Afghan Defense Official Looks Warily Westward

Gulbuddin, the Afghan defense official known as "Doctor" from his former job as a surgeon, is worried about developments in the Middle East. An American invasion of Iraq, he says, could hurt his country's efforts to build a lasting peace.

Dr. Gulbuddin, chief of staff for Defense Minister Mohammed Qasim Fahim, talked with EurasiaNet in Kabul recently, while President Hamid Karzai traveled to Bonn, Germany, to mark the first anniversary of the accords that laid the foundation for Afghanistan's reconstruction. Fahim did not join the delegation, and Gulbuddin's mind was fixed on the future. He worried flatly about the Persian Gulf's potential effect on Afghan reconstruction.

"If any major war or crisis flares up somewhere in the Middle East tomorrow, we in Afghanistan would stand to lose in terms of attention, aid and focus," he said in a phone interview. This lost focus, he added, could impede the international war on terrorism. The official told EurasiaNet that many al Qaeda fighters are still around biding their time. "They are saying to themselves,