CNN.com: Afghan highway
symbol of mission in crisis
Monday, September 07, 2009
Trucker
Mohammed Qasim takes his fuel tanker
down Afghanistan's Highway 1 once a week.
From Michael Ware
CNN
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Paid for with U.S.
dollars, Afghanistan's Highway 1 was supposed to
symbolize a path toward a bright future when it was
repaved five years ago.
The $300 million project smoothed over the highway's
rough potholes and cut in half the 12-hour drive time
from the capital, Kabul, to the country's political
center, Kandahar.
But today, roadside bombs have re-scarred the road,
and Taliban militants routinely stage brazen attacks
on its travelers.
The journey between the two cities now takes at least
nine hours, and people risk their lives when they
travel on the road.
"It's been blown up by landmines, and there is no
security on it," truck driver Mohammed Qasim said.
People have been pulled off buses along Highway 1 and
executed by the Taliban. The militants man at least
three checkpoints along the 300-mile road, which runs
through Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan.
Watch CNN's Michael Ware on Highway 1 »
It is a symbol of the broad, complex problems in
Afghanistan.
Eight years after American forces invaded the country
and ousted the Taliban regime in the wake of the
September 11 attacks, combat continues with rising
death tolls among coalition soldiers, Afghan security
forces and civilians.
And politically it's not much better. Afghanistan is
a nation in limbo. The final results of last month's
presidential election have been stalled by a storm of
corruption allegations.
It wasn't meant to be this way.
Having turned its back on Afghanistan throughout the
1990s once the Soviet military lost a war here, the
United States has spent these eight years trying to
make good on its past neglect.
Yet true, undeniable success is hard to see.
The fact that the Taliban have been able to strangle
the life out of Highway 1 is a testament that there's
simply not enough American, British, international or
Afghan troops to secure it.
What once had been an American project hailed as a
sign of progress has become a mark of a mission in
crisis.
The threats have not stopped Qasim from driving his
fuel tanker down the Taliban gauntlet once a week,
dodging potholes and fearing for his life.
He said he feels completely exposed by the lack of
security, but it is the only way he can provide for
his three children.
"I'm compelled," he said. "How else do we eat?
There's simply no alternative."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/08/afghanistan.highway/index.html