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As the two rivals dig in their heels, dormant threats are poised to rise anew. Agitators on either side of the rift were talking to each other not long ago with guns, Fazel Fazly, President Ghanis chief adviser, told me. During the Afghan civil war from 1992 to 1996, mujahedin armies waged such fierce and destructive assaults on one another that the rise of the Taliban was initially welcomed as a relief from the carnage. During that time, the offending warlords convened five major peace talks, and after each negotiation, they came back to Kabul and initiated a bloodshed, Fazly said. The animosity ran too deep; alliances were built and broken within days. Yet in the wake of 9/11, many of these same rivals came together to establish the post-Taliban state, which has tentatively survived to the present day. A key to its cohesion has been the abiding presence of a strong guarantorthe coalition of U.S. and international troopsable to compel adherence to shared terms. The one big change, Fazly said, was that the countrys strongmen, power brokers, and warlords now had to obey the rules of the game.

What happens, then, when you remove the guarantor? The question has dogged Afghanistans democratic endeavor since the beginning. In a recent statement, the Taliban scorned the arrogant Americans and recalled a proverb: You may have the watches, but we have the time.

Every democracy has growing pains, but not all get the chance to outlive them. Shaharzad Akbar helped found Afghanistan 1400, a youth-led movement devoted to liberal principles, nearly a decade ago. She recently told me, Afghanistan is still a battleground between democratic values and radicalization. After coming of age in Kabul, Akbar was accepted at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she graduated in 2009 and delivered the commencement address for her class. Living and studying in the U.S. had taught her that it was OK to be a woman, she said at the ceremony, and that to feel and act like a woman in public was a strength, not a weakness. In 2017, Akbar began to work for the Afghan government. Last July, she was appointed to the historic delegation that traveled to Doha to initiate talks with the Taliban. A new mother at the time, she prepared her briefings while her two-month-old sat on the conference hall sidelines, tended to by her husband.

At one point during the first days session, the baby boy stirred, as if wishing to add his voice to the discussions over his countrys future. In some of the lists circulating online, the newborns name was even published as a participant. Observers delighted in the symbolism, but the inclusion was an error.

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Afghanistan May Soon Have Peace. And the Cost Is Democracy. - The New Republic