9-11-2010

I debated this one all day and all night...and now that it's well past the witching hour (and actually 9/12 here), I figured...what the hell.  September 11 in Afghanistan has come and gone, and as I expected, it was not particularly striking to be here on that date.  More significant than the attacks of nine years ago was the fact that it was the 2nd day of Eid al Fitr, so our Afghan colleagues were in the midst of their holiday time...making work as usual, fittingly, not an option. 

So what of it?  While I always will remember and commemorate the heroes and the victims of that day, and remain cognizant of the fact that I am here in Afghanistan right now -- for my second stay -- because of a terrorist attack almost a full decade ago...it's a world and multiple eras ago.  The people of this land were largely unaware of the United States at all in 2001, apart from those who knew of and appreciated the assistance provided the Mujahiddin in the 1980's as they waged an effective counterinsurgency against Russian invaders.  A horrific civil war which followed the withdrawal of the Soviet Union left Afghans desperate for something, anything, which provided a semblance of law & order.  They got it, and more than most bargained for, with the Taliban.  The ultra-religious movement, mainly led and staffed by foreigners, profited from a connection with Al Qaeda and hosted the burgeoning international terrorist movement here...bringing Afghanistan squarely into the crosshairs (literally) of U.S. and allied Coalition might in the days following the 9/11 attacks.

You may forgive the ordinary Afghan for wondering how the hell a terrorist strike carried out by 19 Arabs on places they've never heard of could result in a few new chapters of topsy-turvy war for their "hearts and minds".  By multiple eras ago, I mean that a swift victory of late '01 led to the promises and commitments by the international community of '02 and '03, the troubling signs of the next few years as insurgencies (they were not and are not one collective movement) stubbornly stuck around and even made gains in some spots, the reversal of tenuous stability in entire regions and the effects of a still-porous border in the next few, the deadly campaigns for Eastern mountains and Southern deserts which continue, and the current state of affairs...in which a nation is asked to be built, and by yesterday.

The biggest problem with that nation-building, out of all of them?  It could be the training of Afghan security forces, for many feel that such a feat may take years longer to properly do than currently discussed timelines permit.  It could be the construction and stabilization of institutions which will permit the nation to provide for its own needs without massive annual international assistance -- again, something that will take much longer than a couple of years if it is possible at all.  Looming larger than any of these, however, is the matter of who the Afghan people would rather see in charge...their current government or Taliban 2.0, my name for the loose grouping of insurgent forces who claim a lineage from the 90's crew, and may very well answer to the same Mullah Omar (I, for one, am not of the belief that Osama bin Laden is alive, or that he's relevant if he is).  For many, particularly in the rural areas which dominate most of the country, the same choice faces them now as in 1995...

Do you support an utterly corrupt and ineffective government, from the district level through the provincial to the national, with its bribes upon bribes...yet the legal and administrative systems simply never go anywhere?  Do you give it time to work, when the brave people who step up to try and improve it immediately become targets for doing so?  Or do you, out of even a touch of ideology or just amassed frustration, decide to cast your lot with the swift sytems of the shadow government of your area, because they seem to be strictly observant Muslims and they get results?  That is the crisis facing the Coalition and our Afghan partners.  And it's a long, long way from that blue-sky day nine years ago when four passenger jets were turned into missiles of world-altering destruction.

You see, it's getting so that I see little correlation these days between the wreckage which burned for months where a pair of impossibly tall buildings had just stood, right across the river from my eyes, and the state of affairs over here in 2010.  Countless young Americans and loyal allies -- many of whom were teens or even pre-teens when those attacks took place -- are waking up in a few hours to do what they do every day, and try to convince those aforementioned ordinary Afghans that their official officials are worth supporting.  I don't have the answers. More than likely, you don't have the answers. I fervently hope that a young generation of Afghans who've had enough of this cycle have the answers, and can break the pattern in time.
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My boss shared his thoughts today too, and in my opinion it's certainly worth a read to see what the Commanding General of NATO Training Mission Afghanistan thinks about where we are and why it is important. 

Why We Are Here: Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell, IV

"The Taliban will not give up their tyranny over the Afghan people without a fight. We see this every day when they murder innocent civilians and assassinate government officials, to include our brothers in the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, and recent poisonings of innocent school children across the country. Our best weapon against their oppression and the division they sow is our unity."