The other day the United Nations announced that their security force shall stay in Afghanistan for another six months. But it will not step out of the city of Kabul. And this, when Hamid Kerzai had asked for more involvement of UN member countries in Afghanistan and the despatch of additional forces to keep peace in other parts of the country.

We have heard already of fighting in Paktia and Paktika provinces between warlords and between warlords and the legitimate forces of Hamid Kerzai's government. We have heard almost nothing of the US forces making any attempt to stop such actions. And the UN, too, clearly does not want to help the government in Kabul to stop people fighting eachother. Kerzai does not have the means of raising an army to successfully accomplish such a goal.

Was this what the US promise to rebuild Afghanistan and recreate Afghanistan after almost a quarter century of destruction by the enemies of Afghanistan and by the Afghans themselves due to the greed of some people for self-aggrandizement? Does the U S want the continuation of the breakdown of the Afghan nation into dozens of minute rulers which perhaps existed as feudal states a thousand years ago?

And now there is yet another war going on in the north. This one seemingly between Burhanuddin Rabbani's Jami'at Party (led by General Fahim, a Party leader -- Not the Defense Minister of the Kerzai Government-- and Rashid Dostum, a Gilam Jam leader --Not the Deputy Defense Minister of the Kerzai Government. Dostum wants the expansion of the territory in northern Afghanistan under his control and is fighting to get more towns and villages, formerly under Rabbani control. Should Dostum not be in Kabul, and deal with the serious issue of creating and training an army for the Government of Afghanistan? Does he care that the Americans have started training some 200+soldiers and officers for such a purpose? If that is what the Americans have done, does he --and for that matter, does General Fahim --think that is sufficient for the entire country? Is a group of 200, or even 2,000. or even twenty thousand sufficient to keep peace all over Afghanistan and stop feudal lords from cutting slices of the country for themselves?

When are we going to wake up? When do we learn that Afghanistan is the land of the Afghan nation and that we are all Afghans first and sundry tribes second? Do we know that only our enemies can benefit from our breakdown?

Ex-King Mohammad Zahir is in Kabul with the intention of inaugurating the Loya Jirga which may have the duty of accepting a new government for Afghanistan for the next eithteen months. The expectation is that such a Jirga will convene and reach an agreeable decision sometime in the latter half of June or early in July. If right now there is fighting going on in different parts of the country, can anyone guarantee that the Loya Jirga will be able to get together and do the job that the former King and the current temporary government expect of it? Who is to ensure that right now there are no secret groupings busily creating more pseudo-feudal governments in other parts of the country?

Any fair-thinking person would admit that the future of Afghanistan is in the hands of the Afghan nation alone. No other power, friendly or otherwise, can bring us peace. America is there pursuing its own objective and will leave the country when that goal is achieved. America may help us rebuild what our enemies have destroyed but only if we prove to them and the members of the UN that we will have a responsible government and a unified nation to receive such help and use it for all the Afghan nation of tomorrow. The reconstruction will not be a job that will start one day and will finish the next. It will take years and will require a lot of hard and conscientious work of all segments of the Afghan nation to bring us back to what we had in the late seventies. But by then the rest of the world would have gone far ahead and we might still be following the march of civilization from a long distance behind everyone else.

Hamid Kerzai is one leader. His government is facing a thousand and one problem in the days and weeks ahead. It is still time to give him a sincere hand in his effort to bring some vestiges of peace to carry on his duties of unification of the country in time to hand the reign of service for the nation to the next government. Let Rabbanis, Fahims, Dostums and any others stop thinking about themselves and believe in the Afghan nation and join hands leading it to a condition it rightfully deserves-- PEACE AND PROSPERITY. 05/24/2002