Security on my mind

In the past few months, security has gotten significantly worse in Afghanistan. Every other day, the media reports are dire: 17 people dead in a Kandahar suicide bombing, four soldiers dead in a battle against Taliban in Uruzgan, the office of an international aid organization raided and two Afghans guards killed. It's on everybody's minds and lips -- Why is it happening? Where is it going? What can be done about it?

Though I am an optimist and perhaps even an idealist by blood, it is difficult to sift through the general negativity that envelopes this place to find the few positive signs of progess. Some expats are leaving, disillusioned that things have gotten worse in the few years that they have been here. Other stay but doubt the relevancy of their work in the face of an ever stronger anti-democratic, anti-development, anti-Western insurgency.

Whenever I have those moments, I turn to my Afghan colleagues. Having lived through 25 years of more or less uninterrupted war, communism and Talibanism, these people are hard to phase. "Neeh, this is not so bad" they say, even as armed hooligans try to break into the office compound. One older gentleman even called this the Taliban's last "spasm" before its ultimate demise and death.

It makes me feel better for the moment. But then I remember that these are people who live in Kabul -- which is an island of security -- who have relatively well-paying jobs, and who are liberally minded enough to work with foreigners. They represent a small minority of the Afghan population.

Nobody has a good idea of what should be done to improve the security situation. Or rather, there are too many ideas, all interconnected, but ultimately dependent on foreign funding, military committments, and coordination that is nowhere in sight. So, for now, I will just keep telling myself that sooner or later the tide just has to turn.