Friday is the 15th anniversary of the United States’ and United Kingdom’s Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and it is a suitable, if sombre vantage point from which to consider America and Nato’s longest war. What did the blood and treasure of nearly two dozen countries buy Afghanistan and the world?
This is a grim week to ask the question. Taliban fighters have been making a spirited attempt to take Kunduz, almost exactly a year after they briefly overran the strategically important city in northern Afghanistan. A major conference in Brussels has wearily considered how best to support Afghanistan, even as the international community struggles to find resources for other urgent matters, not least Syria’s suffering and the worst migration crisis since the Second World War.
Worst of all, the Kunduz firefight and the city’s apparent susceptibility to the Taliban seems to prove an argument newly being made by some governments – that Afghanistan really is a basket case and that president Ashraf Ghani’s government has failed to govern for its people, build a constituency for peace and prove it can be trusted with still more monetary and military aid.
At the United Nations General Assembly last month, New Zealand’s foreign minister Murray McCully was cutting and direct. Describing the failures of Mr Ghani’s administration as “profoundly concerning”, he rebuked the president and his chief executive officer Abdullah Abdullah for their “dysfunctional” relationship. Two years after their government took charge, he complained, the government “has yet to fill senior positions”. Promised reforms for improving governance and tackling corruption have “yet to be even seriously discussed, let alone implemented”, he added. And in a sign that he feared the future would be like Afghanistan’s irredeemable recent past, Mr McCully pointed out that the lack of necessary electoral reforms prevented parliamentary elections and sowed “the seeds of future electoral disputes and instability”. He meant the political agreement that created Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah’s power-sharing national unity government. It was meant to enable parliamentary elections.
The fulminations have continued with the Bulgarian prime minister Boiko Borissov suggesting that his country might end its military presence in Afghanistan because it had been “there for a long time” and there was little to show for its efforts.
At least part of Bulgaria’s irritation with Afghanistan appears to be caused by the ceaseless influx of undocumented Afghan migrants, a disproportionately high number this year, along with Iraqis and Syrians. “We are there [in Afghanistan] to impose peace and democracy,” Mr Borissov argued. “If people run away from that, it’s better for that money and military to be redirected to our border.”
Both New Zealand and Bulgaria have the right to criticise. They were early and enthusiastic members of the coalition that set about nation-building in Afghanistan. But they are not alone in their growing impatience. Although the world recognises that Afghanistan has suffered greatly, having been wracked by war, civil conflict and extremism for most of the past 40 years, the exasperation centres on its apparent inability – or unwillingness – to pull together, provide opportunities for its people and prevent their haemorrhaging out.
Ahead of its two-day aid summit in Brussels, the European Union was forced to deny a newspaper report that the financial support would be “migration sensitive”, which is to say Afghanistan must agree to take back 80,000 deportees in order not to lose billions of dollars.
Even Pakistan, which has hosted hundreds of thousands of displaced Afghans since the 1979 Soviet invasion, is efficiently supervising their expedient departure. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration say that 620,000 Afghans – those registered in Pakistan, as well those who’re not – will have returned to their fractious country by year-end.
What does the new international despondency about Afghanistan add up to? In real terms, a lot of new people for the Afghan government to look after even as the snows of winter come closer by the day. But it is manifestly unable to do so, which means those returning will not only face inevitable adjustment problems and harsh weather. They will also have to grapple with the worsening security situation. Afghanistan’s growing instability is at least part of the reason Afghans make up the second largest group of migrants arriving in Europe. Taliban attacks are on the rise. If the group’s briefly successful 2015 push into Kunduz was a milestone – the first urban centre to fall to it since the 2001 collapse of the Taliban regime – this year’s fighting betrays a decided self-confidence. The reasons for this are the very ones that make the wider world doleful about helping Afghanistan when it seems unable to help itself.
It’s often been said of Kunduz province, which the US military left in 2013, that it represents “failure by design”. Corruption has flourished to the point that governance seems a black fiction and most people’s only expectation is of inequity and injustice. The special inspector general for Afghan Reconstruction, the US government’s leading oversight authority on money allocated for Afghanistan, recently said that “endemic corruption poses an existential threat … by fuelling grievances against the Afghan government and channelling material support to the insurgency”.
So the fight for Kunduz may seem more significant than a Taliban attempt to reassert itself. To a watching world, it looks like Afghanistan’s future. It is an understandable fear.
Rashmee Roshan Lall is a writer on world affairs
On Twitter: @rashmeerl
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
Other simple ideas for sushi rice dishes
Cheat’s nigiri
This is easier to make than sushi rolls. With damp hands, form the cooled rice into small tablet shapes. Place slices of fresh, raw salmon, mackerel or trout (or smoked salmon) lightly touched with wasabi, then press, wasabi side-down, onto the rice. Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.
Easy omurice
This fusion dish combines Asian fried rice with a western omelette. To make, fry cooked and cooled sushi rice with chopped vegetables such as carrot and onion and lashings of sweet-tangy ketchup, then wrap in a soft egg omelette.
Deconstructed sushi salad platter
This makes a great, fuss-free sharing meal. Arrange sushi rice on a platter or board, then fill the space with all your favourite sushi ingredients (edamame beans, cooked prawns or tuna, tempura veggies, pickled ginger and chilli tofu), with a dressing or dipping sauce on the side.
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EMIRATES'S%20REVISED%20A350%20DEPLOYMENT%20SCHEDULE
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BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
The%20Roundup%20%3A%20No%20Way%20Out
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
The%20Continental%3A%20From%20the%20World%20of%20John%20Wick%20
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The%20specs
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Fifa Club World Cup:
When: December 6-16
Where: Games to take place at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi and Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain
Defending champions: Real Madrid
UAE'S%20YOUNG%20GUNS
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now