General Abdul Rashid Dostum. Paula Bronstein / GettyFrom Time Magazine:
Like many mothers in Afghanistan, Maghferat Samimi has affixed the photo of a child to her mobile phone. But the two-and-a-half-year-old is not her daughter. She is a rape victim, one of scores that Samimi, a researcher with the Afghan Human Rights Organization, has documented in the country's northern provinces over the past six months. Witnesses to the child's abduction by a local militia commander — a person who would once have been called a "warlord" — have had their rape claim backed up by a nearby hospital, but the district police chief maintains that the child fell on a stick. The police chief's refusal to issue an arrest warrant, he says, has nothing to do with the fact that he is friends with the militia commander. Seeking justice from government officials, says Samimi, "is like going to the wolves for help, when the wolves have stolen your sheep." That is what it is like in Afghanistan, where lawless warlords are now the law.
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My Comment: A culture of corruption only makes the job of stabilizing the country even harder. But unfortunately for Afghanistan, it is these same individuals who are the only ones who can guarantee some degree of stability in the regions that they have influence in. These are the choices that Nato must make their decisions in .... choices that are certainly not going to be easy.