Iraq and Afghanistan

The American Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, has a long an interesting career for such a young man. He is a Pashtun from Mazar-e-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan. After high school he studied at the American University in Beirut and then on to the University of Chicago. He began his academic career working with Zbigniew Brezezinski at Columbia. He then started working off and on in the State Department and the Rand Institute. He was a player in the government’s involvement in the Afghan resistance against the Soviets in the 1980s. Apparently his ideology became increasing military oriented and he became affiliated with neocons such as Wolfowitz. He began this President’s term in the National Security Council, but soon was a special representative concerned with Afghan affairs. Along the way he is said to have supported the idea of working more closely with the Taliban, perhaps because of his work for a pipeline company that was contemplating a route from Turkistan through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. After our later victory in Afghanistan, he oversaw putting together the conference of Afghan leaders in Berlin and later the Loya Jirga that appointed Karzai to lead the new government. As Ambassador he is extremely active. He is said to have been working to get other candidates to withdraw in favor of Karzai, and to be the main person responsible for the retirement of Ismael Khan as the governor of Herat. Many Afghans refer to him as their new Viceroy.

Having invited Khalilzad to a conference once, I remember him as a gracious, polite, and engaging person well suited to the kind of job he has now. Certainly, if he is a viceroy, he is a most Afghani viceroy (although in our brief acquaintance he wanted to be referred to as an American and not an Afghanistani). But what is not so good is the fact that as he throws his new weight around, it is the weight of the United States. It makes sense from the American point of view that he would want to get rid of Ismael Khan, a person known for his anti-American and anti-UN sympathies and his Iranian support. However, Ismael Khan was also known as one of the best liked and most courageous of the “warlords”. Herat was considered to be the best run and most reconstructed of the regional cities. Unfortunately, American troops were both directly and indirectly involved in his “retirement”. This does not seem in the long run to be the way to make friends for either Americans or the Karzai government. It would also appear that retiring governors that have been able to administer their areas with some effectiveness before there is an Afghan army and administrative corps that can take their place is a foolish undertaking.