November 04, 2008	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 5, 1429

KABUL: The newly-constructed American University of Afghanistan was supposed to herald a new era in Afghan-American relations. Instead, its affluent students are regular targets for attack and attempted kidnappings in an increasingly unstable Kabul. Some now believe foreign forces should leave and the Taliban come back into government.

“I think we have almost reached the point of no return. There are no good solutions left,” said Ali Padsha, 19, who was raised in America. “The longer foreign forces stay, the more problems will be created. When we [Afghans] see foreign forces in our country, it makes us crazy, it always has.

“The new Taliban are smarter than before and not as hardcore. They know what to do to keep the people happy.”

Seven years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the situation is deteriorating rapidly. “The rivers are running backwards,” has become a popular lament in Kabul, whose residents are now looking to a change of leadership in America as the starting point for change in Afghanistan.

Afghans generally favour Barack Obama. Some like him because he is the son of a Muslim, affectionately referring to him as Hussein Jan, adding Jan (an Afghan term of endearment) to his middle name. Many educated Afghans believe he has a more nuanced understanding of the regional predicament and support his plans to get tough with Pakistan. But others are cynical, seeing no difference between the candidates and viewing both men’s commitment to sending more troops with hostility.

Afghans face elections next year and are aware that the new American leader will play a defining role in determining who will be the next Afghan president.

“Whoever takes over America must bring a new leadership to Afghanistan,” says Fahim Dashti, the editor of the popular Kabul Weekly. The victor will also have to work to counter the country’s rampant anti-Americanism.

“The US has failed on everything they said they would do,” says Dashti, a popular and influential thinker who fought with the Northern Alliance supported by America to drive out the Taliban in 2001.

“They said they were going to get rid of the Taliban – now the Taliban are at the edges of the city and even operating inside Kabul itself. They said they were going to end opium production but there is more opium than ever being produced. They said they were going to bring democracy but what we have is more like a dictatorship. Most people live beneath the poverty line and there is mass unemployment.”

Ali and his university friends are sympathetic to the incoming president. “I feel bad for whoever wins this election,” he said. “They are going to have a really hard job cleaning up the mess left by the previous administration.”—Dawn/Guardian News Service