Land Area: 647,500 sq km
Water: 0 sq km
Comparitive Area: slightly smaller than Texas

Population: 26,813,057 (July 2001 est.)

Government type: no functioning central government, administered by factions

Capital: Kabul

Administrative divisions: 30 provinces (velayat, singular - velayat); Badakhshan, Badghis, Baghlan, Balkh, Bamian, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghowr, Helmand, Herat, Jowzjan, Kabol, Kandahar, Kapisa, Konar, Kondoz, Laghman, Lowgar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Oruzgan, Paktia, Paktika, Parvan, Samangan, Sar-e Pol, Takhar, Vardak, Zabol; note - there may be two new provinces of Nurestan (Nuristan) and Khowst

Political parties and leaders: Taliban (Religious Students Movement) [Mullah Mohammad OMAR]; United National Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan or UNIFSA [Burhanuddin RABBANI, chairman; Gen. Abdul Rashid DOSTAM, vice chairman; Ahmad Shah MASOOD, military commander; Mohammed Yunis QANUNI, spokesman]; note - made up of 13 parties opposed to the Taliban including Harakat-i-Islami Afghanistan (Islamic Movement of Afghanistan), Hizb-i-Islami (Islamic Party), Hizb-i-Wahdat-i-Islami (Islamic Unity Party), Jumaat-i-Islami Afghanistan (Islamic Afghan Society), Jumbish-i-Milli (National Front), Mahaz-i-Milli-i-Islami (National Islamic Front)

Political pressure groups and leaders: Afghan refugees in Pakistan, Australia, US, and elsewhere have organized politically; Mellat (Social Democratic Party) [leader NA]; Peshawar, Pakistan-based groups such as the Coordination Council for National Unity and Understanding in Afghanistan or CUNUA [Ishaq GAILANI]; tribal elders represent traditional Pashtun leadership; Writers Union of Free Afghanistan or WUFA [A. Rasul AMIN]

Afghanistan Transnational Issues
Disputes -

international: support to Islamic militants worldwide by some factions; question over which group should hold Afghanistan's seat at the UN

Illicit drugs: world's largest illicit opium producer, surpassing Burma (potential production in 1999 - 1,670 metric tons; cultivation in 1999 - 51,500 hectares, a 23% increase over 1998); a major source of hashish; increasing number of heroin-processing laboratories being set up in the country; major political factions in the country profit from drug trade

More....

My opinions:

This country is smaller than texas, and has a population much smaller than Canada's. It is divided into 30 mostly self-governing provinces. The Taliban government is made up of religious students and less than 50% of the overall population is literate with an average life expectancy of about 45 years.

Obviously this country survives on subsistance if it were not for the drug trade. Destroying the drug trade would be one of my aims. At the same time I would negotiate for the purchase of legitimate products from them (wheat, rice, maize), under the condition of modern quality controls. This industry should be equally as lucrative for the Afghanis as the drug trade was, so that they abandon it, and create laws to punish people who still pursue it.

Without the drug trade the terrorists will have no where to hide and no way to fund their battles. With quality financial standards, we can track & trace bin Ladin and eventually nail that seditious S.O.B.

Comments?