And now we're shifting choppers involved in counterterrorism efforts there to earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan. As we approach Iraq's date with destiny, we can look at the progress made in Afghanistan thus far as a harbinger for Iraq's future, and we can see the unfinished business in the former country as a reminder of the work yet to be done in Iraq.

TrackBack