Kabul on the edge

[unhappycamper]

Merchants on "Chicken Street" in Kabul offer a traditional selection of Afghan goods, mainly aimed at tourists. Although Kabul is more secure than most of the country, the rumor of U.S. support for the Taliban has spread through the city's streets.


Kabul on the edge
By Michael Gisick, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, February 15, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — To many in the Afghan capital, there’s an obvious explanation for the dramatic re-emergence of the Taliban — a force that seemed thoroughly dust-binned after the arrival of the world’s most powerful army seven years ago.

"Now," as one 23-year-old Kabul shopkeeper, Qand Mohmadi, put it, "we think America is supporting both the Taliban and the Afghan government. That’s what everyone says."

Indeed, the rumor of U.S. support for the Taliban is virtually ubiquitous in Kabul. And absurd as it might sound after a year in which American and other Western troops suffered record casualties in fighting with insurgents, many Kabul residents say they see at least a kernel of truth in the story.

"We don’t know for sure why they are doing it," said Daoud Zadran, a middle-aged real estate broker. "Politics is bigger than our thoughts. But maybe America wants to build up the Taliban so they have an excuse to remain in Afghanistan because of the Iranian issue."

Byzantine political conspiracy theories are nothing new in a region with little tradition of transparent government and where the arrival of international troops in 2001 was preceded by a long history of shadowy meddling by Western powers.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60733