| Summary: | This article deals with the decision of the U.S. to reinstate several warlords in Afghanistan in an effort to promote democracy and stability in the country in 2004. Warlords who have returned to power are Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Muhammad Fahim, Abdul Rashid Dostum, and Burhanuddin Rabbani. All these men share responsibility for the ferocious killing of civilians in the mid-1990s. They still maintain private armies and private jails and are reaping vast amounts of money from the illegal opium trade in Afghanistan. Lakhdar Brahimi, the special envoy of the United Nations to Afghanistan, warned that the situation is reminiscent of what was witnessed after the establishment of the mujahideen government in 1992, which eventually led to the rise of the Taliban a few years later. If the U.S. really wants to develop democracy and stability in Afghanistan, it must abandon its policy of working with the warlords and factional leaders of the Northern Alliance. Sayyaf, Fahim, and their men having nothing to offer that would help Afghanistan move forward. Instead, the U.S. should concentrate on training a police force, which, along with the national army the U.S. and France are helping to build, could provide security at a local level.
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