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After sustaining a bombing campaign that has torn through the
heart of the Taliban regime and forced its leaders to flee from the
Afghan capital of Kabul, the United States and the United Nations
must now pursue the next step in the fight against terrorism. The
power vacuum the Taliban has left behind is now occupied by the
Afghan Northern Alliance ““ and Afghanistan is no better for
it.
While the U.N. has worked with the Northern Alliance in a
strategic partnership to overthrow the Taliban regime, it should be
wary of Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani’s claim
to the presidency ““ a position he lost when the Taliban took
power in 1996. The Northern Alliance does not represent the beliefs
of a majority of citizens in Afghanistan and would serve only a
select group of Afghan citizens.
Luckily, the U.N. has the opportunity to change this.
A top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, is meeting
with the alliance leader and other Afghan factions in Berlin next
Monday to discuss power-sharing among the regimes desiring power in
Afghanistan. To avoid civil unrest, the U.N. must first create an
interim governing body that represents Afghanistan’s many
ethnicities and ideologies.
The purpose of this interim government should be to provide
economic stability in Afghanistan by helping rebuild its
dilapidated infrastructure ““ this includes restoring roads,
airports, hospitals, homes and schools. Establishing this economic
foundation will help pave the way for establishing a permanent
democratic government that will create specific policies and laws
according to the needs of Afghanistan’s diverse population.
Reaching a consensus on civil rights and liberties for Afghanistan
will be difficult, and attempting to do this before the country is
economically and politically stable would be disastrous. Letting
the interim government work will allow the country’s
political and ethnic factions to learn to work together and would
make time for Afghan citizens to rethink government and politics in
a post-Taliban era.
A rebuilding project of this scale will require significant
financial aid the U.S. must provide. Those who will argue that
granting financial aid to Afghanistan would present a large burden
on an already weakened American economy are short-sighted. The war
on terrorism doesn’t stop when the last bombs explode over
enemy strongholds. Combatting terrorism requires establishing a
stable country where terrorists cannot rise to power via corrupt
regimes and intimidation. The nation-building that Afghanistan must
undergo is integral to international safety and domestic
integrity.
Without the watchful eye of the U.N. overseeing an interim
governing body and the eventual and long transition to democracy,
Afghan citizens would be vulnerable to slanted political views and
propaganda by Taliban-like leaders that could hinder the progress
toward stability. U.S. and U.N. oversight would also ensure
financial or material aid is directed toward the citizens, reaching
them instead of being thwarted by a corrupt ruling government.
When the country is stable enough to operate on its own accord
in a democratic manner, the U.S. and the U.N. can pull out, but not
a moment sooner.