Kabul attacks--the good news

The Afghan security forces conducted the response themselves:

A bloody day in Kabul
Amid a terrifying Taliban attack, I got a first-hand view of the progress made by Afghan security forces

Afghan security forces stand guard outside the Ministry of Justice on Feb. 11, shortly after Taliban militants attacked three government buildings in Kabul.
Photograph by: Paula Bronstein, Getty Images, Citizen Special


I was at a meeting in Kabul on Wednesday, discussing with Afghan civil servants how Afghanistan's National Development Strategy's progress toward results can be monitored and reported, how results can be measured.

A young Afghan raised his hand to a question on security. He enumerated a number of measures: reduction in suicide attacks, reduced number of deaths from IED explosions, reduced number of abductions, reduced attacks on police, government offices and schools. He cited an article by Hekmat Karzai, who heads up a conflict and peace studies institute, which reported that insecure conditions forced the closure of 50 per cent of schools in southern Afghanistan.

Just as the young civil servant was saying that prevention of Taliban infiltration into Kabul and the peripheries is yet another good measure of security, a huge explosion silenced him.

We all rushed to the large windows at the back of the room facing the compound of the Ministry of Finance. We witnessed mayhem outside: Hundreds of armed Afghan men with guns drawn were running toward the justice ministry building under attack, only four metres away from our location. As we watched the operations outside, our building was also encircled by armed guards.

I was standing on a chair to get a good grasp of the situation when black-suited security officers politely asked me to stay away from the window because bullets were flying everywhere. We were asked to lock the doors of the building because it was suspected that one of the suicide bombers escaped and was hiding in one of the finance ministry buildings. I must admit that I wondered if a flimsy locked wooden door would survive a bomb explosion.

The young Afghans laughed raucously and said that I could now claim to witness the "results" of international community's involvement in Afghanistan and progress in security as a result of the deployment of thousands of international armed forces and for over seven years. Should I seek more measures of progress?

We were locked in the building without food and water as the army, police and security cars with sirens blaring thronged the compound. Inside the room, cellphones were ringing, with calls from worried family members of the Afghans. Calls came from Toronto, Dubai, New York, Washington and Moscow from worried relatives and friends as the news was out that the Ministry of Finance was under attack.

(This was only a rumour because of this ministry's close proximity to the Ministry of Justice which was under attack. The Ministry of Finance compound was used as the ground from where the Afghan army conducted its operation of surveillance on the nearby justice ministry building.)

Being the only woman in the building, and a foreigner for that matter, I got a lot of attention from my Afghan colleagues. Top officials called to check my safety. Afghans were surprised to see my calm. Why was I not stressed?

It happens. A certain complacency develops when one is living in insecure environments. I think back to 2005, when one morning at 4:30, the sound of a huge explosion woke me up. The sound was so close that it seemed it was coming from inside me. I thought, oh, this explosion must be very near this time; and it was, right outside the gate of the Canadian Embassy residence -- it blew off part of the gate of our home and I later found out it had severely injured one of the guards. But I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Quite unlike Wednesday, no one came to query my welfare. Likely, this complacency hit our Canadian military police security guards, as well, and they were fast asleep.

Is Canada as a whole getting complacent about Afghanistan? While Richard Holbrook, U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, calls Afghanistan a "mess" like he has never seen before -- and he has seen a lot -- our government announces "real progress" in Afghanistan after this month's security conference in Munich. My Afghan colleagues beg to differ.

But this week I collected first-hand at least one indicator to measure progress in capacity building of the Afghan armed forces.

The whole operation on Wednesday was led and conducted by Afghans and Afghans alone. They killed the surviving bombers and cleared the building within three hours -- no simple task given the size of the building and the complexities of the interior, with rooms, sub-rooms, doors and alleys. The operation was undertaken with vigour, efficiency and without creating a sense of panic.

I consider this a very hopeful sign. The Afghan armed forces displayed the potential of acting independently, without foreign forces' support. Bravo to them.

Nipa Banerjee is a professor at the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. She served as the head of Canada's aid program in Afghanistan (2003-06) and now visits Afghanistan frequently as a development adviser to the Afghan government.