Today I finished a book that has left me in tears. In all of my readings of the issues in the world that have touched me none struck me at my heart like this one has. Anna Badkhen’s journal of her trip to Northern Afghanistan (Waiting for the Taliban: A Journey through Northern Afghanistan originally published in segments in Foreign Policy magazine, now available for Kindle at Amazon.com) takes you right into the hearts and minds of the people who have endured centuries of constant fighting. Ms. Badkhen is no stranger to war. She first reported from this area of Afghanistan for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2001. She has also covered such theaters as Iraq, Palestine and Israel, Chechnya and Somalia. One would expect her to be hardened against the atrocities and living conditions found in such zones. However, through this work you see how strongly her heart is touched. You experience the sublime in how they make it through each day with violence surrounding them, as well as the absurdity of the promises made and broken by those who promised to support them. Most of all though it brings to light how a militant organization can thrive and win the hearts of those that had once loathed them through the simple act of providing some kind of order in their lives lived in fear. How she manages to keep her head together through all of this is a testament to her strength and, I would suspect, her strong belief that what she has to say will in the end help those who suffer as a result of these battles.
This book does not attempt to condemn the US for engaging in this war in the first place and must not be construed as a commentary of such. It simply tries to show you life in Northern Afghanistan and how the people of this region view what has happened in the last decade. In 2001 the US military swept in and literally removed the Taliban, with the help of the Northern Alliance, out of areas of northern Afghanistan. Many of the people there rejoiced in this as they believed that their lot in life would get better. Many promises were made both by the US military, by aid agencies and by the newly elected democratic government of Afghanistan as to the aid they would receive and how their lives would change. The Taliban mean while has been pushed south into areas such as Kandahar and so did the resources to fight them. Quite simply the north was forgotten by everyone. What aid did arrive was in the form of playgrounds or a school building. Note, there were no books, desks, supplies or even teachers so the buildings remain empty. In a couple cases an entire village would get an electric generator, but the people in the village both did not have the money or the ability to get fuel to run them. Very clearly those who did contribute didn’t understand the capabilities of the regions they put stuff in so much of it went to waste. To make matters worse the government implored refugees who had run over the borders to come home, promising them a new and prosperous life. To quote Badkhen “I imagine the indigence of these refugees easily. In Camp Shahraqi Mawjirin, I have met families whom the Afghan government had dumped in a tract of salty desert, where nothing will ever grow, where there are no jobs, no electricity, no doctors” (461-463). Their children were dying of cold at an astonishing rate. The local official for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation can’t do much for them as he was only given 400 blankets for over 220,000 refugees by the government. What little he can do comes out of his own pocket.
Besides the abject poverty once again several militant groups, not just Taliban, have started fighting over the meager resources and brought back up age old feuds. The Pashtuns, who make up most of the Taliban. One of the reasons they welcome them back is the fear of ethnic violence from the Hazara. This feud goes way back in history and both sides have committed amazing atrocities. But the militias provide protection where the government does not. As one person she interviewed mentioned, the Taliban brought order which is better than the anarchy that exists today. They can’t understand how the US has pumped billions of dollars not only into their own supplies and personnel for the war, but into the Afghan government and yet they are still dying from lack of basic security and services. They don’t understand how the US can support a government that they see as entirely corrupt. In fact, Transparency International 2009 Corruption Perception Index had Afghanistan as the second most corrupt country in the world only ahead of Somalia (Transparency International 2009) . The people of northern Afghanistan are not asking to be made rich all of a sudden and have cars, and TV’s etc. They are simply asking for enough rule of law and basic services (running clean water, electricity and health care) so they can have a fighting chance at making a decent life for their children. They just want to live in peace. And when they see the world’s most powerful economic force and military force make promises and walk away without fulfilling them, it is no wonder that they start to resent us.
So what is to be done? Do we give up and pull out? The ramifications of this are far graver than the abject poverty that embraces these people today. Given Pakistan’s current problems with its government and similar corruption and poverty issues it is not out of this world to project that those two countries could easily become Somalia on steroids. The anarchy and poverty of Northern Afghanistan make the region ripe for a number of ethnic and anti government demagogues to take advantage of the people and build up a conglomeration of warlords once again, Al Qaeda being one of them. If this spills into Pakistan you suddenly have a country with nuclear weapons in that mix. Yes it would save us money, and in the short term save some of our service men’s lives. It wouldn’t be long though before that regional instability will foster another major terror attack and we have to consider that in our policy.
