Afghanistan Five Years Later - The Return of the Taliban

The Senlis Council is an international policy think tank with offices in Kabul, London ( 17, Queen Anne's Gate London SW1H 9BU), Paris and Brussels. The Council’s work encompasses foreign policy, security, development and counter-narcotics policies and provides innovative analysis and proposals.

The opium poppy is the traditional crop and the raw material for essential medicines such as morphine and codeine. Senlis say therefore there is a huge potential to be re-directed into legal channels becoming a major driver for Afghanistan’s rural development and addressing the global shortage of opium-based medicines. This would be done by licensing the growth of poppies and controlling the legal distribution for medecines.

Senlis today launched a new report with a press conference (Press release here)
The report, "Afghanistan Five Years Later - The Return of the Taliban" can be downloaded here (PDF alert)

They highlight the fact that 900% more has been spent on military affairs than reconstruction, that there is widesrpead suspicion and disenchantment, especially with the US.For example Marvin Weinbaum, a former analyst with the U.S. State Department who now works with the Middle East Institute is quoted in the Toronto Star "We were trying to get rid of the bad guys and said, once we do that, we'll get around to doing development. It never happened. ...The credibility ... was lost when they got neither the security they expected nor the reconstruction that they were hoping for. "

The Senlis Council report reaches some conclusions about the last 5 years.

Ignoring extreme poverty is destroying nation-building efforts

The prioritisation of Western domestic security needs in Afghanistan translates into dead Afghans. The success of the initial invasion in 2001 has not been followed by real changes in the everyday lives of most Afghans.

Futile counter-narcotics policies intensify the security and poverty crises

Failing counter-narcotics policies driven by the international community intent on pushing its War on Drugs in Afghanistan are inflaming poverty and worsening the security crisis in the country. Farmers seeing their livelihoods destroyed by international forces fail to see the benefits in their country. Eradication policies generate local hostility and suspicion towards the designs of the international community in Afghanistan... which leads to ..

Failure of nation-building project makes fertile ground for Taliban revival

The results of the international community’s nation-building efforts in Afghanistan are largely symbolic for Afghans and are more in line with the ‘homeland security’ objectives of the foreign forces rather than the real needs of Afghans. A rejuvenated, re - armed Taliban is exploiting such widespread resentment to stir up instability."They are not fighting for us, they are fighting for themselves".

Total military spending vs. total development spending in Afghanistan. 2002-2006

Despite the extreme poverty in Afghanistan, the majority of spending by the international community is on military rather than development and poverty relief projects.

More comment here and a previous post from Lord Patel Tuesday, July 4 2006 Afghanistan - Stalky & Co Redux

Update Wednesday
The photos and the videos from the Senlis Afghanistan Report Afghanistan Five Years Later: The Return of the Taliban are now available online:

To view the Video Report, go to:
http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/publications/014_publication/dvd_extracts
To view the Photo Report, go to:
http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/publications/014_publication/dvd_extracts/photo_library