US troop surge met in Afghanistan with cynicism and conspiracy theories




Despite Barack Obama's face featuring prominently on the evening bulletins on the various televisions positioned around one of central Kabul's large and grimy restaurants, tonight few of the diners were taking any notice of the news that an extra 30,000 US troops would be arriving in Afghanistan soon.

"It is just a political decision taken by the Americans, it has nothing to do with us," said one customer.

Those watching were skeptical about the chances of the surge bringing peace. "Wherever the foreign forces go they are attacked and it is the civilians who always get killed," said Mohamad Ashraf, an economics graduate, as he tucked into a dinner of fried mutton.

"Nato already has thousands of troops, far more than the Taliban, but they have been unable to stop districts coming under their control," said Ashraf, arguing that such success could only be explained by some sort of clandestine US support for the insurgency.

It is not hard to find conspiracy theories amid widespread disillusionment among people who have witnessed the steady deterioration of security conditions in the country since 2001.

"In 2001 and 2002 there were no explosions or suicide attacks; it was only when the foreign troops came that the situation got worse," said Ali Khan, a cobbler in Lashkar Gah in Helmand. A businessman who imports clothes from Pakistan and is able to freely move around areas with an enormous Taliban influence, he warned that no amount of troops would help in the south. "Even if it is 90,000 they won't be able to do anything; [the Taliban's] power is too much," he said.

Despite the low esteem NATO is held in, there were few prepared to say foreign troops should leave. "They cannot leave until Afghanistan is strong enough to look after itself, otherwise we will return to the factional fighting of the 1990s," said Noorullah Khan, a policeman.

Many more agreed with Obama and General Stanley McChrystal's main idea that the country's own security forces should be massively increased.

"When [the army and police are] strengthened and administrative problems of corruption have been removed then they will be able to defend Afghanistan much better than the Americans," said Haji Agha Lalai, a former head of a peace and reconciliation committee in Kandahar. But he warned the US against rushing training in the hurry to reduce troop numbers. "Trying to do anything in 18 months certainly won't work."

Obama's call for US troops to begin to come home in a year and a half has alarmed some Afghans, fearful that they will again be abandoned as they were in the 90s after the Soviet withdrawal.

But Mohamad Ehsa, an 18-year-old minding his father's grocery shop, said he believed the Americans when they said a withdrawal would only occur when conditions had been met. "They will not leave until Afghanistan is strong and it is safe for them to go. I don't think they would want to see the country fall back into war again," he said.