A challenging journey is nowhere near finished

Kerry Sanders Correspondent • Profile

KABUL, Afghanistan — So, just how long ago was it that the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan began?

Here's a little perspective: When the first troops went in, some of those now fighting for the U.S. in this country were only 14.

Yes, it was five years ago that I boarded a rickety old Russian chopper in Tajikistan as I accompanied the Northern Alliance into Afghanistan as the invasion began on Oct. 7, 2001.

On a wing and a prayer, I landed in a country with only one major highway, a place where a husband could beat his wife without consequences, a land with an environment so harsh, fathers told me they had six or seven children because they knew not all would survive to adulthood.

Today, Afghanistan has taken baby-steps forward, but just baby steps.

Slow progress
There's still only one highway. Husbands still regularly beat their wives, and the World Health Organization says infant mortality here is still among the worst in the world. 

But there is a constitution, a democratically elected president and education for both boys and girls. But, as Masuda Jalal, who recently stepped down as Minister for Women's Affairs, will remind you, such political trappings do not reflect deep-seated realities.

The constitution “is guaranteeing equal opportunity in all walks of life,” Masuda said, “but let me tell you, it's [just] on paper. And it does not translate to the routine of life of women.”

Jalal ran for elected office, including for president, twice. She admits that her experience is a clear example of progress. But now she's afraid to venture beyond the four walls surrounding her house. She fears if she were to go out, she might be assassinated. She's been told she's marked for death.

She says the Taliban have threatened to kill her in part because she's worked so hard to promote women's rights. The Taliban oppose women's progress based on their strict interpretation of the Koran, Islam's holy book.

Complicated and complex place
Why, five years after the U.S. arrived here to remove the repressive Taliban, are things moving so slowly?

Dozens of U.S. military commanders, tribal leaders and Afghan experts interviewed by NBC News say the U.S. — like Russia in the war it fought here in the 1980s — is facing the ongoing reality that Afghanistan is a complex, fragmented society situated in a forbidding and difficult landscape. 

The people more readily identify with their tribal roots than their nation and have an immense distrust of promises made by outsiders. In this case, that means about 20,000 members of the U.S. military as well as another 20,000 members from other NATO nations.

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