I visited schools in Kabul in 2004 and what I saw there reinforced what I had learned in Peshawar almost twenty years before, about Afghans and education. That is, if you put up a sign that says "School" it will be full of Afghans in about a New York minute. No matter if you hang your sign outside a bombed-out building or a vacant lot, if you teach it, they will come. In 1987 when my colleagues and I opened a journalism training center in Peshawar a line began to form almost immediately. We had to conduct our admissions interviews on the lawn of the venerable Dean's Hotel, where adult Afghan refugees patiently queued up waiting for a chance at a seat in the classroom. Of course there were no Afghan women in that waiting line. The women were queued up elsewhere, at the offices of Save the Children and other NGOs seeking treatment for depression or shelter from battering husbands; the lot of women in the refugee camps was even bleaker than it had been in the home villages they had abandoned during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
In Kabul, as schools began to reopen after the ouster of the Taliban, Afghans of all ages and both sexes (though not together) flooded the classrooms of the primary schools, high schools, and Kabul University. One of the most joyous sights in Kabul was seeing young schoolgirls in their new uniforms bouncing along the street in happy bunches on their way to and from school. It is easier for them in Kabul, where the level of security is still better than in most parts of the country, but even there the children have to be aware of kidnappers, suicide bombers and Taliban terrorists. Still they are not deterred, and are willing to risk their lives for what most American kids take for granted.
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March 11, 2010
House Afghanistan Debate: What Kucinich Accomplished
Yesterday, at long last, there was a vigorous debate about the war in Afghanistan on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. The legislative vehicle was a resolution introduced by Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich calling for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of the year. But House critics of the war have long been agitating for a real debate.
This is the debate that should have been held - at least - last fall when the Administration was considering sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, or - at least - when the Administration announced its plans to send more troops. If the House had held this debate while the Administration was mulling its decision, the Congressional airing of arguments against military escalation and in favor of political and diplomatic solutions would have attracted a lot more attention, and could have affected the decision. No doubt, the possibility that a Congressional debate then might have affected the policy was a key motivation for some in the House leadership not to allow this debate to occur then.
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This is the debate that should have been held - at least - last fall when the Administration was considering sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, or - at least - when the Administration announced its plans to send more troops. If the House had held this debate while the Administration was mulling its decision, the Congressional airing of arguments against military escalation and in favor of political and diplomatic solutions would have attracted a lot more attention, and could have affected the decision. No doubt, the possibility that a Congressional debate then might have affected the policy was a key motivation for some in the House leadership not to allow this debate to occur then.
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March 10, 2010
Message to Republicans: Stop Hiding Behind the Troops
In what can only be described as a cheap partisan attack masquerading as patriotic chest-thumping, House Republicans this morning issued a statement opposing Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich's resolution for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan because... [drum roll please] the Republicans strongly support the troops in Afghanistan.
In a statement of Republican policy forwarded to GOP politicians and their staffers, the House Republican Leadership and the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Republicans write, "Since the President's speech, more United States Armed Forces have been deployed to the Afghanistan theatre in support of the implementation of our nation's counterinsurgency strategy. Many of them leave behind family and friends for the second, third, and fourth time. They have been engaged in the largest offensive since the beginning of the war there, and they have done a magnificent job. House Republicans are mindful these troops and their families will be watching this debate and remain committed to working towards swift and clean action when the resources impacting their military readiness, operational needs, and family support is debated and passed this spring."
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In a statement of Republican policy forwarded to GOP politicians and their staffers, the House Republican Leadership and the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Republicans write, "Since the President's speech, more United States Armed Forces have been deployed to the Afghanistan theatre in support of the implementation of our nation's counterinsurgency strategy. Many of them leave behind family and friends for the second, third, and fourth time. They have been engaged in the largest offensive since the beginning of the war there, and they have done a magnificent job. House Republicans are mindful these troops and their families will be watching this debate and remain committed to working towards swift and clean action when the resources impacting their military readiness, operational needs, and family support is debated and passed this spring."
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March 8, 2010
Missing from Hurt Locker Shout-Outs: Iraqis?
Another Hurt Locker
When Mark Boal accepted his best original screenplay Academy Award last night for "The Hurt Locker," he dedicated his award to the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Best Picture Award winner vividly depicts the particular traumas faced by those troops, and like other war films, it has made little at the box office. Perhaps, however, its six Academy Awards will call greater attention to the fact that we continue to be a nation at war.
Another, different "hurt locker" haunts these wars: it is the veteran hurt locker of hidden casualties. How many of us know that, of the 30,000 suicides every year in the U.S., twenty percent are veterans? About 18 a day kill themselves, and from 2005-2007, the rate among younger vets rose 26 percent. None of these many thousands of deaths is counted among the casualties of our current wars.
