President Obama had announced that he will send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan while setting a goal of starting to bring forces home by summer 2011.
I logged on to Face Book and an Afghan friend wondered if Obama had asked any Afghan his/her opinion about whether to increase troops or not. I wondered if any of the members of the peace groups had asked any Afghan his/her opinion on whether to withdraw troops or not.
I walked to the office and asked my colleagues what they thought of the decision. Except one, everyone said the decision was good. I asked the guards – all agreed the decision was good. In the evening I went out and asked my driver. He said that the decision was good. I looked inside my own head and came to the horrible realization that if certain conditions were met, I too thought the decision was good.
Since my own reach is limited, I turned to Pajhwok Afghan News whose reporters swarmed the streets across every province in Afghanistan to get reaction. Here too, most thought, with some conditions, the decision was good. Those who did not want the surge, definitely also did not want an immediate withdrawal. Those few who wanted an immediate withdrawal, wanted the American soldiers to instead go guard the border with Pakistan.
Given my years within the non-violent peace movement, I am now so conflicted, I feel compelled to explain myself and to lay out my thoughts, so that others can read and challenge them, and I can examine this turnaround more clearly.
The ridiculous assertions
I’ll just get these out of the way because they are too silly. If you want me to explain why these assertions are silly, write me and I’ll do another blog on it. A Russian General has come out saying, “Afghanistan is an unwinnable war” because after all they tried to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan. Stop. I’m not a flag waving American, but I know enough that we are not behaving the way the Russians did. At least not yet. Some are declaring this to be Obama’s Vietnam. Stop. Compare the casualty numbers between the two events and restrain yourself. There are other comparisons, but reviewing those would mean I take this assertion seriously.
Do Not Escalate the War
When we are in America digesting news about Afghanistan through CNN and most other media sources, “WAR” is what we think about. When we are HERE in Afghanistan, two other words come to mind – “SECURITY” and “DEVELOPMENT”. We don’t really use the word “war” here. A typical question might be, “what do you think? Is the security on the road from Kabul to Jalalbad good?” We don’t say, “What do you think? Is the war bad now between Kabul and Jalalabad”?
“Development” is broken into sectors, and we talk about the education sector, or agriculture, or public health, etc. So when we talk about development, it is usually focused on one area and we all pitch in with what we know. Over a period of 30 years, hospitals, schools, universities, irrigation systems, farmlands, parks, entertainment centers, museums, art galleries, libraries, and more have been destroyed. Systems that make up civil society and run things: education of children, fire and water departments, communication, garbage clearance, sewage systems, banking; all severely damaged. So, as you can see, we have a lot to talk about and it is usually 60 to 80 percent of our daily conversations.
So Obama’s decision on increasing troops is talked about here in Afghanistan, as it relates to how it may/may not improve the security situation in Afghanistan, and how security and development to most Afghans are NOT a chicken and egg story – it is clear to most people. If there is no security, there is no development. There is improvement in certain sectors. However, large scale job creation that is only possible through industrialization (and it could be green economy here) is impossible without security. So, Afghanistan is awash in goods from every country except Afghanistan. The manufacturing industry is a struggling, unhealthy infant.
Along with never talking about the need for Afghanistan’s development, there are two more pieces to this situation that the peace movement chooses not to talk about, or when it does, you over there and us over here are not only singing different tunes, we are singing two completely different songs.
One, the anti-war movement talks about the war “spreading to Pakistan”. Most people here think that the insurgency is “coming from Pakistan”, and now that Obama has put pressure on Pakistan’s leadership to clean house and hell has broken loose in the Waziristan area, most Afghans will say the local version of “the chicken has come home to roost”.
Second, is a skeleton in the closet of Afghanistan’s history, a fear that simmers only skin deep under the skin of many Afghans, and that is the Afghan civil war. The Russians finished their humiliating withdrawal in 1989. The Taliban did not come in till 1996. In this very dark period, Afghanistan erupted into a horrific civil war and in 1994, 10,000 (ten thousand) people died in Kabul alone. This is only a few years ago, and there are many who fear that a quick withdrawal will result in another power vacuum and as such another civil war.
Before I go on to my wish list, I want to vent on my main peeve. There are three kinds of armed forces here that help with security in Afghanistan. There are the Afghan police. The insurgents are not afraid of them, as they are not well trained or well equipped. There are the international forces. The insurgents are not terribly afraid of them, as they don’t do hand to hand combat and can be easily manipulated into bombing innocent civilians. Then there is the Afghan National Army (ANA) – not enough in number, maybe not the best trained, but very brave and well armed and trusted by the locals.
More members of the ANA have died than ALL OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOLDIERS ACROSS ALL OF THE COUNTRIES PUT TOGETHER. They deserve our support in helping to increase their number and improving their training to the point at which they can defend themselves. They deserve that their contribution in bringing security and stability to Afghanistan be recognized. Please, stop talking only about American soldiers giving up their lives, and about Afghan civilians. There are Afghan soldiers here fighting more bravely than the international forces and paying a heavier price for it.
My Wish List
President Obama gave a speech. I do not know the details of his plan. I hope it includes the following:
1. Increase in the number of troops with the following caveats: their primary responsibility is to recruit and train more people in the ANA, they consult heavily with ANA before engaging in any battle, they run away from battles if it looks like they are out gunned and come back the next day; they do NOT call in for air power and bombing. It does not work. This last tactic has already started and people are appreciating it.
2. I like the deadline, because it does say two things: we are not here to stay, and it puts pressure on Afghanistan to take responsibility for their own security. Keep repeating this message.
3. Put pressure on BOTH the Afghan government and USAID to not engage in corruption and implement best practices in the use of development aid dollars.
4. Pledge to continue giving money for development even after we have withdrawn. We cannot rebuild in two years. We cannot rebuild in 10 years. It will take longer. We need to keep supporting Afghanistan in its development because we played a large part in its destruction.
5. Return USAID to what it was, a genuine aid organization full of people who knew what they were doing and people who cared. Take it away from the State department.
6. This one is a real stretch - the US Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) and the Army Core of Engineers (ACE) cannot be effective when they are part of the US Army. Remember, even the Taliban are calling for the withdrawal of the NATO army, NOT of aid organizations. No other country has this linkage. Relabel them as private or non-military government organizations staffed with skilled engineers who are skilled in reconstruction of roads, buildings, etc.
7. Peace is not the absence of war. My challenge to the Peace Community is to develop a compelling policy of peace and stability in Afghanistan and lobby for its continued funding by the US Government long after the last soldier has been withdrawn. I have scoured the web-sites of the anti-war groups, and I find no such policy of peace. It is not candles and sage, it is not posters and bumper stickers, it is not marches with chants of “Who is the terrorist? Bush / Obama is the terrorist”. it is a whole lot of tangible infrastructure that challenges us American to share our wealth for sound domestic policies – both at home and for those countries less fortunate than us.
8. I believe that ONLY WHEN we financially contribute towards a compelling peace policy, which is far, far cheaper than a policy of using weapons to keep peace, true peace is possible. When we believe that spending money on our own health care is important and giving some money to another country’s health care is also important, peace will arrive. Until the various peace movements can rally together, come up with such a policy, lobby for it and legislate it, simply a rant of “withdraw all troops” is not just ineffective, it is naive.
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