pakistani342
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Article here, excerpts below:
As a Marine, I had worked to stop police corruption. Now I was back in Kabul, seeing why the Islamists are gaining ground.
...
I know one reason for the Taliban’s increasing success in Helmand and beyond is that the Islamists offer some semblance of justice to Afghans who can’t get it from their government. Last year Transparency International’s index of “corruption perceptions”—how people see their own governments—ranked Afghanistan 172 on a list of 174 countries.
...
“I became a judge to serve my country,” Zabiullah says over chai and cigarettes. “I still travel to places that are under government control because God gave me this responsibility.” Evidence of his travels can be seen in the dust on his clothes and deep lines on his sun-darkened face.
...
Zabiullah has something else to offer that the Afghan government can’t match: his availability. The Taliban judge travels between villages. The government embeds its courts in district centers behind blast-proof walls. People seeking help have to wait in endless queues. But many others simply do without. Most Afghans live in rural areas and scratch out a living on the land; even at the height of my military zeal, I struggled to encourage these Afghans to make the long trip. They correctly deduced that if the police they dealt with at home were crooked, the courts probably were too.
As a Marine, I had worked to stop police corruption. Now I was back in Kabul, seeing why the Islamists are gaining ground.
...
I know one reason for the Taliban’s increasing success in Helmand and beyond is that the Islamists offer some semblance of justice to Afghans who can’t get it from their government. Last year Transparency International’s index of “corruption perceptions”—how people see their own governments—ranked Afghanistan 172 on a list of 174 countries.
...
“I became a judge to serve my country,” Zabiullah says over chai and cigarettes. “I still travel to places that are under government control because God gave me this responsibility.” Evidence of his travels can be seen in the dust on his clothes and deep lines on his sun-darkened face.
...
Zabiullah has something else to offer that the Afghan government can’t match: his availability. The Taliban judge travels between villages. The government embeds its courts in district centers behind blast-proof walls. People seeking help have to wait in endless queues. But many others simply do without. Most Afghans live in rural areas and scratch out a living on the land; even at the height of my military zeal, I struggled to encourage these Afghans to make the long trip. They correctly deduced that if the police they dealt with at home were crooked, the courts probably were too.
