balloting went remarkably smooth considering the country’s recent conflicts and the
lack of roads, telecommunications, and other infrastructure to support such an
undertaking.
Elections for a two-chamber parliament, the National Assembly, were supposed to
take place the following April or May, but continuing insecurity and other problems
forced their postponement, until September 18, 2005. As in the presidential election,
voting proceeded smoothly in determining seats in parliament and provincial councils,
especially considering that more than 5,000 candidates ran for office, and voters cast
their ballots at some 26,000 polling places. An estimated 6.7 million citizens went to
the polls for the legislative elections, a drop of about 10 percent from the presidential
election a year earlier.
The new parliament convened for the first time on December 19, 2005, using
a hall in Kabul that had served as the seat of a legislature during the reign of King
Mohammad Zahir Shah, who was ousted from power in 1973. U.S. vice president
Dick Cheney and several other notables attended. In an hour-long speech marking
the occasion, Karzai asked the legislators to set aside their past differences and work
together for the sake of the country as a whole rather than for narrow ethnic or
tribal interests. “Cooperation, competitions and efforts all need to happen but for
the service of the people and strengthening the Government,” he said. Karzai and
his new government experienced numerous rocky moments, notably because cabinet
members and legislators had trouble following the president’s request to act on behalf
of the national interest. Karzai also struggled to control regional warlords, some of
whom had gained seats in the parliament and were reluctant to dismantle their pri-
vate militias.
Taliban Resurgence
The Taliban had disappeared into the mountains in 2001 after being pushed from
power, but they had not been thoroughly defeated. Over the next few years, the Tali-
ban carried out regular attacks against the government and international peacekeep-
ers, but in the early months of 2006 they launched a full-scale insurgency, thus becom-
ing the greatest danger facing the Karzai government. Thousands of new recruits
flocked to fight for the Taliban, having seen little or no improvement in their lives
under the Karzai government. Many also were angered by the continuing presence of
troops from the United States and other Western countries, some of whom demon-
strated a lack of sensitivity to local cultural values. Many Afghans also were angered
by the U.S. practice of detaining indefinitely, and reportedly torturing, suspected Tali-
ban and al-Qaida fighters at the Bagram air base, the prison at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, and other, secret locations. In addition, several cases of mistaken bombings by
U.S. warplanes, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Afghan civilians, inflamed pas-
sions and aided recruitment by the Taliban. Karzai repeatedly expressed frustration
about international military operations in his country, stating in June 2007 that
“indiscriminate and imprecise” bombings had killed many civilians. As he had in the
past with little effect, Karzai demanded that NATO forces coordinate their actions
with his government.
In 2006, fighting killed an estimated 4,000 people in Afghanistan, nearly three
times as many as during the previous year. According to official U.S. estimates, most
616 AFGHANISTAN