Bypassing the Karzai problem
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MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan — Is there any way to get around Afghan President Hamid Karzai?
This question dominates the U. S. debate as President Obama prepares to announce his long-delayed Afghan strategy. Many think Karzai’s flaws will undermine the entire NATO effort. But there is a way to circumvent the Karzai problem: a bottom-up strategy that deals more directly with effective governors and ministry officials in troubled provinces.
I spent two days in Wardak, a strategically important province west of Kabul, where a substantial Taliban presence was pushed back by more U. S. troops working with an effective governor, Halim Fidai. What I saw in Wardak proves progress can be made despite problematic leadership in Kabul.
A year ago, the Taliban was rocketing Wardak’s capital city, Maidan Shahr, and controlled key roads and many districts within the province. On this trip I drove with Gov. Fidai along the Jalrez valley road, lined with apple and apricot orchards below snow-capped mountains. Roadside bazaars teemed with people, who said the Taliban no longer were a presence. What changed?
• More U. S. forces. A crucial infusion of additional troops helped clear Taliban from many districts of Wardak, although roadside explosives remain a serious problem.
• Governance. The hold-and-build part of any effort to push back insurgents depends on the ability of government to connect with the people. Fidai is constantly in motion, listening to local grievances in his office, traveling to outlying districts.
Fidai brought electricity to Maidan Shahr; this in turn encouraged local merchants to invest in rows of shops near his office, with sidewalks, built with small U. S. grants, that enable shoppers to avoid wallowing through mud. With the help of some forward-looking Afghan officials in Kabul and U. S. aid funds, Fidai has introduced indirectly elected district councils to his province. It’s crucial for local villagers to feel that government officials respond to their problems. That can help reverse Taliban gains.
• Economic progress feeds security and vice versa. A road was delayed for two years for security reasons; when construction restarted, tribal elders demanded that the Taliban — who are behind the mountains on one side of the valley — not interfere with the road workers. Once villagers were given an economic benefit, they wanted to protect it.
• The “build” piece should be local. USAID has two staffers at the U. S. military base here, and they have good ideas about water projects and helping farmers market their apples. But delivery of promised U. S. civilian aid is still too slow, creating mistrust, and still too dependent on costly international contractors. The biggest, fastest bang for the development buck will come from helping Afghans help themselves.
• Local security helps keep the peace. The controversial Afghan Public Protection force, the AP3, is recruited by local elders, paid by the Afghan Interior Ministry and trained by U. S. forces as a transitional force meant to watch for outsiders. Fidai says that “where there are AP3 there are no IEDs,” because locals are more willing to give intelligence tips to homeboys. Local forms of security emerge once an area is cleared and villagers have something to protect.
In sum, an effective governor can be the pivot point for Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s strategy of “clear, hold and build.” But governors are appointed by Karzai. So this bottom-up strategy requires persuading the Afghan president to appoint good governors and ministers, rather than warlords to whom he’s politically indebted.
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