US fails to factor resentment over presence

The Taliban has been quick to claim responsibility for the suicide bombing in Kabul's famed Chicken Street, one stop-shop for carpets, jewellery and antiques and a magnet for all foreigners who visit the Afghan capital.

Whether the Taliban is indeed responsible or whether, this, like the almost daily rocket attacks are a bid to rattle the confidence of US led troops by opposition militia, or even if it is a dastardly plot by the US to ensure they stay on, is open to debate.

The attack, which comes days after landmark presidential elections passed off peacefully, is however the second such attack in as many weeks.

The first, days before the elections was an obvious American target the office cum residence of US security firm Dynacorp in Shar-e-Naw, in the heart of the city, which killed three Americans and a number of bystanders. Dynacorp was brought in to train police and security officials ahead of Afghanistan's first democratic election.

The second indicates how little US Army personnel and other foreigners have learnt from their three years in this deeply conservative nation. The women, soldiers and officials, are decorously covered. But most days in this garrison town, heavily armed soldiers stand guard on the street as senior officers shop inside or eat at Kabul's many new restaurants and nightclubs.

Clearly, they are supremely unaware of the effect they have on the once proud Afghans; or that their highly visible presence makes them vulnerable to the radical elements that feed off the resentment bubbling under the surface. It's a resentment that stems from the simple but age-old bitterness that have-nots feel for the haves.

Despite the construction boom, poverty is still rampant. It has driven the poor and the war victims - many of them women and children - to the streets.

They hover like flies around the juice bars and kebab stalls that dot Kabul. They crowd at intersections, around the new four wheel drives that belong to Kabul's elite.

But the resentment may also have something to do with the Afghans' sense of pride, severely dented over the perception that despite having worsted the powerful Soviets, they are still being dictated to by an American master.

Most educated Afghans who voted overwhelmingly for Hamid Karzai know that without the international community on their side, the barbaric Taliban would have been beating down their door.

Given the two consecutive suicide attacks, they don't seem that far away. And yes, the educated Afghans, mainly centred in Kabul, do not speak for all of Afghanistan.

Yet, in the outlying towns of Kandahar and Jalalabad where the Taliban continue to have a muted presence, there is also the view that the international community is a godsend and that a vote against Karzai, would send the troops away and halt the much needed reconstruction of their war torn country. Afghans are war-weary and do not want a reprise of the nightmare they have emerged from, after 23 years of fighting and bloodshed.

Unlike Iraq, where Iraqis are determined to oust the usurpers, most Afghans are deeply reluctant to take up the gun. In the last three years, they have savoured the peace that the interim government led by Karzai has brought.

Balancing this, with the view that finds favour with the line that Taliban fundamentalists fiercely propound - foreigners in their homeland are unacceptable - is the key for any future strategy for a foreign troops presence.

Especially, as the US interest in Afghanistan, despite the Iraq distraction, is unlikely to diminish. While Washington has over time severly diminshed its intellligence gathering, the US is set on setting up a permanent military base in this strategically placed nation, only hours from trouble spots in the east and west.