Opinion

In Afghanistan's eventful history, it was largely the interests of large foreign powers that prevented peace in the country at the foothills of the Hindukush mountains.

The foreign powers included the British, who pursued their own interests there, the Russians and finally the Americans - together with allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Caught between powerful foreign interests

The issues at stake were securing British supply lanes to India, ensuring Russian access to the Indian Ocean, and finally repelling and beating back the Soviet Union with the help of the three-way alliance of Washington, Islamabad and Riyadh.

Those interests never focused on bolstering a strong Afghan state, rather they were about installing an accommodating central government in Kabul and maintaining a system of loyal regional chieftains in the country. It was a system that had worked for centuries in Afghanistan. Or sometimes it didn't.

An Afghan proverb speaks of a "a king under every tree." The king - and that included the presidents of the country - were merely seen as mayors of the capital Kabul. And their power was only recognized in the provinces if they sealed "deals" with the local rulers and gave them a free hand to run their own affairs.

Drugs trade flourishing

That's exactly what current President Hamid Karzai is doing. Once celebrated as the savior of Afghanistan by the US and Europe, Karzai has long left the path of democracy and the rule of law.

He has allied himself with regional "warlords" who are meant to ensure Karzai power and influence in the provinces and who in return can thwart any attempt at normalization. Corruption is a daily occurrence but what's worse is that the growing of poppy has reached record volumes in recent years, making Afghanistan a notorious leading world exporter of drugs.

Ordinary farmers don't earn a lot with their poppy fields but it's still much more than what they would make with alternative crops such as wheat. The "warlords" have long-turned into powerful "drug bosses" who rake in huge profits to finance their weapons and who are thus difficult to pressurize.

These druglords are flexible and ready to hammer out an alliance with just about anybody. The main thing is that their powerful positions are untouched.

They also work together with the Taliban, who are against the opium trade on religious and ideological grounds, but have long used this lucrative economic and agricultural sector for their own purposes.

Stabilizing Afghanistan

Foreign nations - from Afghanistan's neighbors to Europe and the US - are today more interested in calming the situation and stabilizing Afghanistan.

Those interested in the opposite are primarily the regional rulers and the drug bosses who don't want to give up their power and influence. To curb their power, more pressure needs to be exerted on the central government and the president, the Taliban needs to be defeated and ordinary Afghans need to be given new opportunities to earn money.

But none of that has happened so far. Still, about 50 drug dealers are included in the 367 names on an exhaustive wanted-persons list compiled by the US in Afghanistan. They are accused of cooperating with the Taliban.

But those who work together with the central government in Kabul aren't included in any list. This despite the fact that they pose a similar obstacle to normalization in Afghanistan.

Peter Philipp is Deutsche Welle's an expert on the Middle East. (sp)

Editor: Rob Mudge