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one’s theory accordingly. You famously and controver- sially spent some time “behind enemy lines” in the company of the Taliban. How would you de- scribe the Taliban in just a few words? Polite. Generous. Incredibly hos- tile to strangers, but even more hospitable to their guests. I test- ed this analysis to the full when I was travelling with the Taliban in 2006. One section of the Taliban forces, just returning from fight- VIVID 2nd Edition March 2008 “We attempted to en- force democracy and a Western imposed aid system which quite frankly has been a complete disaster” ing the British, heard of my pres- ence and arrived demanding that I be handed over to them and killed. The commander of the section that I was with, however, stood his ground and replied “not over my dead body”. Luckily for me the hospitality for a guest proved to be stronger than the hostility shown to strangers. How do you see the future of Afghanistan? Very negatively. There exists a di- rect connection between foreign policy and the Middle Eastern conflict. There was a unique his- toric opportunity in 2001 to really change things and put Afghani- stan on different tracks, going in the direction of peace, stability and possibly democracy. Howev- er, we weren’t quick enough. We attempted to enforce democracy and a Western imposed aid sys- tem which quite frankly has been a complete disaster. As a result the future now looks grim. The Taliban are once more increasing in popularity and are finding it easier to recruit. The current gov- ernment is corrupt, the Taliban is not. On top of this the drug econo- my in Afghanistan is still twice as large as the national economy. You recently wrote an article for the BBC entitled “Little Hope for Afghans in 2008”. Giv- en the long history of occupa- tion and violent conflict what do you think Afghans actually hope for? Peace and security. Indeed, I think they want what the West wants for them, in terms of education and democracy. They are happy for the Americans to stay in order to realise these dreams, the prob- lem is that we seem no closer to achieving them and people are be- ginning to believe that things were better under the Taliban. David Loyn’s book, ‘Frontline’ is out now. His next one, ‘Butcher and Bolt’, relates Afghanistan’s turbulent history and is out in the autumn. 19 V
