International Herald Tribune Editorial - A bad model for Afghanistan

International Herald Tribune Editorial - A bad model for Afghanistan
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: February 4, 2007


There is no question that Afghanistan needs to wage a far more effective fight against opium trafficking if it ever hopes to achieve a stable peace. But Colombia — another U.S. ally whose narcotics trade is helping finance a lethal insurgency — is not the model to follow.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what America's top-ranking military officer, General Peter Pace, recently called for, after the nomination of Washington's current ambassador in Bogotá, William Wood, to be the new American ambassador in Kabul.

The limited gains Colombia has achieved in recent years have been offset by an overly generous amnesty program for right-wing paramilitary leaders and drug traffickers, which has seriously compromised the rule of law. And U.S. aid has been disproportionately directed into military and police programs, leaving far too little to promote alternative livelihoods for Colombia's farmers. Despite all the money spent, the amount of land planted with coca crops has risen. Afghanistan's problems will not be solved by copying these mistakes.

Last year Afghanistan produced 90 percent of the world's opium — a rise of almost 50 percent from the year before. The exploding drug trade is not just a problem for Europe, where most of the heroin produced from that opium ends up. It is a major destabilizing force inside Afghanistan.

Drug money is fueling corruption, financing warlords and adding to a disillusionment with President Hamid Karzai's government.

Most of the U.S. aid since 2001 has gone into security programs and short-term relief and reconstruction, not the long-term development on which lasting security depends. This has left Afghan farmers prey to drug traffickers who often supply the only credit available, with repayment expected in opium poppies.

And with no visible help coming from Kabul or Washington toward alleviating poverty, people in Afghanistan's southern provinces are beginning to look favorably toward a resurgent Taliban.

The significantly increased U.S. aid package announced last month needs to focus more on development. Wood needs to bring a different set of priorities to Afghanistan, not simply repeat the mistakes Washington has made in Colombia.