Bush just wants to get the boys home

Ramtanu Maitra examines Afghanistan's "road map" to stability in today's Asia Times.

In the past few weeks, neocon bagman and oil kingpin Zalmay Khalilzad has been put in charge of accelerating reconstruction in the war-torn nation, hoping to usher in nationwide elections by the summer of 2004.

What's the rush? Why the summer of 2004? Well, according to Maitra,

Because then Bush would be in a position to declare the attainment of America's minimum objective in Afghanistan - removal of the Taliban and the ushering in of "democracy" in the form of a fair poll. Bush can then bring back some of the 12,000 American troops now risking their lives in Afghanistan every hour of the day. That, says the re-election crowd and their hangers-on, would push the president up a few notches in opinion polls.

The article makes it clear that Afghanistan is close to descending into chaos, once again. The authority of the Karzai government is being challenged from multiple angles -- from northern warlords, resurgent Taliban in the south, and Pakistani tampering from the east. Khalilzad has been entrusted with cobbling together some kind of coalition, including "good Taliban," that will keep Afghanistan's central government propped up until the elections. The US will then cut and run after announcing a formal transition to democracy. The driving factor in all of this, of course, is not what's in the best interests of Afghans, but what's in the best interests of George W. Bush's re-election campaign.

As we all know, the Bush administration touts "lessons learned" from 9/11 at every opportunity. But perhaps the most pertinent lesson of that day, the danger of treating Afghanistan like a political football, is clearly not one of them.