KABUL // Thousands of lives have been lost and billions of dollars spent. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001 that prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, is dead. But his one-time allies, the Taliban, lead a growing insurgency that threatens to plunge the country further into chaos.
Was the war in Afghanistan, which turns 10 years old today, really worth fighting?
The answer is no, according to many US veterans of the conflict. In a poll released this week by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre, less than half of the US troops who fought in Afghanistan say the war was worth the fight.
Just over half - 51 per cent - of US veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq said in the survey that relying too much on military force creates hatred that leads to more terrorism.
More than 1,670 US troops have died so far in Afghanistan since 2003, according to icasualties.org, an independent website tracking military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But now, the US-led Nato forces plan to end their fighting role while reassuring the Afghan government that international troops are committed to seeing Afghanistan through to a durable peace.
For many Afghans, too, the past 10 years is a decade lost to corrupt politicians and revenge-seeking, anti-Taliban warlords made both wealthy and strong by the international effort to provide some peace and stability in Afghanistan.
About US$50 billion (Dh184bn) in reconstruction aid has been poured into the country, but the majority of Afghans still live in dire poverty and much of Afghanistan's infrastructure remains in disrepair.
Gulmar Jan, a resident of Kandahar province, spiritual homeland of the Taliban, said: "I don't think the past 10 years were worth it, because, look at the situation we are in right now."
Since Nato troops drove the pro-Al Qaeda Taliban regime from power in 2001, violence has increased steadily as remnants of that regime took up arms against the western-backed government.
Last year marked the most violent for Afghan civilians since the United Nations began tracking civilian deaths in 2007, with 2,777 dead.
Mr Gulmar Jan said: "The foreigners have failed us. It was very bad under the Taliban, but now we are afraid of the future. We don't know what will happen,"
The Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP), however, are actually less pessimistic than American troops about the cost of the last 10 years.
Taliban infiltration plagues their ranks, but as Nato undertakes a mammoth mission to boost and train local security forces, there remains a core of dedicated Afghan troops ready to fight.
While it is true that Afghan security forces have a poor reputation, Afghan troops suffer the highest casualties of any group in Afghanistan and many disagree that the last decade was one of little progress.
Abdul Najib, a 32-year-old policeman in the eastern province of Nangarhar, said: "Under the Taliban, there was nothing. No jobs, no life, no police, no security. We face problems now, but at least we are fighting for something. And when we are injured or our colleagues are killed, our commitment to Afghanistan only gets stronger."
Since 2007, 2,234 ANA troops and 3,273 Afghan police have died in the conflict, according to a report compiled by the US Congress in August this year. Abdul Matin, a commander of an Afghan Local Police (ALP) unit in Wardak province, said he took up arms in the militia programme, where villagers are armed by US special forces to fight the Taliban but often with little oversight, critics say, when government forces controlled little more than the main highway that runs through the verdant but impoverished province.
Mr Abdul Matin said at least eight of his friends have died in combat, but that the sacrifice was worth it to keep the insurgents at bay.
Wardak was the site of a US helicopter crash in August, when a Taliban-launched RPG took down the chopper, killing 30 US Navy Seals in the biggest single loss for American troops since the war began.
"We never get any sleep. We do not take holidays - we are spending all of our days fighting the Taliban," Mr Abdul Matin said. "Even if I lose my own life or the lives of my children, I am ready to make this sacrifice. We cannot turn away from this fight now."
Afghan army generals say the Taliban's use of guerrilla tactics - ambushes, suicide bombs, rocket attacks and political assassinations - indicates that the insurgency is on the run, unable to effectively fight the increasingly capable Afghan troops.
General Sher Mohamed, an ANA general in the south, said: "There are one or two attacks in the provinces each day, but from a military point of view, they are weak attacks. They are not strong enough to topple our government."
At this juncture, however, the inability of the insurgents to battle conventional Afghan forces may be irrelevant, observers say.
On Tuesday, Afghanistan's spy agency revealed it had foiled a plot to assassinate the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. Last month, insurgents assassinated former Afghan president and chief of the High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, in a suicide attack at his home in Kabul.
Mahmoud Khan, a member of parliament from Kandahar, said: "The overall political situation in the country is getting worse. Everyone knows that now the insurgents or their spies have sneaked into the government, and they are there and that's why these assassinations are taking place. You cannot stop these attacks."
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years-of-age
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his/her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30-years-old and able to support the child financially
The biog
Favourite film: The Notebook
Favourite book: What I know for sure by Oprah Winfrey
Favourite quote: “Social equality is the only basis of human happiness” Nelson Madela. Hometown: Emmen, The Netherlands
Favourite activities: Walking on the beach, eating at restaurants and spending time with friends
Job: Founder and Managing Director of Mawaheb from Beautiful Peopl
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
Specs
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Emergency
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Rating: 2/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The specs
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
