‘between the dragon and his wrath’, 1994–2017beheading the defenders, while the ana failed to respond to their frantic
calls for help. isil, not to be outdone, has claimed responsibility for the
bombing of Shi‘a mosques in Kabul and Herat. The failure of the ana and
other state security organs to contain the insurgency has led two former
Jami‘at commanders, ‘Ata Muhammad Nur and Isma‘il Khan, to threaten
to reactivate their militias. Dostam too is actively attempting to form some
sort of military-political alliance with former Jami‘at and Shi‘a leaders.
As for ordinary Afghans, they are voting with their feet. Next to Syrians,
Afghans are the largest contingent of boat people arriving on the shores
of Mediterranean Europe.
In 2001 President Bush damned the Taliban as terrorists and ruled
out any negotiations with Mullah ‘Omar, but fifteen years later the United
States, the United Nations and other international actors are actively
encouraging President Ghani to negotiate with these same terrorists in
an increasingly desperate attempt to end the war. In the autumn of 2016
President Ghani signed an armistice with Gulbudin Hikmatyar and his
Hizb-i Islami militia, and in April the following year he and his militia
returned to the Kabul area. Despite almost overnight having been listed
as a global terrorist, Hikmatyar was removed by the un and the usa from
the list and he is now presumably exempt from any attempt to call him to
account for alleged war crimes. One wonders how long it will be before
Hikmatyar is once more a government minister. His rehabilitation has
outraged many Afghans, who have not forgotten his refusal to join the
government of President Rabbani, the rocket attacks on Kabul and the
many abuses carried out by Hizb-i Islami in the 1980s and ’90s.
Politically the problems of governance in Afghanistan have never been
resolved. The 2004 Constitution effectively pits the Executive against the
Legislature and in the process revisits the power struggles of the 1960s
and ’70s. Since the Wolusi Jirga has little say in Executive affairs, they
exercise what powers they have, refusing to confirm President Ghani’s
ministerial nominees and rejecting his budget. President Ghani has simply
ignored them and told his ministers to continue to carry out their duties as
normal in defiance of the Constitution. President Ghani’s recent attempt to
replace ‘Ata Muhammad Nur as governor of Balkh, and the effective exile
of General Dostam, has further increased tensions between himself and
Jami‘at, and between the President and ‘Abdullah ‘Abdullah, Afghanistan’s
Chief Executive Officer and Ghani’s unwanted power-sharing partner.
Financially the government is still unable to raise sufficient revenue to pay
the wages of civil servants or security services. Afghanistan has reverted
to a rentier state, with the United States and nato now providing the