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REBUILDING AFGHANISTAN

President Bush on Monday pledged to help Afghanistan's Interim Authority Chairman Hamid Karzai rebuild his nation's military and police forces to re-establish stability in the war-torn country.

"Today, peacekeepers from around the world are helping provide security on the streets of Kabul. The United States will continue to work closely with these forces and provide support for their mission," Bush said during a Rose Garden news conference. "We will also support programs to train new police officers and to help establish and train an Afghanistan national military."

Bush and Karzai met for the first time since the Afghan leader assumed the leadership of his country, the focus of the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, in December.

Bush called the decision to train the Afghan military and police forces "a significant change in policy" and said the United States was committed to building a lasting partnership with Afghanistan. He said the United States wanted to help the Afghan government provide the security that is the foundation for peace. But the administration has said repeatedly that U.S. troops would not be part of a peacekeeping force.

Bush also announced an additional $50 million in aid to the Afghan government in rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. That amount comes after the U.S. promise in Tokyo to provide $297 million this year to help leaders rebuild Afghanistan's agricultural sector, health care and education system. The United States will provide $223 million in previously frozen Afghan assets to Karzai's government.

Meanwhile, in Kabul, Afghanistan's Reconstruction Minister Amin Faraq told UPI his government expects $1.8 billion annually in international aid over the next decade.

Faraq said the amount his country received would be subject to review and renegotiation on an annual basis between the Afghan government and representatives of the international community "as the situation in Afghanistan develops."

"The aid package for Afghanistan is part of a long-term process. The international community has done its duty and it's now up to us to prove that we can use the money wisely," said Faraq, who'll travel to Washington this week to meet with officials of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as members of the Bush administration's economic team.

-- How involved do you think the United States should become in rebuilding Afghanistan? Should American troops be part of a peacekeeping force? Why or why not?

MICROSOFT

Judges Robert Bork and Kenneth Starr have joined the list of antitrust experts and industry groups who oppose the proposed settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and software giant Microsoft.

The former U.S. Supreme Court nominee and Whitewater special prosecutor helped draft comments from the Project to Promote Competition and Innovation in the Digital Age, or ProComp, decrying the proposed five-year agreement.

Among other things, the deal calls for Microsoft to allow computer makers to install alternative software on their products, as well as provide programmers with vital details of application program interfaces (APIs), which the Windows operating system uses to work with other software.

But Bork said in a statement that, "the proposed decree is so ineffective that it would not have prevented Microsoft from destroying Netscape and Java, the very acts that gave rise to this lawsuit. It is so ineffective in controlling Microsoft that it might as well have been written by Microsoft itself."

The filing calls on U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to take a hard look at how the deal would serve the public interest, said Mitchell Pettit, ProComp's president. The Justice Department is wrong in thinking the decree would allow API makers to compete effectively with Microsoft, he said, because such companies already make products tightly tied to Windows.

The decree also gives Microsoft far too much discretion in deciding what API information it must share, said Glenn Manishin, an attorney working with ProComp. The decree's goals are laudable, he said, but in practice would result in "ephemeral disclosure" at best.

A competing proposal put forward by nine of the states that originally joined DOJ in suing Microsoft, Starr said, includes proposals for splitting up Microsoft, and such action must be seriously considered -- albeit with caution. Divestiture would eliminate the need for judicial oversight of the DOJ deal, he said, and even retaining the possibility of such action would help prevent future Microsoft misdeeds.

DOJ has defended the settlement before congressional committees, saying it deals effectively with the most egregious conduct of which Microsoft is accused. Other groups also defend the proposed settlement, saying it will allow the tech industry to refocus on better products instead of continued legislation. The nonprofit Citizens Against Government Waste called the settlement fair for all sides, including consumers who would see more choice among software.

-- What do you think?