KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — There's a warning posted in a Kandahar mosque that crystallizes a growing culture of fear, distrust and paranoia.
It reads: “Anyone that works for the foreign troops is the eyes of the foreigners. And we take the eyes first.”
Welcome to Kandahar, Afghanistan's second most important city. It's the closest town to the Kandahar Airfield where most of 2,300 Canadian soldiers in the country are based.
Despite their best efforts and those of 21,000 other coalition troops, security isn't improving here. It's getting worse.
Hardened soldiers increasingly dread travelling Kandahar's teeming roads, especially the bomb-prone stretch dubbed Suicide Alley.
The main drag through town is sporadically pockmarked and gouged where the most ardent anti-government militants have blown themselves up, taking dozens of troops and civilians with them. There are attacks at least once a week and rising.
Kandahar is among the poorest parts of Afghanistan, making it one of the poorest places on Earth.
“This is the worst hellhole I've ever been in,” declared a Canadian contractor who wished to remain anonymous. “And I've bicycled across Africa by myself.”
Threats are by no means limited to outsiders.
“I personally feel my life is in danger because I work for foreigners,” says Khalil, 34, a father of two who works for a construction company. He asked that his last name be withheld for his safety.
“The American and Canadian troops are basically stuck on their bases, and now people are starting to support the Taliban out of fear.”
Suspected government collaborators often receive night letters like the warning posted in the mosque, telling them to leave town or else. Whether the senders are Taliban or some other source bent on spreading instability is rarely clear.
Khalil says there are relatively few actual Taliban in Kandahar. Still, their influence is felt keenly among people who are losing hope for real change.
“If you at least say you support the Taliban, maybe they won't kill you,” he said.
Khalil keeps a copy of a macabre Internet video shot in the last year as members of the Islamic hardline militia cut the heads off several interpreters who worked for foreigners.
He also has a grisly collection of photos taken of the remains of suicide bombers — typically extremists from outside the country, he says. Afghans themselves have historically shunned such tactics.
Gory images are all too familiar around Kandahar. Long gone are the days when this town of fruit and vegetable vendors, mosques and free-roaming goats was a mecca for hippies. Kandahar is increasingly a no-go zone for aid workers and visitors of all kinds.
Women are rarely seen in the streets, even those in full-veil burkas.
And while the former Taliban heartland in the south is ground zero for some of the worst violence in the country, security is sliding in much of the country, local citizens and foreign workers report.
“It's not just related to the anti-government elements, but in general,” says Scott Braunschweig of CARE.
“Some commanders and common criminals have become a bit more brazen in the last six months.
“You have the attacks on schools, attacks on visible development efforts that have gone up incredibly this year.”
Much of the blame rests with President Hamid Karzai's failure to crack down on corruption, said Khalil.
Afghans had great hopes five years ago that a new government would build a strong foundation for a democratic nation, he says. Instead, the people watched as vicious warlords and criminals were rewarded with positions of power.
“Karzai backed all the wrong people.”
It's a sentiment echoed by Mr. Karzai's critics as calls increase for his replacement.
Police corruption is rampant, leaving average Afghans with nowhere to turn for justice, Khalil added.
He then opened digital photos of his wife and sister, free of veils, enjoying a picnic along an isolated bend in the Arghandab River with their children.
“Typical Afghans just want to live a normal life,” he said wistfully, “like people anywhere in the world.”
