Here in the cradle of the Taliban movement, Faizulhaq Mushkani sold his land for $600,000 last year to buy equipment to open a packaging factory in a booming industrial park.
The industrial park””powered by military-run electrical generators””is a pillar of the U.S. strategy against the Afghan insurgency. The arrival of reliable electricity in late 2010 revitalized Kandahar. More than 100 new factories have sprouted.
These days, however, Mr. Mushkani and fellow entrepreneurs are grappling with a fatal flaw in their business plans: They expected the Americans to stick around longer. But, now, with U.S. forces preparing to depart Kandahar next year, the American electricity will disappear, too.
What are the Afghan’s, who fear Taliban domination, doing to blunt and possibly defeat the Taliban’s forcess and organizational infrastructure?
After all Afghanistan is their country and their future as Afghanis lies in Afghanistan.
We can’t be ruthless, because of our moral code and because we are foreigners in their coutry, but the anti-Taliban Afghanis can make the lives of the murderous Taliban ‘hell on earth.’
I think that the anti-Taliban Afghanis lack the misson-oriented cohesiveness and the moral/physical courage to really ‘take on’ the Taliban using the terms of combat that have been established by the Taliban.
Their situation is understandable, but it’s inevitable that the Taliban will try to undermine their efforts and seize control once US forces leave. That’s why international support for the Afghanis is so important.