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Just another risky day in Afghanistan
Sydney Morning Herald - September 7, 2011
The day will be marked with ceremonies at foreign missions and military bases. Newspapers will carry editorials and opinion pieces analysing the past and the uncertain way forward. But for the man in the street, it will be a day, dangerous, like any other.
It is not that Afghans don't see the date as one of significance. Here, September 11 is perceived as the event that triggered the country's latest descent into war, but the popular view is that that seminal day is not an event whose consequences have been dealt with.
As the country struggles through a brutal fighting season, marred by increasingly brazen attacks in the capital, as the country's political leaders are assassinated one by one, and as a moribund economy dependent on foreign military and aid money founders ahead of the shock of its withdrawal, there is little to commemorate a decade on from September 11.
Memorials are for after the event, Afghans are still living theirs.
A former translator for the US army, now driving a taxi in Kabul, speaks to the Herald on condition of anonymity. "If it hadn't been for 9/11 we wouldn't have this war. This is the reason the Americans are in Afghanistan. But our problems are not finished, the Afghan people are still suffering, people are still dying. Many more Afghans have died than [people died] on 9/11."
The driver, an ethnic Pashtun, worked for the US Army in the country's restive south for two years, but, despite the money, the risks grew too great. He has a family who depend on him. "Now we are poor again, but I feel safer now."
The US-based Costs of War project estimates between 12,000 and 14,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in the past decade of war, more than 80 per cent of those killed by native insurgents.
But, the driver says, the date that concerns Afghans more than the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the US, or the invasion of Afghanistan 26 days later, is "sometime" 2014, when foreign troops withdraw, leaving Afghanistan to fend for itself.
He says he welcomed the overthrow of the Taliban, but that their influence remains. The violence won't subside at "war's end" when US and other foreign forces leave.
And like many in Afghanistan, he believes the root of many of his country's problems lie in troubled Pakistan, the neighbour where most of the Taliban leadership live and where, infamously, the September 11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden, was found, hiding in plain sight, in a garrison town in May.
"Pakistan is America's ally," the taxi driver sneers contemptuously. "The US should choose friends more carefully."
Parwiz Chakari is 23, and manages his family's clothing store Tolo, in central Kabul. Like many of his generation who have spent the past decade inside Afghanistan and out, he is cynical about the war, its genesis, and the continued presence of foreign troops in his country.
"9/11 happened in America, but it is we [in Afghanistan who] have the problem. "I ask, 'who is this Taliban, do you see them, do you speak to them?' I don't believe there is Taliban any more; they were here before, but not any more. America says there is Taliban, so they can stay and keep the war [going], but I think they are gone. Many people think like this."
From his shop front, Mr Parwiz points a couple of hundred metres down the street. There, he explains, a bomb went off about six months ago, killing a half a dozen people, and damaging several stores just like his. The businesses have reopened and are slowly getting back on their feet, but everyone in the area has suffered.
"After an attack in the city, there is a few months bad for business, very slow. It will come back to normal, as long as there are no more bombs."
But running a shop in Afghanistan is hard, Mr Parwiz says. Between corrupt officials, insurgent attacks and a moribund economy, there is little about which he is positive.
"If the Americans do leave in 2014, the security might go bad, civil wars might start again. That is a fear people have, and that would affect the economy. But I am not sure the Americans will definitely leave."
But many in Afghanistan are counting on the withdrawal of American troops, and counting down the days.
Noor-Ul Aziz was, until very recently, a senior-ranking Talib, the former "shadow" governor of the northern province of Kunduz. He has recently reconciled with the Afghan government, and has been rewarded with a high-paying public service job, a house and full-time security detail, so that vengeful former comrades can't get to him. He says the fight for control of Afghanistan will go on, long beyond the 10th anniversary of September 11, and beyond the troop withdrawal.
"Whatever reason the foreigners had for invading Afghanistan, that was their view, but now no one can protect Afghanistan but Afghans themselves," he said. "An Afghan who has never fought is equal to one foreigner who has trained for 20 years. We have experience. We know this, the world knows this: we fight very well."
The director of Afghanistan's Centre for Research and Policy Studies, Haroun Mir, says many in Afghanistan see the decade since September 11 as a victory for the forces behind it. "For the Taliban, these poor, untrained, ill-equipped fighters, they have challenged the most powerful military organisation the world has ever known, and I'm sure, sure they are celebrating it.
"This is justifying all their sacrifices. It is boosting their morale, and... of their supporters. For us, it is a simple event, that NATO will start withdrawing, but for Taliban, this is a great, great achievement."
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