History has shown that insurgencies can be beaten. In Brian Connable’s study on historical insurgencies (Connable 2010) he offers a bit of hope that we can beat this down and achieve a stable Afghanistan. It involves one very key ingredient though that is in short supply in the US: patience. The root causes of what allows an insurgency to grab hold must be addressed. In this case it is the abject poverty, the corruption of the federal government and the reconciliation between ethnic groups that have been victims of mutually induced atrocities. This won’t be cheap and requires a long term commitment and likely some American lives. One must ask though if we are willing to spend that now or wait until we experience an attack far worse than 9/11 to start all over again?
Sources:
Badkhen, Anna. Waiting for the Taliban: A Journey through Northern Afghanistan. Las Vegas, NV: AmazonEncore, 2010.
Connable, Ben. How Insurgencies End. 2010. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG965/ (accessed 1 2010, October).
Transparency International. 2009 Corruption Perception Index. 2009. http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/cpi_2009_table (accessed October 1, 2010).
Thanks for sharing this. These are some excellent insights. When I read "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan" (sorry, I know that should be italicized because it is a book, but I'm not certain how to do it) by Greg Mortenson, I was struck by the way it addressed these points of how out of touch things were. In order to build a school, they first had to build a bridge. That secular educations were being provided, with teachers from the area, was encouraging. The whole idea of trying to convert people - i.e. providing "The Christian Reader" as a textbook - just would have been more inflammatory in an already hostile environment.
ReplyDeleteEducation is definitely a key point, and bridging the gap. Interesting is also that there will military leaders involved with the work of the Central Asia Institute. However, education is not the only place that needs to be addressed. Providing stability IS important, and broken promises never reflect well on those making them, regardless of WHY they were broken. Often, hearing the reasons only makes it worse. Figuring out how to honor those promises, even if it is not our political leaders, may prove to be the key to ending all this death. The more you read about the people in any given country, the more you realize that most are trying to do the same things we are here in the United States, in our many different ways, in trying to survive and to raise their families. It helps you to realize how much we take for granted... The instability in our own government may be somewhat paralyzing, but I do believe you make an important point here. Sticking your head in the sand doesn't make your body any safer when the missile hits.
Thanks Kristin, for your post. Another book I think you would enjoy is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. I think one of the things we need to deal with too is that a fully equipped school with staff does not do much good if the people are starving and suffering from very poor health due to lack of water and electricity or there is poor security. You can't learn effectively while emaciated and under threat of death or rape consistently. These basic needs must come first in a way that is practical for the community. Once that is there then education becomes the next big key.
ReplyDeleteI agree. That's why I said it was only part of the solution. I just would rather that there be a commitment to both at the same time. I do plan on reading "Three Cups of Tea", as it is important. One agency can't do it all, but changing tactics from military to developing greater infrastructure and seeing to how to provide for those basic needs for ALL citizens is a challenge that definitely needs to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the major export of Afghanistan is Opium, a product that focusing on cutting demand for globally could significantly reduce the criminality and potentially put Afghan citizens to work actually growing food instead, is a consider that I believe could be made. Yes, there need to be multiple prongs to this attack, but allowing the mortality (including infant mortality) to remain where it is until after the other concerns are addressed still means a longer war than necessary.
The stories of how education could make a difference were pretty inspiring. Believing that an education is something you (or your children) can aspire to - hope - can be a pretty powerful motivator for change. Change has to start somewhere, though, and finding partners to add to a program which is already in place is as good a place as any.
The basic counter-insurgency philosophy meshes well with what many NGOs have been practicing for years. However, I think that NGOs have a much better chance of being successful in implementing the philosophy. It takes just a few rogue soldiers (such as those from one of the Stryker brigades who have recently been charged with murder) to undo the work of the majority of the military. Actions by any U.S. military personnel are taken by civilians in foreign countries to represent majority U.S. opinion or policy.
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