Forgotten But Not Gone

Afghanistan remains a country of significant U.S. involvement without receiving the critical coverage typical of American action in the Middle East. In actuality, the fledgling nation is transforming into arguably the only successful example of a democratizing country attributable to the Bush administration.

Due to the 9/11 backlash, the war with Afghanistan began with relatively strong public support in October of 2001. Kabul fell by November 2001, effectively destroying the Taliban base of operations, though not eliminating the group in its entirety.

By January of 2004, Afghanistan’s first constitution was drafted and officially approved; the first national democratic presidential election followed shortly after in October 2004. In ground-breaking numbers, 8 million Afghanis voted out of 10 million registered and 41% of these voters were women. As of November 2007, 70,000 soldiers were prepared for the Afghanistan National Army (ANA), and 79,000 police—both border and city—were trained.

General David Rodriguez, the commander of Combined Joint Force in Afghanistan, reported in April 2008 the following in a news update to the Department of Defense (DOD):

“Afghanistan is especially pleased with its progress in education. Of course, during the Taliban era there were about 1,000 schools. Today there are about 9,000 and that number is growing daily. Remember there were no girls allowed to attend school in the Taliban era, but about 70 percent of the girls here in Regional Command East have access to state-run education, at about 97 percent, a dramatic increase in the last six years. Along with that, the number of teachers has grown some 800 percent since the Taliban era, from 20,000 to about 160,000. Access to basic health care has grown from the 8 percent to 78 percent of the population, and the Afghan government is steadily building the capacity of the Afghans to provide their own health care. And a product of that growth is a 25 percent reduction in the infant mortality rate, saving some 89,000 young lives…Everything we’re doing to support our Afghan, ISAF and coalition partners is to support building a stable, economically sustainable Afghanistan, with a representative government that leads its people and secures its territory… You will continue to see steady progress towards a stable nation.”

Yet what is the price tag of this progress for the U.S.? A Congressional Report updated in April 2008 on the cost of Afghanistan war states the following:

“…Afghanistan has received about $140 billion in appropriations for DOD, foreign and diplomatic operations, and VA medical. In recent years, funding for Afghanistan was about $20 billion annually but is slated to jump by 75% to about 35 billion…”

America committed over $12 billion from 2001 to 2006 specifically for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, and international donors pledged about $8.2 billion to cover 2004 through 2007. The majority of the $140 billion tab has resulted from U.S. military costs, though the U.S. is not the only country with a significant troop presence in the country. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is a UN-regulated militia composed of troops from over 40 countries assigned to rebuilding Afghanistan and maintaining its domestic security; some of its major contributors include Germany, Canada, Belgium, France, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The U.S. already has 28,000 troops in Afghanistan, and is deploying about 3,200 Marines to join the effort throughout the latter half of 2008. A little over 500 U.S. soldiers have been killed over the eight year span of the conflict, and about 300 casualties from the ISAF countries have been recorded as well.

Work on Afghanistan is far from complete, as the country is still wrestling with major issues prohibiting its independence from foreign aid and troops. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports that “80-90% of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghan opium,” and the developing country is the world’s largest opium producer. The unparalleled drug production in Afghanistan ensures a level of corruption and racketeering that stalls the development of legitimate enterprises in the country. Also of increasing concern is the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, as the tension between the two countries fluctuates with regional current events. The Taliban, while crippled significantly, still encourage extremist attacks on the international troops, and an increase in violence has been recorded over the past year.

While Afghanistan has progressed from a terrorist-controlled country to a legitimate democracy throughout the span of the war, the U.S. and ISAF troops still play too crucial a role in the stability of the fledgling nation to seriously consider significant reductions in troops or aid.

Rachel Paulk is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.