Beset by war, beleagured by poverty

from the CBC

Great analysis from the CBC here on Afghanistan. Canada still has many troops still in the country. Most of the write up is about politics, and that can be reached by the link below. - Kale

War, insecurity, poverty.

These are the hallmarks of life in today's Afghanistan. But they're also the dominant themes of the country's recent history despite billions of dollars in aid and military spending by Canada, the United States, Britain and other countries.

The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 toppled the repressive and unpopular Taliban regime that had given sanctuary to al-Qaeda.

Aerial bombing and soldiers' boots on the ground were part of another mission, though. They were supposed to secure the countryside so humanitarian work and economic development could take place.

So far, that hasn't happened, and statistics tell a grim story of problems that just won't go away.

Start with poverty. According to the United Nations, Afghanistan ranks 174th out of 178 countries on the Human Development Index, a ranking that mixes per capita income with public health statistics, crime rates and other indicators.

Out of every 1,000 babies born in Afghanistan, 142 die before reaching their first birthday. A woman dies in pregnancy every 30 minutes. Overall life expectancy is estimated at just under 42.5 years.

Afghans scrape by on about $1,000 per year. That's an average. More than half of the population earns less than $2 a day.

Most of those statistics are an improvement from 2002, but there's a long way to go. The task of reconstruction isn't made any easier by the persistence of violence and insecurity.
Hunger, malnutrition plague millions

While the per capita annual income of Afghans has gone up since 2002, nearly seven million people don't have enough food to meet minimum daily needs. That's about a quarter of the population.

The grim toll taken by malaria and tuberculosis has dropped considerably in the past six years, but Afghanistan is still beset by infectious and preventable diseases.

Perhaps most ominously of all, the opium trade has become far and away the most important economic activity in the country, worth more than $3 billion in 2007. That's about a third of the gross domestic product and a huge distortion of attempts to build a modern, legal, inclusive economy.

Part of the problem is geography.

Afghanistan is landlocked, bordered by Pakistan, Iran, China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Only 12 per cent of its territory is arable land.

Almost all imports and exports must flow through neighbouring countries, and that leaves Afghans more vulnerable to regional geopolitics than many other countries.

Pakistan, for example, is far and away the largest trading partner, and its own challenges with poverty and instability frequently spill over into Afghan life.

Most Afghans feel that Pakistan's governments and shadowy military intelligence agencies take far too active a role in their country's affairs.
At the whims of history's empires

Throughout its history, Afghanistan has been subject to the whims of global and regional superpowers.

In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires jockeyed for control and influence over the fractious tribes between the Hindu Kush mountains and the Oxus River (now known as Amu Darya).

Neither were successful. In fact, Britain had to pull back from a disastrous attempt to install a new king on the Afghan throne in the 1840s, losing 15,000 soldiers to snipers and guerrilla attacks during its retreat from Kabul.

A 20th-century imperial force, the Soviet Union's Red Army, invaded in 1979 to prop up a faltering Communist regime and stem the influence of militant Islam on the mainly Muslim Soviet Central Asian republics along Afghanistan's borders.

That, too, failed spectacularly, although it took 10 years of brutal occupation and billions of dollars in aid, training and military support from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States for anti-Communist mujahedeen guerrillas to force Soviet troops to pull out in 1989.

That war gave rise to the world's worst refugee crisis; more than five million Afghans left their country, and half of them have yet to return.

It was also fertile ground for Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Taliban movement.

Each emerged from the wreckage and devastation of a civil war among mujahedeen factions that refused to share power. Their fighting impoverished and isolated their country even more than the Soviet occupation.

Link to full article. May expire in future.