...and back at the office

If you've been following the news on Afghanistan, you'll know that Gen. Stanley McChrystal recently took command of US and NATO forces in the country. According to what I've read, this is an important step for the US but the Obama administration continues to face tremendous challenges in getting Afghanistan's reconstruction effort back on track. They've got their work cut out for them, particularly in terms of establishing rule of law in Afghanistan.

In comes the UNODC. The division in which I work is - at this very moment! - holding a three-day conference with a number of delegates from Afghanistan's criminal justice community. (And yes, yours truly has been able to attend. It made spending hours copying Dari and Pashto conference documents totally worth it.) The conference provides training on a number of technical issues related to rule of law. The most interesting part of the conference was a session on terrorist financing. The session touched on the crime-terror nexus in Afghanistan (opium sales fueling terrorist activities). The delegates seemed pretty open about the fact that Taliban operatives and drug traffickers are one and the same. The general consensus was that combating trafficking would have a major impact on terrorist organizations in the country.

A US Dept. of Justice representative is attending the conference along with the Afghan delegation. The rep seems really committed to strengthening the country's legal system and he talked briefly yesterday about some of the work he's done with Iraq. Although Iraq (obviously) has a different set of challenges than Afghanistan, it sounds as though the Obama administration has some experts with a proven record of success at the helm of the revamped Afghanistan mission.