(AFP) – Oct 5, 2008

KABUL (AFP) — Seven years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, many Afghans have grown increasingly jaded with the changes brought by the removal of the Taliban.

Abdul Latif, selling blocks of ice from a wooden cart on a ragged Kabul street, says he cherishes the "freedom" brought by the ouster of the extremist Taliban regime on October 7, 2001.

But today, "everything is so expensive," laments the 46-year-old who has spent half his life as a fighter in Afghanistan's nearly three decades of war.

Under a dusty umbrella, Latif sells blocks of ice for between 50 and five afghani (one dollar and 10 cents) in a city that only has a few hours of electricity a day and where most people get their water from wells.

His is the kind of hard life endured by most in this destitute nation of roughly 26 million people.

Across the road, kite-seller Zelgai says the spiralling cost of living overshadows his concern about deteriorating security as the Taliban fight back.

"If you have 10,000 afs now you could spend it in 15 days. Before it could last two months," he says, referring to the 1996-2001 Taliban era.

"Inside Kabul it is a little secure but there is no work and no money," he adds, sitting cross-legged in a stall packed with paper kites and reels of string.

Of the post-Taliban reconstruction drive that has cost the international community billions of dollars, he says: "In Afghanistan everyone is rebuilding their pockets, not rebuilding the country."

The past seven years  have seen millions of children enrolled in school, roads and clinics built, elections held, a constitution and parliament in place.

But security is elusive despite the presence of 60-70,000 international troops, with deadly militant attacks, crime and corruption undercutting the efforts of the government and its international partners.

"The first days after the foreign forces forced out the Taliban, security was getting better and people were hopeful that political issues and reconstruction would improve," says shopkeeper Sayyed Ahmad in the southwestern province of Farah.

"Unfortunately in the years after that the situation has become worse... officials made lots of baseless promises which they did not fulfill."

Aid is "stolen" at all levels and President Hamid Karzai has turned the government into a "family business", the 53-year-old alleges.

Authorities erred by alienating and angering "Afghan Taliban" -- as opposed to the more hardline rebels said to be influenced by Al-Qaeda -- instead of winning them over to the new system.

Of the foreign troops still searching for the leaders of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, he asks: "How could they drag Saddam Hussein out from the ground and kill him and secure Iraq but not be able to capture Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden?"

In the central province of Ghazni -- where Taliban activity has soared over the past two years -- material seller Noorullah says that under the Taliban he could save money, but now he can just afford to feed his family.

"Seven years ago all of us were so happy because we all were so tired of war. But every year that has passed the situation has become worse -- there is no security or work, prices are doubled," the 32-year-old says.

"Taliban can freely come into the villages and there are robbers along the roads... people are afraid of the police."

Noorullah says he voted in the first presidential election in 2004 with eagerness. "But I will not take part in the next one. If I do, I will not give my vote to Karzai."

Grocery shop owner Fazil Ahmad, in the relatively prosperous western city of Herat, says his country has been hijacked by hundreds of militias involved in crime and Afghans filling their own pockets with aid money and acting in the interests of their tribes.

His village has a new bridge, a clinic and a school, he says. But prices have jumped as jobs are hard to come by.

Also, "During the Taliban there was no robbery, kidnapping and murder, but now they have increased.

"Since the foreigners have come, life has become more difficult," he says.

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