The question President Obama, along with his dysfunctional Congress and Senate is faced with is: send more troops in or pull everyone out? Gates says he (Obama) isn't ready to make a decision. Pelosi says there's no support. Apparently, McMullin couldn't get past the president's simile and metaphors. An ex-journo I know says pull everyone out right now. My neighbor thinks we're shit. All of this is grounded in politics and appearances. But the reality is that the boots on the ground perspective is much different.
There are no easy answers. I play this out different ways, and each time the only conclusion I come to is that we have to look at the outcomes in either way. More troops in? Yes, but it has to be with a different strategy, following COIN and getting out of the FOBBIT mode. The thought
of pulling out also comes with problems. One is that the women who voted for the first time, and girls finally going to school would see their future greatly diminished. Second, the vast number of underreported efforts and successes by both troops and also non-NGO/US-AID projects would dwindle, eventually coming to a halt.
Here are three that would be in danger of losing all the strides they have made.
First up, if you're not familiar with Baba Tim's Free Range International Blog, then stop in. BabaTim is a retired
Marine who became a contractor. To put it in simple terms, he lives and works among the Afghan people doing precisely what COIN had tried to set out to do. You might want to read a post he wrote called What To Do, Part 2. He, along with others run work for cash projects that focus on rebuilding much needed infrastructure. This gives the locals an alternative revenue source. It takes knowledge, stealth, and intuitiveness to do this. BabaTim and his crew are some of the many who are providing an option.
MIT graduate students have worked via a grant from the National Science Foundation as well as private organizations to set up a Fab Lab in Jalalabad.
"A fab lab is a high tech workshop where we foster the emerging possibility for ordinary people to not just learn about science and engineering but actually design machines and make measurements that are relevant to improving the qualitAmy Sun and the team have been successful at teaching teenagers to set up "Fab Fi" aka Wi Fi, around Jalalabad. Earlier in September, on the FabLab blog, she writes:y of their lives."
"I’m writing this post from waaay up here, my connection via a local meshed node through various hops which find their way (automagically) to the FabFi1 long haul connection out through the GATR which beams my message into orbit and back and finally finally to a server at MIT in Cambridge MA. It’s so very cool.
What’s cooler is what’s happening around me. The water tower is super crowded with people and even more FabFi. It’s a party! Our goals for today are to replace and upgrade every existing FabFi connection and add two more ~3.5km each. Right now it’s a mess of people in salwar kameez’s schooching past each other on the narrow ledge carrying router boxes, reflectors, rope, cables, meters, and so on in every direction. Every now and then there’s a shout followed up something getting thrown UP to the top of the tower, or slightly comical attempts to convey what needs to be fetched from below."
Article comments
1 - Deano
Nice article! Please keep up the writing Kanani!
2 - Ruvy
This was a very informative and well written article, but I'm torn reading it.
Generally, I view American intervention anywhere as bad news. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan, and if Americans wish to avenge themselves of Al Qaeda, Afghanistan is the place to put their emphases. The Pashtun who have erroneously thrown in their lot with the Wahhabi bastards are losing their lives and their homes for a false cause - a heresy.
But that is not all. The Pashtun are descendants of the tribes who were exiled from Israel 2,800 years ago, particularly the Yusufzai, the Rabanizai, and the Afridi, who control the passes to Pakistan. They are descended from the tribe of Ephraim. The Rabanizai are descended from the tribe of Reuven. In other words, Kalani, they are fellow Israelites and they call themselves "Báni Yisraíl" (go check that out with your husband - see if he can find out which Pashtun tribes he is stationed near).
They are brothers to us Jews, but not Jews, and in previous centuries, treated Jewish traders who plied the roads of Aghanistan as brothers and friends, even though they are nominally Moslem. Even now they are but nominally Moslem. Talibanism - anything related to the Wahhabi fanatics - is heresy to Islam, which is truly monotheistic, as is Judaism. But there are other elements of Talibanism, particularly the way they treat women that can appeal to certain (male) elements in Pashtun society.
So, I'm torn, seeing my brother Israelites taught to hate their own brother Jews with such a passion, and I'm torn, seeing both the benefits of American occupation and also knowing its dangers (like Christian missionaries).
I'm not telling you thios because there is anything you can do (though there might be). I'm telling you this because even though these brother Israelites hate me now, the day will come when they will not. I would like to hasten that day.
3 - Ruvy
I apologize, I meant to write 'Kanani'.
4 - kanani
Deano --Thanks!
Ruvy, There's nothing I can do about tribal bloodlines except acknowledge them!