Word: kabul
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...living legacy of the warlords is the main challenge to the survival of President Hamid Karzai's government. He is surrounded by private armies loyal to regional warlords, and does not have an army of his own. The foreign peacekeepers who patrol the streets of Kabul and the U.S. troops who make up the presidential guard keep Karzai in power, but he has little control over those who challenge his authority outside the capital. Thus if the U.S. hopes to establish a stable regime in Afghanistan, it has to help create an army for Karzai...
Raising the new force is proving as tricky as arming it. More than 500 men signed up for the first battalion. Most were flown to Kabul from provincial recruitment centers; others arrived on horseback or on foot. One 14-year-old boy, an orphan, tried to sign up; the Americans turned him away. But by graduation, more than one-third of the trainees had dropped out. Many had arrived with the idea that they would be training in the U.S. or Turkey, then quit when they realized that they were destined only for the battle-scarred Afghan Military Academy outside...
...Without a strong army, Karzai has little chance of taming warlords like Zadran. And the U.S. still needs him to hunt for al-Qaeda (although officially a top American diplomat in Kabul says the U.S. military is no longer cooperating with Zadran). "Al-Qaeda is hunkered down waiting for an opening," says another diplomat in Kabul, "and a defection from a regional warlord could provide the cover that would allow these guys to climb out of their holes...
Almost daily, sniper bullets and small bands of fighters threaten American soldiers hunting al-Qaeda and Taliban members left behind in Afghanistan. But a more benign task entrusted to U.S. special forces stationed in Kabul--training the fledgling Afghan national army--is also proving dangerous. Funds for the endeavor are scarce, and weapons and ammunition are "not the quality you'd want at Fort Benning," says Lieut. Colonel Kevin McDonnell, who is responsible for the training. The Green Berets have resorted to tossing rocks to teach grenade handling and scrounging al-Qaeda and Taliban leftovers. Sometimes the troops launch risky...
...MICHAEL WARE, our reporter in Kabul, delved into the violent Afghan prelude to Sept...