Pakzad, Karim
Afghanistan: An Uncertain Democratic Transition
- 2005.
88
Three years after the American intervention in Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban's regime, the October 9, 2004 presidential election — the first in Afghanistan's history — paves the way for reconstruction and democratization. However, the consequences of twenty-five years of war are still present and the future is still uncertain. These elections were the result of the Bonn's agreements, imposed to the anti-Taliban opposition by the international community, led by the United States which reigns supreme over a country under its protection. This uncertainty derives mainly from the conditions of the American intervention, which was a circumstantial response to the 9/11 attacks more than the result of a real willingness to establish democracy in Afghanistan. Hence the persistence of warlords'power, of drugs trafficking, and of Taliban's ideology.