91훑괵 NEWS | Nick Robinson's Newslog

On the road

Nick
20 Nov 06, 11:09 AM

KABUL: There's a saying in Afghanistan - which I put to President Karzai and Mr Blair in a news conference this morning - that "those in the West have all the watches, but we in Afghanistan have all the time".

I mentioned it because the question remains whether the Taleban might just wait until the international community goes away, and then simply come back. Mr Karzai answered by saying that, yes, they do have time in Afghanistan, but that meant they had the time to rebuild the country. He said that the journey we had made this morning, from Helmand province to the capital, and which took us just an hour by air, would have taken up to 40 hours to complete by road just three years ago. Now, he said, thanks to the reconstruction, the journey could be made by road in five hours.

Whether there is enough time to bring the Afghan people on side is matter for debate, of course, as the views of Nato commander Lt Gen David Richards make plain.

To Afghanistan

Nick
20 Nov 06, 09:04 AM

KABUL: I've come with the prime minister from Pakistan to next door Afghanistan. Behind me, here in Kabul, is the screaming of the engines of the Hercules that has brought Mr Blair and his party from Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan, where he's just spoken to the UK troops, and told them that "in this extraordinary piece of desert", the security of the 21st century is being played out.

The Taleban, of course, have never gone away. Fighting in the south of this country, described by commanders as "the heaviest since the Korean war", has made reconstruction efforts all but impossible.

Later today Tony Blair will meet President Karzai and his cabinet, and the general in charge of Nato forces here, Lieutenant General David Richards, who has argued that very few of the population here are either in the Taleban or are committed to it - perhaps 10%. He thinks perhaps 20% are totally opposed. So that leaves 70% in the middle, waiting to see who is going to win. And his view is that if there is not real clear victory and clear progress towards reconstruction by next Spring, that 70% may take the view that it's better to have the stability that the Taleban brings, albeit with the brutality as well, rather than waiting another year for international forces to rebuild this country.

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