Author:
Publication: The New York Times
Date: January 20, 2004
Afghanistan has a fine new constitution,
but for most of its people, security remains the foremost concern. Debates
about the intricacies of civil versus Islamic law or the division of powers
between the central and provincial governments seem secondary when people
are afraid to sow their fields or transport their crops to market. Setting
the stage for something like normal life in Afghanistan will require sustained
military help and training from American and NATO military forces. It will
also require stronger efforts by Pakistan to support Afghanistan's government
and to prevent Taliban forces from crossing the border.
Despite the presence of more than
10,000 American troops and nearly 6,000 international peacekeepers in Afghanistan,
warlord armies, criminal bandits, drug traffickers and resurgent Taliban
make travel perilous and threaten people in their homes and villages. The
danger is greatest in the provinces along the border with Pakistan. On
the Pakistani side of that border, local inhabitants and governments sympathetic
to the Taliban, and some sympathetic military officers as well, have permitted
the virtually unchecked recruitment of Taliban fighters and their infiltration
into Afghanistan.
The Taliban virtually began as a
creation of Pakistan's military intelligence services and have long benefited
from support among the Pashtun ethnic group, which spans both sides of
the border. In response to pleas from Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, cut off
all official ties with Taliban leaders and aided American efforts to oust
them from power in Kabul. That rupture was courageous and welcome. But
it should have been more complete. Local governments along the Afghan border
continue to provide the Taliban with valuable sanctuaries.
Pakistan's ambiguous relationship
with the Taliban is in keeping with the larger pattern that General Musharraf
has followed during most of the past two years, on issues from Afghanistan
to Kashmir and domestic Islamic extremism. Rather than following through
on his promises to break cleanly with all forms of violent Islamic radicalism,
he has moved selectively and equivocally, hoping to keep his opposition
off balance. Instead, the various Islamist radical groups have coalesced
into the greatest threat to his regime and his life.
In response, Mr. Musharraf has begun
to stiffen his denunciations of all forms of Islamic terrorism. He now
acknowledges the security problem in the border areas. Although he minimizes
the involvement of local political and military authorities, he promises
an imminent crackdown. And last week, he sent his prime minister to meet
with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai - the highest-level Pakistani
visit to Kabul since the Taliban government fell. By following up this
visit with strong and effective measures against the Taliban, General Musharraf
can contribute to a more secure future not just for Afghanistan, but for
Pakistan as well.