Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 4, No. 3 | Afghanistan at the Tipping Point

Journalist Charles Sennott reported from Afghanistan during the U.S. military response to the September 11th terrorist attacks. In April 2007 he made a return trip to the country; here, he writes about both the mood and the reality of Afghanistan today.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan—Here in this bustling town off the storied Silk Road, Osama bin Laden made his last-known public appearance in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

On that day in November, 2001, there were 1,000 tribal leaders from the surrounding provinces, all still professing loyalty to the Taliban, who gathered to hear bin Laden deliver a stirring speech in which he assured the crowd, “God is with us!” According to an account by Gary Berntsen, the CIA field commander in Afghanistan at that time, bin Laden told the cheering throng, “The Americans had a plan to invade, but if we are united and believe in Allah, we’ll teach them a lesson, the same one we taught the Russians.” Then a caravan of pickup trucks laden with fighters and led by bin Laden’s signature white Toyota Corolla headed up into the nearby hills of Tora Bora along the Pakistan border and narrowly escaped the wrath of U.S. forces as they were closing in on the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership just days before the Taliban government would be toppled in Kabul.

I was in Afghanistan at that time and on my way to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif reporting for The Boston Globe on the frontlines of the U.S.-led military response to September 11th as air strikes picked up the pace and teams of American Special Forces were fanning out across the country from the Hindu Kush down to the Shomali Plain and across the northern provinces strung along the Amu Darya River.

Some five-and-a-half years later, in April 2007, I was back in Afghanistan for another reporting trip and traveled to Jalalabad where I witnessed another gathering of 1,000 tribal leaders and village elders in the ancient city and in the same hall where bin Laden had gathered a crowd. Many of the tribal leaders in attendance were the very same ones who cheered at bin Laden’s now-famous departing speech. This time, however, it wasn’t bin Laden hosting the event but an Afghan nongovernmental organization known as the Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan (WADAN), which receives funding from the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy and the International Republican Institute.

At the gathering, a large banner over the stage proclaimed, in Pashto, the purpose of the meeting, “Building Democracy and National Unity.” There was criticism of the American presence in Afghanistan and of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, but also support for the enterprise of building a new government and for the spotty but significant development that Western aid had brought to the war-ravaged country and to its people.

The mixed messages, indicative of the willingness of these tribal leaders to switch allegiances, is all a part of the opaque culture of Afghanistan, as ancient as the trading routes that make up the Silk Road. It is a culture in which tribal and clan structures are more important than centralized government and have been since the 13th century conquest of Genghis Khan and later, throughout the British Empire’s presence here—even, to some extent, during the former Soviet Union’s exertion of influence and ultimate military occupation.

These tribal leaders see little irony in such a switching of sides and are surprised when Americans are puzzled by this behavior. To them, it is all part of the ancient traditions of participatory politics in Afghanistan’s remote, tribal areas where such fluid allegiances are often viewed by Afghans as the Pashtun equivalent to bipartisan initiatives. To Afghans there is something more important, more central to their lives than consensus government—and that is security.

To develop an understanding of how the Taliban has now significantly regrouped and regained effective control in a half-dozen Afghan provinces as well as to understand the long, storied history of Afghanistan, one must begin with an appreciation for this overwhelming desire for security and how it trumps the desire for democracy.

The “Great Game”: Before and After

My flight into Kabul from Dubai brought me once again over the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountain range and the stark, beautiful and impenetrable terrain of Afghanistan. From the air it is easy to see how the country’s unique geography has defined its politics, its history, and its culture.

The Hindu Kush, which runs east to west, makes a jagged tear diagonally through the country, dividing the north from the south. The Kush has been the defining feature of Afghanistan’s history and its place at the crossroads of Asia has made it a crucible for—and battleground of—great civilizations.

The Kush has served to both repel attack and thwart development. The rugged mountains and rocky passes that weave through them have produced some of the world’s most proficient warriors and its lush valleys and vivid peaks have also served as inspiration to poets. Out of this romantic landscape and rich history of both invasion and resistance, there emerged a complex and layered ethnic, religious and cultural mix in what is today, Afghanistan. Although in the last century there has been a great deal of mingling of these cultures, in general terms, western Afghanistan is dominated by speakers of the Persian language, or Dari, as the Afghan dialect is referred to. The dialect is also spoken by the Hazaras who hail from central Afghanistan and the Tajiks from the west. To the north is the home of Uzbeks and Turcomans. And in the south and east there are the large Pashtun tribes who speak their own language, known as Pashto, and who make up a plurality of the country with an estimated 40 percent of the population.

Next page: Noting the resurgence of the Taliban, one former Taliban leader who is now a member of Afghanistan’s parliament says, “They were in power and they want power back. It is not so complicated.”

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5