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Another, different "hurt locker" haunts these wars: it is the veteran hurt locker of hidden casualties. How many of us know that, of the 30,000 suicides every year in the U.S., twenty percent are veterans? About 18 a day kill themselves, and from 2005-2007, the rate among younger vets rose 26 percent. None of these many thousands of deaths is counted among the casualties of our current wars.
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Beware the Afghan Dependency Paradox
In Marjah, the "Government in a Box" is about to deploy. It will be the moment of truth for General McChrystal and Hamid Karzai's battle strategy for Operation Moshtarak. The stakes are higher than simply the success of ISAF's COIN strategy in Marjah, and after Marjah comes Kandahar.
This past week I was lucky enough to attend two events featuring US Special Representative. Richard Holbrooke. During the second of these, a public address at the Kennedy School of Government, Amb. Holbrooke spoke of his fear of the possibility of a "dependency trap" in Afghanistan. This is not the first time the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan has touched on this subject. In a 2009 appearance with USAID, Holbrooke noted that his greatest concern was
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This past week I was lucky enough to attend two events featuring US Special Representative. Richard Holbrooke. During the second of these, a public address at the Kennedy School of Government, Amb. Holbrooke spoke of his fear of the possibility of a "dependency trap" in Afghanistan. This is not the first time the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan has touched on this subject. In a 2009 appearance with USAID, Holbrooke noted that his greatest concern was
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March 6, 2010
One in Three Killed By Drones in Pakistan Is a Civilian
A new report from the New America Foundation states that one of every three people killed in the U.S.'s not-so-secret drone war in Pakistan is a civilian. The report also discloses that none of the strikes in 2009 targeted Bin Laden, and that they have had little impact on the Taliban's ability to plan operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. To the contrary, the drone strikes serve as a powerful recruiting tool for the Taliban and al Qaeda.
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March 5, 2010
PBS’ ‘This Emotional Life’: Supporting Our Veterans And Military Families
Where do I begin to describe the power of community? In the eight years since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have waged, a community-based movement to ensure that this generation of warriors and their families receive the support they so deserve has resonated, changing the way we care for those who have served. Some of these groups have started from the ground up: a group of therapists wants to donate pro bono services; a mother, mourning the loss of her son Jacob sends care packages in his memory. In other cases, existing organizations, touched by the fallout of war, have developed programs specifically for Iraq and Afghanistan-era families. This movement has touched the lives of over two million deployed troops and their families, and in the face of a national economic crisis and an eight year war, has remained unwaveringly dedicated to providing and advocating for our military, veterans, families, and survivors.
It is difficult to sum up the need and the response in a one thousand word blog. In an effort to explain the daily work of those in the Coalition for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans (CIAV), here are a few examples of the calls we receive: veterans needing help with disability claims, jobs, and medical assistance; families on the verge of eviction, with utility bills racking up; a homeless female veteran needs residential treatment, but what of her children? And so we go, providers respond quickly to the requests for support, collaborate with fellow Coalition agencies and try to cobble together a plan. There is no cookie cutter model for delivering the breadth of services and support needed. There is no master checklist that can anticipate and guide every nuance of deployment and homecoming. Nonprofit community providers improvise, in real time, in a way that our partners in government often wish they could. We are agile, effective, and on the ground, in the communities in which the veteran returns to.
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It is difficult to sum up the need and the response in a one thousand word blog. In an effort to explain the daily work of those in the Coalition for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans (CIAV), here are a few examples of the calls we receive: veterans needing help with disability claims, jobs, and medical assistance; families on the verge of eviction, with utility bills racking up; a homeless female veteran needs residential treatment, but what of her children? And so we go, providers respond quickly to the requests for support, collaborate with fellow Coalition agencies and try to cobble together a plan. There is no cookie cutter model for delivering the breadth of services and support needed. There is no master checklist that can anticipate and guide every nuance of deployment and homecoming. Nonprofit community providers improvise, in real time, in a way that our partners in government often wish they could. We are agile, effective, and on the ground, in the communities in which the veteran returns to.
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Compensation for Afghan Civilians is Much More than Money
Fruit tree, $60. Cow, $300. Serious injury, $1,500. These are typical compensation amounts some international troops offer to civilians harmed by their operations in Afghanistan. Such calculations seem cold and reading reports on compensation in the Marjah operation, one might think its not much different than haggling over shoes in a bazaar.
However, compensation is more than a financial transaction. The money is much needed as families struggle to cope with tragedy. And military leaders are learning that the money is often not as important as the recognition of a loss.
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However, compensation is more than a financial transaction. The money is much needed as families struggle to cope with tragedy. And military leaders are learning that the money is often not as important as the recognition of a loss.
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AT WAR: UN Envoy Says It’s ‘Time To Talk’ To The Taliban
We are blogging the latest news about America's war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Email us at AfPak [at] huffingtonpost.com. Follow Nico on Twitter; follow Nicholas on Twitter. See archives of 'At War' here.
With reporting by Faiz Lalani.
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With reporting by Faiz Lalani.
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