Broken Promise

What enormous conceit is represented by an individual witnessing the defaults in character of another, resolving to undertake the rehabilitation of one he knows little about. Done in the spirit of human kindness, to enable the other to make the best of what life nature has given him. Little understood is the genetic inheritance, the inherited culture, the personal exposure and familial values brought to bear in shaping the mind and emotional response of that person.

When Canada signed on as a participant to free Afghanistan from the clutches of the Taliban, as part of the NATO International Security Assistance Force, its mission was clear; that of counterinsurgency. To apprehend and defeat a recognized evil; a fanatical religious sect that tyrannized the people of Afghanistan in the immediate vacuum created by invasion and war; moreover a sect that found common cause with another evil entity.

That evil entity, another arm of Islamist fascism, had demonstrated its shocking ability to infiltrate the security of the most powerful country in the world, and wreak immense havoc on its social, political, economic and security systems. Canada, like other NATO countries, saw it as a duty, a double duty; one, to defeat the forces of evil; two, to rescue a socially backward, poverty-stricken country from the domination of religious fanatics.

Our lack of insight into what we meant to accomplish, our lack of understanding how, despite the human rights outrages, the Afghan population was inextricably linked, through culture, heritage and religion to those meant to be eradicated has resulted in the collapse of the mission. NATO forces wrought order from chaos. But the enterprise was not complete. And chaos has returned, resoundingly defeating order.

Nowhere is there security and safety in that country. And where Canadian troops have been stationed, in the southeastern province of Kandahar, much of that territory is occupied by the Taliban. Foreign interlopers have not gained the trust of the population. The current Afghan government supported by NATO and the UN is only marginally less corrupt than those who were ousted.

The population of the country has little reason to trust the foreign occupying troops who claim to have the best interests of the people topmost in mind, but who, through one series of misadventures after another, seem to be just as adept as the ferocious Taliban in maiming and killing civilians. The known corruption of the current government, along with its inept handling of governance has earned it the contempt of those it governs.

The badly-needed civic infrastructure building is crawling along at a miserable pace, for diplomats, the multinational groups dedicating themselves to reconstruction and the erection of new infrastructure, and the teaching and training of police, militia, judiciary, civil servants cannot proceed without reliable security. The Taliban have amply proven they are capable of breaching all security defences, anywhere in the country.

Schools that have been built, have been destroyed, students maimed and murdered, teachers assassinated. The international bureaucracy, tasked to co-operate with one another to achieve the greater good of combined action and completion of tasks have been stymied by very real problems of turf-guarding, information hoarding and mutual suspicions, let alone the burden of burrowing through layers upon layers of bureaucratic inertia.

Every now and again, great news of triumphant success emanates from spokespeople out of Kabul; progress is being made on all fronts. The democrratic credentials of the recent election which has still not resulted in a final determination, has been irremediably tarnished by massive instances of vote-fraud, most of it emanating from creatures of the current government of President Hamid Karzai.

Mr. Karzai warns foreign troops to avoid civilian casualties. He turns a blind eye to ongoing corruption, among parliamentarians, civil servants, the military and the police. Poppy-production enriches both the Taliban and Afghan parliamentarians. Women's place in Afghan society has advanced only marginally, and new legislation to satisfy the religious demands of the Shia minority has put the last nail in the coffin of Shia women's human rights.

NATO and the UN desperately want to succeed in this mission. If they do - somehow, despite the very reality that the situation has continued to deteriorate, and security is more problematical than ever - manage to succeed, it will represent the first time in a long, sordid and sad history of the country where foreign intervention in an ageless culture has overturned their heritage.

This is not a cheerful story. It is the young soldiers of the many countries involved in trying to save Afghanistan from itself who pay the price of both failure and success. There may never be a palatable ending.