Crs Report for Congress: Afghanistan: Challenges and Options for Reconstructing a Stable and Moderate State: July 11, 2002 - Rl31389

The U.S.-led effort to end Afghanistan's role as host to Osama bin Laden and other anti-western Islamic terrorists requires not only the defeat of the Taliban but also the reconstruction of a stable, effective, and ideologically moderate Afghan state. Otherwise, the country could continue to be a potential base for terrorism and a source of regional instability. An important milestone was achieved in June 2002 with the generally successful conclusion of an Emergency Loya Jirga ("grand council"), which confirmed Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun member of the western educated elite with family ties to the former king as head of a Transitional Administration. Karzai, who previously headed an Interim Administration formed in December 2001, is charged with organizing a government, supervising the drafting of a constitution, and preparing for national elections to be held in December 2003. The Loya Jirga failed to satisfy many of the participants, especially Pashtuns, who feel under-represented in distribution of cabinet ministries, but more than 1,500 Afghans from all ethnic groups and walks of life had an opportunity to vent long pent up feelings and engage in free flowing debate about the country's future. Karzai has gained the nominal support of major regional warlords, but ...