- Oct 16, 2003
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...rticle/2006/08/09/AR2006080901775.html
Too bad we cut and run from Afghanistan into Iraq. I fear we are setting them up for a return of extremist.
The energy crisis has focused growing anger at the government of President Hamid Karzai, who last year appointed a former militia leader and governor with no technical experience as minister of energy and water. Many Kabul residents say they do not understand why, nearly five years after the overthrow of Taliban rule, and with the influx of millions of dollars in foreign aid, the government cannot even light the capital.
Even in more affluent neighborhoods, city-supplied electricity has been reduced this year from about 23 hours a day to five hours every other night. Families cram all their cooking, washing and studying into short, frustrating stints under a couple of dim bulbs.
"I remember before the civil war, we had power 24 hours a day. Now we can't even make tea or keep the clothes clean, and I have to send my daughter out for gas so we can cook dinner on a burner," said Faiz Murza, 62, a retired importer who lives in Kabul's Old City, a district of once-elegant homes ruined by war. "If Mr. Karzai had no power in his house for five days, what would he do?"
Too bad we cut and run from Afghanistan into Iraq. I fear we are setting them up for a return of extremist.