KABUL: One of the world’s most complex and xenophobic people, Afghans do not normally agree on much, including the presence of US-led forces in their country.
But they have been united by a collective fear of new turmoil if the international community turns its sights elsewhere as the United States prepares for a war against Iraq.
The big fear is the battered nation will again descend into civil war, fractured along ethnic lines as it was in the 1990s when the United States washed its hands of Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviet empire.
Many of the factions which fought each other then still control territory and some have clashed since the US military and its Western allies came to Afghanistan in late 2001 and drove from power the Taliban and their Al Qaeda network allies.
The United States has promised Afghanistan a broad-based democratic government, new infrastructure and that the impoverished, war-ravaged nation will not be abandoned again.
“The Americans have lots of unfinished business here to complete,” said Timoor Shah, a building contractor. “Why are they going to war against Iraq when they have not sorted out problems here like lack of security, the most important thing for us?
“There is a potential threat from lots of groups to security and I am perhaps like other people here afraid of the situation if an attack begins on Iraq,” he said, sipping tea in a small restaurant, a common spot for Afghans to swap gossip and news.
FEAR OF OBLIVION: People sitting huddled nearby nodded in agreement.
“If we don’t have security, as is the case in several parts of the country, then reconstruction may not take place,” said Nadeem, a bookseller. “I don’t have much hope about the situation improving. I feel we will go again into oblivion.
“The Americans will keep saying they will not desert us again, but in reality the attention will shift to Iraq and we may end up seeing fighting between commanders here and there.
“You don’t see much sign of reconstruction activity here now and if war starts and finishes in Iraq, then the focus of rebuilding will shift there.”
The United States has repeatedly said it is committed to rebuilding Afghanistan despite its pre-occupation with Iraq, North Korea and other trouble spots.
Besides the spectre of new fighting among unruly commanders, the remnants of the ousted Taliban and Al Qaeda and supporters of the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar could also resort to sabotage if war breaks out in Iraq, international peacekeepers say.
Taliban and Hekmatyar followers are blamed for several rocket and bomb attacks on coalition forces and other targets in Afghanistan over the past 16 months.
Those include an attempt to kill President Hamid Karzai in the southern city of Kandahar and a bomb blast in Kabul that killed 26 and wounded about 150.—Reuters
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