60 minutes rewind can the u.s rebuild two countries at the same time iraq and afghanistan
after going to afghanistan our question is can the u.s rebuild one country 18 months
after the war there we saw little evidence of the reconstruction the u.s promised and despite the
presence of twelve thousand u.s and allied troops parts of the country are slipping back into chaos
for one thing the taliban is still strong enough to have mounted an aggressive spring offensive
car bombs shootings and rocket attacks are commonplace
even in remote villages and many women afraid of being harassed and beaten still wear burqas
more troubling in a way is the return of the warlords that the u.s enlisted and financed
in the war against the taliban and al qaeda you don't have to go far outside kabul to see
that the warlords and their private armies have regained control of many parts of afghanistan
their gunmen prowl the countryside suppressed under the taliban they're back because the u.s
brought them back and now they're strong enough and menacing enough to challenge president hamid
karzai and his fledgling government u.s policy seems to be at cross purposes on the one hand
u.s intelligence continues to provide the private militias controlled by the warlords
with money and weapons so they'll help in the fight against the taliban and the hunt for
al-qaeda but at the same time the u.s government supports a policy to disarm the warlords
anything that enhances their power and legitimacy undermines a goal a major goal of u.s policy which
is to strengthen the central government of harmony karzai but ambassador william taylor
the u.s official here in charge of reconstruction says that neither president karzai nor the u.s has
much choice in supporting many of the warlords in some cases these militias these power bases that
you describe are the only force against chaos and lawlessness so it's not like we can go in and get
rid of militia tomorrow because we don't want to generate chaos but the problem is these warlords
are out for themselves they run their regions like fiefdoms keeping the taxes and customs duties
they're supposed to be collecting for the central government and some like pasha khan the warlord of
paktia province in the south are outright bandits whose men terrorize their local populations
we have 600 men patrolling this area around the clock pasha khan is holed up in the mountains
near the pakistan border once an ally of the u.s he's now accused of harboring al-qaeda members
he says he has an army of thousands and showed off his stockpile of weapons
we have mortars we have rpgs rocket propelled grenades klashnikov rifles and he's not afraid
to use them even against u.s troops here we hitched a helicopter ride with the u.s military
down into pasha khan's territory as we flew south machine gunners scanned the landscape making us
all too aware that khan's men have been firing rockets at us bases in the mountains
we were heading for gardez one of the main towns in the region last year he shelled
the town killing 50 of his own countrymen in other areas warlords are shooting at each other
as the country degenerates into violence and lawlessness there have been hijackings
of vehicles offices our offices were looted paul o'brien of care international in kabul says that
after a red cross worker was assassinated in march his and other aid agencies suspended operations
in parts of the country there is no functioning national security structure outside of kabul there
is no police there is no afghan national army that can actually provide security to ordinary
afghans trying to go about the work of rebuilding their lives so there's just a security vacuum
the one part of the country that is relatively safe and secure is here in kabul the capital
and that's because of the international peacekeepers that patrol the streets but the bush
administration has refused to support deployment of the peacekeepers outside of kabul despite pleas
from the afghan government and that leaves most of the people at the mercy of the warlord's gunman
unable to get on with their lives without security they can't farm or create businesses afghanistan
is frozen in another era 18 months after the war you still see rubble everywhere and the people are
living in it without electricity or clean water there's hardly any sign of rebuilding president
hamid karzai describes his country as a bombed out shell have you been to the airport in kabul
doesn't it look like the graveyard of aircraft imagine pieces of hundreds of aircraft that we
had that are not there the afghan air force had 300 or more aircraft we don't have four now karzai
says the continuing violence has scared away investors he wants the u.s military to step in
they should do more exactly in a very visible manner to help the legitimate authority of
afghanistan impose the rule of law all over the country and they seem adamant that they're not
going to do that well we keep asking them to do that but the u.s military says our troops are here
to hunt down terrorists colonel roger king told us they're under orders not to get involved in
anything else do we do anything to protect the afghan people say for instance from the warlords
or anything like that it's not our purpose we're not here on a security or stability mission
and we're not doing anything to disarm them the united states nothing no but otherwise
