Situating Workable Response continues...

International pressure is a double-edged sword. While Afghans feel that they want international presence fearing that their country would descend into chaos. Yet the coalitions continuing hunt for al-Qaedaentails unacceptable infringement of the privacy of people’s homes and killings and wrongful imprisonment of civilians. The President has demanded an end to U.S./NATO air strikes on civilian areas and called upon the foreign forces to end the illegal detention of civilians and unilateral house searches. Meanwhile the relentless targeting on the tribal regions has made the US and NATO forces highly unpopular. These operations causing civilian casualties in fact seemed to be the biggest threat before the Afghans today.

International personnel react to the fear

of attack by blocking more roads and living within a security wire. In Kabul, in particular, the obstructive presence of foreigners with their fancy vehicles and their expensive homes and offices raises questions about the spending of aid money. With more and more Afghans perceiving little improvement in their living, it is leading to increasing resentment. It is also leading to dramatic military advances who are mobilising themselves to resist these foreign forces.

A spokesman for the Taliban was reported to have said that the Taleban would surround Kabul politically and militarily to make it hard for the NATO forces to receive logistics convoys.

The current U.S. effort to create a norm permitting it to engage in preventive use of force is worrying. At times the US is a vital defender of the rule of law in world politics, yet on other occasions its actions threaten to undermine particular legal rules. And as Lawrence Freedman notes, the United States cannot have its cake and eat it too: “If

the United States wants to encourage a restrictive framework when it

comes to the use of force then it cannot claim a permissive one for itself".

The prerequisite of an effective peace-settlement would therefore lie in

the restrained operation of the international forces not in large-scale ravaging of tribal areas.

To be continued...