Winning Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan
by John Little on 2/07/2008The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Betsy Hiel has an excellent piece on the challenging village by village effort to transform Afghanistan:
The Afghans and the Americans, bulky in battle gear, cram into chairs and delicately sip milky tea from tiny white cups, balancing saucers on their knees.
Hakim Wali is the elder in Narizah, the village suspected of being a Taliban haven. A black-and-gray turban matches the gray-flecked jet-black beard of his deeply lined face.
The men discuss tribal feuds over local chromite mines and Wali’s complaints that government promises of projects, such as a dam, remain unfulfilled.
Karr says $50 million in U.S. aid was given to projects controlled by provincial officials.
“It would be better if you gave the projects to a foreign country,” Wali says. “There is so much corruption in the government.”
“If we always do everything for them, the government and their people will never know how to do it,” Karr says.
Wali is unmoved, insisting the government knows how to rule, but not justly: “They should build a government everyone can participate in.”
“We can’t build a government for you,” Karr says. “You have to build it for yourself.”
The elder persists: “You should put pressure on our government.”
Karr, patiently: “The pressure needs to come from the people. If we put pressure on them, as soon as we leave they are just going to revert to their old ways. The government is a servant of the people.”
“If we put pressure on them, they say we are al-Qaida,” Wali says, laughing.
Karr tells him if a man “doesn’t like the way the government is being run … he should run for office himself … so he can make sure it gets done right.”
Wali quotes a Pashtun proverb. “The summer doesn’t come with only one flower.”
“One of the proverbs we have is that the world is ruined when good men sit idly by,” Karr replies.
“We really appreciate that you are here for us,” Wali finally says. “You cooperate with us, and we will cooperate with our own government to make it better. This is our country and we should do something.”
Betsy Hiel and Justin Merriman are filing additional reports for the Tribune here.
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