An Alternative View of Afghanistan

Many in Hollywood, including those who boosted and backed President Obama, are skeptical as the president decides what to do about Afghanistan. They worry of decisions made in haste, and fear a quagmire on par with Vietnam.
 
But those sentiments were challenged at the latest gathering of the Foreign Policy Roundtable, an industry-centric salon on foreign policy, in particular by the words of one of the featured speakers, Masood Farivar.
 
Farivar is the manager of Salam Watandar (translation: Hello Countryman), an Afghan public broadcast service akin to NPR. But he's better known as the former mujahedeen fighter turned Harvard alumnus who authored the recent book, "Confessions of a Mullah Warrior."

Some of those who attended --- an audience that included Richard Dreyfuss, David Kissinger, Sarah Chalke and Keith Addis --- told me they were leaning toward a scale back of the U.S. presence, but Farivar's words were all about greater commitment.

What Afghanistan faces is "a culture shift, and that is going to take a very long time," Farivar said, citing the need build the country's institutions like the judiciary, the army and even the media.

"We need a lot of patience and a long-term commitment," he said.
 
He didn't explicitly say that meant the 40,000 to 80,000 new troops requested by General Stanley McChrystal. In fact, he pointed out that the three "surges" so far in troops had yielded little in the way of increased security and a less potent insurgency. Rather the opposite has happened, and in the immediate term, "The best we can hope for is to contain the insurgency."
 
Where he was clear was in his prediction that a pullout by the United States would yield a collapse of the regime --- in weeks not months --- and a destabilization of the region, something that would be treated as a victory by al Qaeda.
 
The problem with the United States in Afghanistan, he said, is not an overwhelming anti-American sentiment, but doubts that they will stay around. Afghans would like to see is continued and even more involvement but through a "cleaner government," where foreign aid lands in its intended place, not corrupt government officials or tribal leaders. "I have not sensed the kind of anti-American resentment that you hear about. That does not exist," he said, the exception being the southern region of the country where many of the hostilities are taking place.
 
Joining Masood was another expert on Afghan media, Kathleen Reen, who as vice president of Internews has been working to build independent media organizations in the region. She noted that the growth of the media since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 --- there are now some 100 radio stations and 20 TV outlets and a growing number of Internet users --- has given the country's population an awareness of the deliberations in Washington and the doubts harbored by lawmakers.

She, too, worried about a loss of U.S. interest, citing the "Charlie Wilson effect," the U.S.'s fleeting support of fighters against the Soviets, only to abandon the country when they left.
 
She said that an encouraging sign from the Obama administration is that "there are people who are generally concerned about how we learn from the mistakes of the past," as well as efforts to draw in more of the international community for a solution. What worries her is the demand for quick results.
 
Did it change opinions? Perhaps. Donna Bojarsky, the director of the Foreign Policy Roundtable, said afterward, "I thought I was moving in one direction in what we should do, and this of course complicates it."
 
Dreyfuss questioned whether the strategy of pursuing democracy was an assumption that failed to account for the history of the country.
 
"We seem, especially in the last eight years, to do a lot of talking about democracy and very little listening," he said, adding, "Shouldn't we know more about what we have had, where we have been, before you talk about democracy as a given?"
 
Farivar's answer: "I think we should."
 
In his eyes, even that will take time.

"Everybody asks, 'What is the exit strategy? When will we stop seeing coffins coming back at Dover?' Unfortunately, we have to accept the reality after 9/11."

He added, "One message I would like to send to you is to stay engaged, stay interested. Be patient because it is not going to turn around overnight."