A CLOSER LOOK -- A cold warrior view of Afghanistan

Paul Clinton

COSTA MESA -- As a die-hard cold warrior in the Reagan White House,

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher saw Afghanistan as a crucial battleground in the

fight against the spread of communism.

Rohrabacher, whose district includes Costa Mesa, unblinkingly

supported the funneling of hundreds of millions of dollars a year in aid

to moujahedeen rebels at odds with Soviet invaders.

But once the war was over -- the Soviets limped out of the country in

1989 after a decade of losses -- our country’s government stopped writing

the fat checks.

“I believe that the people of Afghanistan gave a great gift to the

world,” Rohrabacher said. “It was their bravery that broke the back of

the Soviet empire ... We owed them something. It was a debt that was

never paid.”

Instead of working to rebuild the war-torn country, the first Bush

Administration applied its resources elsewhere.

Rohrabacher says that abandonment fueled the rise of the Muslim

extremists now running the country. It has been the Taliban regime, led

by Mullah Mohammed Omar, that has laid out the welcome mat to Osama bin

Laden and other Islamic terrorists.

Rohrabacher’s fascination with Afghanistan runs deeper than just a

curiosity to seek out news about the region. The congressman has taken a

handful of colorful trips to the country, built friendships with local

warlords and lobbied high-ranking federal officials to take a more active

role in Afghan affairs.

On Sept. 17, Rohrabacher delivered an impassioned speech from the

House floor. It was less than a week after terrorists suspected of acting

under orders from Bin Laden crashed planes into the World Trade Center

and Pentagon.

Rohrabacher called for the “killing of Bin Laden and his gang of

fanatics,” a refrain he continues to hammer home.

“The solution is to kill Bin Laden, turn the Taliban out of power and

get on with a civil society,” Rohrabacher said in an interview last week.

“I don’t think any of us should be satisfied until his head is delivered

in a canvas sack.”

Afghanistan, like the oft-invaded Poland and ethnically roiled former

Yugoslavia, has had a turbulent history. The country emerged from British

control in 1919, after winning the Third Anglo-Afghan War, to declare

independence. After the assassination of King Muhammad Nadir Shah in

1933, Zahir Shah ascended to power.

Zahir presided over 40 years of peace, ruling the country until he was

overthrown in a palace coup in 1973. By 1979, Soviet tanks were

descending on the country, which was still in a state of chaos.

Rohrabacher, along with a delegation of congressional leaders, visited

Zahir in Rome in late September. The group appealed to the aging

86-year-old king to unite anti-Taliban forces.

On Oct. 2, Zahir announced he would seek to install a constitutional

democracy in the country if the Taliban is overthrown.

“The people of the country have legitimate love in their hearts for

him,” Rohrabacher said. “He is still the legendary king to them.”

The country has always been fractionalized by ethnic groups vying for

power. In many ways, the tribes, each led by a warlord figure, resemble

Scotland of an earlier day, said John Agnew, who teaches a class on the

country at UCLA.

“It’s a bit like the Highlands of Scotland in the mid-18th Century,”

Agnew said. “The problem is [the warlords] change sides depending on who

gives them the better deal.”

Rohrabacher first traveled to the country in 1988, shortly after his

election to Congress. Prior to that time, he had served as one of

President Reagan’s speech writers.

Traveling in secrecy in the country, Rohrabacher spent five days with

the moujahedeen, camping in ravines and witnessing artillery fire.

There were at least seven major factions in the country at the time,

Rohrabacher said. One of those was the Wahhabi branch of Islam, the Saudi

Arabia-financed extremist group that includes Bin Laden. Of course, Bin

Laden has founded his own terror group known as Al Qaeda.

Rohrabacher said he encountered the Wahhabis on that trip.

“I walked past his camp,” Rohrabacher said. “I was told they were all

crazy and [that] they’ll try to kill you.”

Rohrabacher became fast friends with Afghan generals affiliated with

Zahir. One of those was Gen. Ramatullah Safi, who caused a stir when he

rode with the congressman in Huntington Beach’s Fourth of July Parade in

1990.

Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardock, a commander for the former king, was brought

to this country by Rohrabacher recently to provide intelligence

information to the government.

In 1994, on a trip to the Kyber Pass on the Afghan-Pakistani border,

Rohrabacher met with the country’s major factions.

“I spent a couple days there,” Rohrabacher said. “I slept with a

shotgun next to my bed.”

His most recent trip was two years ago, when he met with anti-Taliban

forces at the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, a country that has

become a stopover point for U.S. troops.

As for the future of the country, Rohrabacher strongly supports a U.S.

role in some form of recovery from oppressive Taliban rule.

“We can rebuild Afghanistan,” Rohrabacher said. “Time to get on with

the job.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at o7

[email protected] .