LAGHMAN // For the men of Laghman, the new US president has his priorities all wrong. Instead of sending more troops to Afghanistan, Barack Obama should urgently be trying to rebuild this country's crippled economy. "In this part of the world, no one wants Americans to be here because they are not here to help, they are here for shooting practice," said Mohammed Arif, 32, a labourer. Lying on Kabul's eastern border, Laghman may turn out to be crucial if Afghanistan is to be pulled back from the brink of disaster. Relatively stable until now, discontent is growing in the province and the Taliban are taking advantage of the situation.
People here do not want 30,000 more US soldiers poured into a country that has known nothing but war for generations. That, they say, will only create more unrest and swell the ranks of the insurgency. "Many times the Americans have targeted poor shepherds. They have killed hundreds of innocent people," Mr Arif said. Instead of a surge, the men of Laghman simply want the chance to earn a decent living. Poverty is endemic in Afghanistan and nowhere is that more evident than in the country's rural areas, which are largely ignored by the international community and the Afghan government.
Here in Laghman, the price of flour has nearly trebled in the past three years, yet the economy has stagnated. There are no real signs of reconstruction and development, even in the provincial capital. "Afghans are always a target for others and it is the poor people, civilians, who suffer the most at the hands of American guns and bombs," Mr Arif said. Despite his long-standing opposition to the war in Iraq, Mr Obama has consistently reaffirmed his commitment to the US mission in Afghanistan. A vow to defeat the Taliban was a key part of his presidential campaign and now that he has taken office, the number of American soldiers in the country will almost double this year.
Yet none of the men interviewed by The National in Laghman listed extra troops as their top priority. They spoke instead of the way they struggle to get an education, feed their children and find regular work. Mohammed Nader, 29, described going to school in the province as a "waste of time". "Every young man is responsible for looking after their family and feeding them in a way that means their family will not lose face in the community. That is why they can't go to school and must look for work to earn money," he said.
"The problems for young men like me are drugs, unemployment and committing robberies in the name of the insurgency." Gul Agha sometimes works as a labourer and sometimes as a mason. Every so often, he also helps at a kiln making bricks. He agreed that poverty was the driving force behind Laghman's ills. "This morning my little daughter was sick and I couldn't take her to the doctor because I didn't have the money," the father of seven said. "I get confused thinking about whether to spend the [four dollars] a day I earn on clothes, food or medicine.
"I don't blame America and I don't blame Pakistan for the economic crisis here, but I blame the president [Hamid Karzai]. He is the son of this country, he should find out what kind of problems his nation has and try to solve them. He needs to do what our Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, did and go to the villages so he can find out the problems of the people." The early signs are that Mr Obama may at least agree with this sentiment. He has criticised Mr Karzai for living in a "bunker" and rumours persist that the United Sates will back another candidate in the Afghan presidential elections scheduled for Aug 20.
But as yet there is still no indication that the lives of people in Laghman and other provinces throughout the south and east will change for the better anytime soon. The crumbling economy here has already pushed young men into drug addiction and crime and the fear now is that the insurgency is also beginning to take hold. Shafiqullah, a local representative for the ministry of economy, said men in the province were right to complain about the lack of reconstruction and development.
"We have reported many times to the central government and to [international] donors that we need to build bridges, hospitals and other important services for the local population, but we have always been rejected or just not heard back," he said. @Email:skarim@thenational.ae US-Russian comparison, page r1