afghanistan – Page 4 – Citizen Reporter

ctrp349 Lessons Not Learned in Afghanistan

Over the last 4 years working in Afghanistan, Bette Dam has learned a few things. During her time embedded with the Dutch military in Uruzgan she learned that this was no way to do journalism. Researching and observing the behavior of the other international forces she learned of the counter-productive posturing and refusal to learn from the past. Moreover, as a journalist, she has learned the challenges of getting people in the west to pay attention and think critically about reports coming from Afghanistan.

As the kites flew high overhead one fine afternoon in Kabul, we sat down to discuss this and more.

Read her work.
Follow her on twitter.

Upside of Afghan Elections

Cross-posted on Americablog.com:

There is a term that is often thrown around in reference to how elections, in any nation around the world, should ideally be conducted: “free and fair”. When much of the world is watching an election and trying to gage if it is a good election, we look for evidence that people were able to vote without intimidation or any other undemocratic obstacle, and that the results of the vote were processed without irregularities. If this does not happen, then the reports start coming in, and we all sort of collectively decide that whatever elections a nation claims to have had, they were not up to the “free and fair” standard and therefore are not really a democracy.

Here in Afghanistan elections are only 2 weeks away. It is no secret that the government does not control the entire country and a war continues to be waged. Last month the announcement came that due to the strong risk of fraud and violence in certain regions, 900 polling stations would remain closed on election day. In a city like Kabul, Afghan National Police (ANP) run checkpoints throughout the city and there is the undertone of fear of being attacked or kidnapped by both foreign and local people. All-in-all, the task of holding an election in two weeks time is obviously going to be difficult and not without some problems.

The conclusion many observers in the media, governments, and perhaps you reading this right now, is that based on the aforementioned problems, the election is a failure before it even takes place. They take the standard of “free and fair” and they look at the poll closings, the threat of violence, and the recent attacks on political candidates, and they say – nope, Afghanistan’s election is a failure.

Yet the situation could also be looked at in another way. We could look at the 19,942 other polling stations that will be opened and look at the examples where people are voting when election day comes. We can look at the long list of 2,556 candidates from diverse backgrounds, including 405 women, running for parliament. Because looking at election with an interest in what goes right, not only what goes wrong, should also be part of the story that is Afghanistan today.

“Free and Fair” is certainly something anyone would want in an election, and if we were honest, we would admit that this doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. In the end we aim for an election that is as free and fair as possible within its context. The Afghan context is no doubt one of the most difficult in the world right now, but to be able to carry out an election, even one wrought with problems, should also be worth something on the road to stability.

ctrp348 An Afghanistan Round Table

On one summer night in Kabul, 6 friends of various backgrounds sit on a roof under the stars when the city is at its quietest, to discuss their thoughts on this place thats means something different for each person. During the course of this extended podcast, we get into how to explain the ways of this place, as well as the answer to these statements you often hear about how “They don’t want us here” and “Afghanistan must solve its own problems.”

ctrp347 Arriving in Kabul

Arriving in Kabul is like arriving in no other country I have ever been to before. The beautiful beige mountains surrounding this city in ruins, with military and police presence seemingly everywhere, it doesn’t take long before a visitor see’s something odd or funny, an instant story for whomever will listen later.

The following podcast is just an introduction to this journey, with a limited explanation as to what I’m doing here, what I’ve observed so far, and all kinds of additonal thoughts about Afghanistan.

On Afghanistan Goals

Recent guest Rory Stewart said some extremely interesting things on the Bill Moyers Journal. Speaking about the military goals in Afghanistan and how much of a failure, or more importantly, unachievable these goals have proven to be. That said he isn’t talking about all or nothing, not trying to give a simple answer to such a complex situation.

Obviously there’s no shortage of reporting on Afghanistan out there, and it might all seem the same at some point. But if you’re trying to understand what is happening and what has happened when it comes to the International Military forces in Afghanistan, Rory Stewart explains it in a clear and useful way. Highly recommend viewing or listening.

To Save Itself

Australia’s ABC Radio National (Background Briefing) recently featured one of those speeches that I consider a huge must-listen no matter who you are. The topic: The US’s place in the world, empire, the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, education and the interconnectedness of all these concepts. The speaker, retired US army Colonel Andrew Bacevich, considers himself a conservative and argues against the idea that Afghanistan’s future is so vitally important to the future of the United States. The same goes, in his opinion, for Iraq which he gets into in order to dispel the idea that the invasion of Iraq can now, in any way, be considered a victory.

Among his great quotes that I think need to be repeated and revisited:
“If the United States today has a saving mission, it is to save itself. Speaking in the midst of another unnecessary war back in 1967, Martin Luther King got it exactly right when he said, ‘Come home, America.’ The prophet of that era who urged his countrymen to take on what he called ‘the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism’ he remains the prophet today that we ignore at our peril. That Barack Obama should fail to realise this qualifies as not only ironic but also inexplicable.”

“Now for those who despite this, still hanker to have a go at nation-building, why stop with Afghanistan? When not first fix, say, Mexico? In terms of its importance to the United States, our southern neighbour, a major supplier of oil, and drugs among other commodities deemed vital to the American way of life, certainly Mexico outranks Afghanistan by several orders of magnitude. And for those who purport to believe that moral considerations rather than self-interest should inform foreign policy, thereto Mexico qualifies for priority attention. Consider the theft of California. Or consider more recently how the American appetite for illicit drugs and our liberal gun laws, have corroded Mexican institutions and produced an epidemic of violence affecting ordinary Mexicans. We owe these people, big time. Yet any politician or pundit suggesting that the United States ought to commit 60,000 or so US troops backed by a generously funded, multi year effort with expectations of eliminating Mexican drug traffic and political corruption, would be laughed out of Washington. And rightly so.”

Those are only two of many statements that over the last few years it seems much of the public has stopped thinking about. Somewhere along the way the war in Afghanistan became “the good war” that even Obama himself, the king of change, doesn’t want to turn back from. Also towards the end of the speech he talks about education and how little influence the readings and teaching is school that children receive seems to have on them when compared with the influence of all other sources in the course of their daily lives. The conclusion, like the rest of the speech, is highly recommended reading or listening.