In 2006 we wrote Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (Seven Stories) at a time when most Americans, even on the left, were paying little attention to Afghanistan. In light of the renewed attention on Afghanistan and the recent New York Times article, Ex-U.S. Envoy May Take Key Role in Afghan Government (May 19, 2009) about Zalmay Khalilzad and his proposed future role as “Afghanistan’s CEO,” we present an edited excerpt from our book focusing Khalilzad’s background and his role in post 9/11 Afghanistan. As we show, Khalilzad was instrumental in undermining Afghanistan’s chance for democracy and human rights, and helped instead to cement the political power of war criminals and fundamentalists.
ZALMAY KHALILZAD: AMERICA’S “VICEROY”
The Clinton administration should appoint a high-level envoy for Afghanistan who can coordinate overall U.S. policy. This envoy must have sufficient stature and access to ensure that he or she is taken seriously in foreign capitals and by local militias. Equally important, the special envoy must be able to shape Afghanistan policy within U.S. bureaucracies.
– Zalmay Khalilzad and Daniel Byman, “Afghanistan: The Consolidation of a Rogue Regime,” Washington Quarterly 23:1, 65-78, Winter 2000.
Zalmay Khalilzad is one of the few U.S. policy makers who publicly wrote his own job description and then got the job. No stranger to U.S. foreign policy circles, Khalilzad started off as an adviser to the Reagan administration on U.S. support to the Mujahideen in the 1980s, and ended up as a National Security Council staffer in the George W. Bush administration. After 9/11 he all but became the hypothetical envoy in the passage from his 2000 Washington Quarterly article with Daniel Byman, quoted above. In November 2003 he was promoted to U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan.
Tags: Afghanistan, United States, Zalmay Khalilzad
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