The "Dubai Of Afghanistan", Built By Iran

By Cernig

Proof that Obama's plan to put more wingtips on the ground in Afghanistan is a good one comes from Iran's efforts in the Western Afghanistan city of Herat:

For now, Tehran's investment of $500 million in the region has helped the U.S. by minimizing the influence of the Taliban extremists who once ruled the country and the sort of violence they have inflicted on southern and eastern Afghanistan. Iran paved half of Herat's streets and 40 miles of highway leading north, built schools and health clinics and partnered with Afghan companies in an industrial park.

``It's not just investments, but also trade,'' said Ali Shah Ahmedi, the 43-year-old manager of Herat's Tejarat Hotel. ``I have Iranian businessmen staying here all the time, coming to buy or sell goods'' such as packaged foods and motorcycles.

Sana, 42, holds forth from his office in the Herat Trade Center, a modern nine-story building of gleaming blue glass that helped inspire residents' nickname for their city: ``the Dubai of Afghanistan.'' A hotel, law offices and a finance company that supports farmers are connected by an Afghanistan rarity: an elevator.

Traffic lights in Herat work, in contrast to the capital, Kabul, so vehicles flow smoothly around the Blue Mosque, an 800- year-old, blue-tiled landmark. Herat is cleaner than Kabul, with more trees and parks, and less dangerous, with fewer visible police and troops.

An Iranian company is building a railroad to link Herat with Iran. Iran has already built a road link and provides Herat's 350,000 residents with plentiful electricity. Iran paved Herat's streets and built medical facilities, schools and an industrial park.

And, of course, Iran's deep commercial and political penetration of Afghanistan's relatively peaceful West means that if the US or a proxy attacks Iran, then the Afghan West can be made plenty wild, plenty quick.

``Every single day Iran is trying to have more influence, and where there is money, there is political power,'' said Masoud Sana, the Herat Chamber of Commerce's international relations director. ``The Iranians are always trying to find out information about what the Afghan government is going to do next.''

... Iran has ``intelligence operatives everywhere, military commanders who work for them'' in the region who could be deployed to stir up trouble, including riots, said Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan specialist at New York University's Center on International Cooperation.

Do you ever get the feeling that Tehran has been playing chess while Dubya was playing tiddliewinks?

Comments

[BJ Bjornson]

Not entirely sure what tiddlewinks is, but it has long been clear that Iran, among others, can play the Great Game at a level so much higher than the Bush cabal that it appears to be a completely different game to them.

[Steve Hynd]

Hi BJ,

"Tiddliewinks" or "tiddlywinks" - a game where you press down on the edge of one flat (usually plastic) token with another, flipping it up into the air and hoping to get it to land in a cup. It's usually a game for young kids who can't yet master checkers.

[BJ]

Appropriate. I was going to say that the Bush administration certainly hadn't got to the level of checkers vis a vis the Iranian chess.

It also reminds me of a drinking game I used to play, which would explain how frat boy Bush picked it up.