Pamela Constable, "In Tribal Pakistan, an Uneasy Quiet," Washington Post, Sept 28, 2006:
Foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the tribal region, but some of its prevailing atmosphere and attitude spill into neighboring areas of Pakistan. During a visit this week to Bannu, the closest city to the zone, a reporter found a curious mixture of rapid modernization and strong support for the Taliban.Many people interviewed said admiringly that the Taliban had brought Islamic justice and moral order to Afghanistan, which it ruled from 1996 to 2001. They expressed little fear of the reported presence of Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters in the neighboring tribal areas, and some condoned the recent late-night bombings of two CD shops in Bannu, presumed to be a Taliban warning against music.
"If they became the government here, it would be good. We would have no cinemas, no vulgarity, nothing with a bad impact on our women and children."
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/9/26/135910/830
Afghanistan As Seen from the JFK Library
A friend is serving in Afghanistan. She emails from time to time about what's happening there and her friends here think about her all the time. One of us in that circle of friends emailed me about a forum at the JFK Library on Afghanistan with Sarah Chayes of Afghans for a Civil Society ( http://www.afghansforcivilsociety.org/ ) and Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm and a reporter who's covered Afghanistan. Turns out they are also childhood friends. Jessica Stern of Harvard and former Clinton security official was the moderator.
To understand more and to feel closer to my friend, I went. Both had things to say which added perspective to my limited understanding. Sebastian Junger even revealed something he had never spoken of before.
Chayes said that violence in Afghanistan has been increasing since 2002. It would spike and then recede and then spike again, higher, and recede again and then spike again, higher still.
Junger said that there's good evidence that Pakistan is supporting the Taliban. And doing it with American money said Chayes. Chayes also said that one good thing to do would be for the US, NATO, and the international forces to demand accountability especially at the provincial level. Now, a simple permit can take months and months and require bribes in order to happen.
Junger revealed that he talked with a US officer who was tasked with reconnoitering routes into Iraq before 9/11. It was something he had not made public before. He seems convinced that the Iraq war was planned and ready before 9/11 even happened.
99.5% of the people of Kandahar, where Chayes lives and works, believe that the US is supporting the Taliban. This is because the US is seen as all powerful and, since the Taliban is growing, it obviously must mean that they have US support. The Afghans are also beginning to believe that democracy means stolen elections, corrupt officials, and inept government. If that's democracy, then they don't want it.
Chayes believes that Waziristan is not important. Quetta, Balochistan is where the people dangerous to Afghanistan are. Junger pointed out that most of the "high ranking" Al Qaeda who have been captured in Pakistan have been captured in the cities not in Waziristan. Pakistan is playing a regional game, trying to keep Afghanistan within their sphere of influence and appease the US at the same time. "We are playing checkers while they are playing chess." I wonder if someone is playing go.
There was a question about the opium trade and Chayes explained that the opium traders are essentially the bankers of the community. When a family needs the bride price or to fund some other large expense, they take a loan from the local opium trader who is repaid in opium which he buys from the family for half the going rate, thus making 50% in interest. If you want to cut down on opium trafficking, establish another credit and banking system and concentrate not on the farmers but the traders. The extension of micro-credit would be very useful here.
The Kandaharis say the best of times was the post-revolution Communist government, then the Taliban, third the US today with the worst times being the chaos of the civil war. Security and stability are thus seen as the essentials.
I asked a question based upon a quote from Jessica Stern's book, Terror in the Name of God, "Asked about the biggest threat to their groups' survival, a militant says that 'free secular education for all' leading to an 'increase in the literacy rate' is the gravest threat to the survival of the jihadi groups in Pakistan." I asked whether an open source, all media free secular literacy program arranged to flood the zone would help ameliorate the situation.
Chayes related that she had asked her female Afghan co-workers about literacy education for them and they had rolled their eyes. "Don't ask us to do anything more, please." She also read "flood the zone" as the Internet which is rather superfluous in a country that doesn't have reliable electricity. Of course, I wasn't talking about only an Internet based program or primarily for adult literacy but couldn't ask a follow up question in that forum. My long term strategy for reducing terrorism is available at
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Coming back on the bus and the T, I talked to a guy who had also attended the forum. Turns out he is David Sherman who set up veterinary clinics in Afghanistan and was supposed to go back with another round of funding this summer. It was a program USAID was proud of and all ready to go into the next phase with momentum. He's still waiting for funding and fears that all the momentum has become inertia.
He knew my friend and said she is one person who really gets it. I knew that already but it was good to hear it from somebody who's seen her work on the ground.
May all our soldiers come home safe and sound and fully alive. May they leave behind a flourishing Afghanistan that is safe and secure and self-governing.
Addendum: I called in to "On Point," a radio program, this morning as they were discussing Afghanistan. Got through to screener and started bringing the important ideas I heard at JFK Library but the screener said, "I don't want to hear what Chayes said. What do you think?" I reiterated that the Afghans seem to think the US is behind the recent return of the Taliban and the screener asked, "What do you want to tell our guests?" At that point, I replied that I didn't want to talk to her anymore and hung up.
Posted by: gmoke | September 28, 2006 at 09:41 PM