Editorial: Crucial time for Afghans

Wednesday, June 28, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

Because of the nightmarish years in his country's recent history before the American invasion in 2001, Said T. Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, says his country "lost a generation."

Jawad was in town this week at the invitation of the Las Vegas World Affairs Council. On Monday he met with the Las Vegas Sun's editorial board and spoke about the critical time ahead.

The Afghan people will follow their new government, he said, but only if they see an improvement in their daily lives. This means vastly increased personal and job security, as well as increased opportunities for education and for services we take for granted, such as sanitation and power.

Through the 1980s Afghanistan was torn by civil war, with its then-Marxist government being supported by Soviet forces against an uprising by mujahedeen insurgents, who late in the war received U.S. help.

Nearly 2 million Afghans were killed, millions more fled and the lives of many millions more were in such turmoil that getting an education was impossible.

In the early 1990s, after the Soviet forces had pulled out, the Afghan government fell to the mujahedeen, whose infighting cast the country into more bloodshed. By 1994, a mujahedeen faction known as "religious students," or Taliban, managed to unite and by 1996 were in full power.

Under the violent and repressive Taliban, women and girls were denied education and the right to work, public executions were common and an alliance was formed with al-Qaida.

Only with the arrival of American forces after 9/11 was there any real hope for stability in Afghanistan. The country is now making progress, but its fledgling government does not have the resources to provide services to many areas.

Jawad said entrepreneurs are beginning to invest in his country, which is good, but the rate of monetary aid from other countries is about $2.4 billion a year, including just $1 billion from the U.S. He said his country right now needs about $27 billion in working capital.

Afghanistan is a country that is pivotal to winning the war against terrorism. Because neither it nor the U.S. can afford another lost generation there, an increase in our aid must be quick and substantial.