A show of force in Afghanistan

Hundreds of men gathered in this provincial capital yesterday to celebrate the arrival of their new governor, Abdel Hakim Taniwal. He had just returned from Australia to accept a challenging offer from his old friend, Hamid Karzai, the chairman of Afghanistan's interim administration.

Mr. Taniwal, a former Kabul University lecturer in sociology and anthropology, was heralded by the chants of schoolboys and the embraces of tribal elders as a man who could bring peace and security to one of the most troubled corners of Afghanistan.

Sounds great, except that the man who wields the most power in these parts refuses outright to accept Taniwal's appointment. Badsha Khan Zadran, a hulking if affable warlord, says he is the rightful governor of Khost, Paktia, and Paktika Provinces – eastern Afghanistan's Pashtun heartland – and dismisses Mr. Karzai as a puppet who doesn't represent "the real Pashtuns."

"He [Karzai] appoints the governor in the morning, then he removes that one and appoints another one in the evening," scoffs Mr. Khan, dressed as usual in an immense turban, a drab olive military coat, and a golden-tipped ammunition belt slung across his chest.

Only half a mile across town, the new governor says in an interview just after his inaugural ceremony that Khan has grossly overestimated his power, and should step aside and cooperate with Karzai. "He thinks he is a big man," Taniwal says of Khan. "He wants to be the president of three provinces – and to control both their military and civilian affairs. He appointed himself," says Taniwal, a respectable-looking man with a white beard and soft voice.

Taniwal and Khan, in fact, go back a long time. The two men – almost the same age – knew each other from the time when all Afghans were united against a common enemy, the Soviets; their fathers were friends too.

Their differences in another place and time might be small-town politics. But at the moment, they are Afghanistan's problems writ large. Their dress codes speak volumes about the struggle between the country's warlords and intelligentsia: one's claim to power is based on the number of guns loyal to him, while the other says his credentials as an educator give him the weapons Afghanistan clearly needs most.

The dispute has even broader implications, because it threatens to drag the US military into its center, a place it hardly wants to be while trying to stay focused on its chief target: going after Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters.

In fact, a 1,000-strong force led by British Royal Marines, supported by US special forces and airpower, began a major sweep through southeastern Afghanistan yesterday. The task of "Operation Snipe" is to destroy Al Qaeda caves and bunkers and to kill or capture any Al Qaeda militants and Taliban fighters.

Khan and his forces have been important allies of the US military's war on terror in this part of the country. While US officials say they will stay out of internal disputes, that could become increasingly difficult. Khan and his troops, 600 of whom were trained by US special forces, say the US owes them a debt of gratitude for help against Al Qaeda. But Khan's opponents say they can't understand why US forces right here in Khost have done nothing to rein in the chaos.

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