Afghanistan: The eternal quagmire...

The British were chased out in the 19th Century, the Russians were marred by it in the 20th, and now the forces of NATO are struggling with this perenially failed state in the post-9/11 world. Many factors are at play in the current conflict, the most important of which to Canadians is our role in this widening conflict.

Is the Canadian military aiding in assisting the fledgling Afghan democracy of Pashtun patriarch Hamid Karzai put down a reactionary and fundamentalist insurgency or are we simply playing poodle to American forces intent on guarding oil interests in the nation?

It's a difficult question, and the reputation and perhaps survival of the United Nations and the NATO alliance hang in the balance as our men and women keep coming home in flag-draped coffins.

The current regional situation makes the war unwinnable for NATO as it is being faught now. Operation Medusa may have resulted in the deaths of over 500 Taliban insurgents. But those that survived simply retreated across the porous Pakistani border into the tribal regions of that country. Taliban recruits are pouring out of the Madrassas of Pakistan everyday and the insurgency can rely on this reserve only to grow with disaffected Muslim youth seeing the fight as a chance to do what they can against expanding American imperialism. Certain reactionary charity organisations across the arab world (most notably in Saudi Arabia) keep the Taliban in guns and ammo out of their fat coffers.

The leaders of these Arab nations face a dangerous paradox. Both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are attempting to stay true to alliances with the Americans while desperately trying to reign in the growing Islamic radicalism within their own borders through policies of apeasement. With these reactionary elements left to their own devices, NATO and Canada could be looking at a very long and dirty war in Afghanistan.

One of the prime reasons for the rise of the Taliban insurgency has been the lack of economic development in the country since the original invasion of the Americans. At the time, the nations of the West lined up to donate huge amounts to adi in the reconstruction of the nation. Much of this has stalled and farmers have again taken to opium production as a means of survival. Thus the Taliban has another source of funds with which to wage their war.

One of the primary weapons the Taliban used in their war against Ahmed Shah Massoud and the Northern Alliance was money. Many of Massoud's allies were turned to the Taliban side with bribes.

The Pashtuns of the Kandahar region are no immediate fans of the Taliban who assasinated one of their Patriarch's (Karzai's father) when he had the tenacity to suggest in a letter that they were destroying Afghanistan with their wars and religious tenets. This weapon can be used against them. The allegiance of the Pashtuns, on which the surivival of Afghanistan depends, can be bought as it has shown in the past.

Of course, much more than this is needed on a regional level. Anti-American sentiment fuels the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and provides recruits for the insurgency money or no money. As this drama plays out, we can do little but sit back and watch.