you're just otherwise they're there and they're they're part of the they're part of the landscape
uh they're part of the situation of afghanistan president karzai tried to co-opt the warlords
by naming several of them local governors but all that did was make them even stronger now
he's trying to reign them in i understand that you had a meeting with the warlords the governors
and asked them to disarm their private militias have they done that they have to do that
have they done it it's in the process but why would they why would they give up the power
in the interest of afghanistan can you allow in the united states a situation where where
a governor does not respond to the central authority the story will continue after this
if all this isn't confounding enough the biggest warlord of them all
is also the minister of defense in karzai's government and the vice president i'm told
you are the most powerful man in all of afghanistan
does that make you unhappy marshal mohammed fahim was head of the victorious northern
alliance during the war the bush administration asked him not to enter kabul with his troops
but he did anyway and he and the troops stayed
we got a rare look inside their garrison fifteen thousand well-disciplined troops in kabul alone
and very well equipped fahim was happy to show off his muscle and his firepower artillery
rocket launchers missiles but fahim claims all the weaponry and forces no longer belong to him
all the forces belong to afghanistan to the ministry of defense but the point is
that they're loyal to you and and that you control them separately
they're loyal to me as long as i am the defense minister of
his afghanistan renamed the ministry of defense army is the most powerful force
in the country his troops often accompany u.s forces against the increasingly aggressive taliban
it's no wonder fahim gets pretty much whatever he wants including recognition from the united states
the ministry of defense does have legitimate forces and those legitimate forces
are probably used to be in his uh his militia but he is the minister of defense and he is actually
the president of course is overall in charge but he has militia that are in the army uh of
afghanistan i have to smile i mean you know it's absurd it's as if donald rumsfeld had his own army
in washington his own separate army who was loyal to him i mean it just it's almost mind-boggling
afghanistan's a very interesting place there's some unusual things here no but our government
seems to be saying okay that's all right not at all taylor says the u.s has a plan
and this is it u.s special forces training a new national army to eventually replace
fahims and all the warlords militias this is the commando battalion straighten it
up the warlords are supposed to send their best men to the new army but lieutenant colonel kevin
mcdonald of u.s special forces who's in charge of the training says no surprise the warlords aren't
exactly cooperating they want to keep them for their own armies they haven't turned that corner
they haven't turned that corner completely in fact they were sending the duds well they were sending
it they were sending a lot of people that that washed out of the training so it's been slow going
after a year there are only three thousand fully trained hardly a threat to fahim's one hundred
thousand men i wanna tell you something somebody told me please they told me everybody is afraid
of marshall fahim it is not so hello on the contrary of what you heard i am an educated person
a national patriot and a far-sighted young person you can guess from my appearance psychologically
do i look like someone people would be afraid of in kabul there is constant talk of a power
struggle between the president and the vice president and it struck us as odd that the
minute karzai left the country on a state visit to pakistan fahim moved himself and
his staff into the presidential office and declared himself in charge what do you say
when people tell us that martial fahim is the strongest man in afghanistan stronger than you are
i'm the president he's my defense minister in my deputy do you have the power to remove him
i have the power to remove anybody i want in this government whether i use that power
or not is a different question fahim seems to grow in strength while karzai lives under constant
threat of assassination the u.s is committed to protecting him but that means he's increasingly
viewed as an american puppet and anti-americanism is starting to simmer among the afghan people
they're frustrated and they do at some level look at the international community and the united
states in particular and say you made promises to us you told us we'd have peace in afghanistan
now i don't feel safe in my town and that frustration does lead to fingers being pointed
the u.s is trying to win over hearts and minds this is a school the u.s military rebuilt in
gardez where it's a triumph that little girls now attend but it's a small project in a country with
huge problems after 25 years of perpetual war the african people did not have chance to do
anything but hide or run away or make life somehow possible they couldn't educate their children they
couldn't make money they couldn't do trade now is the time to clean up the destruction of war
and it will take a lot of time are you optimistic oh yeah that's my nature