Burning It At Both Ends

In a disturbing (but not surprising) article, the New York Times details how we're potentially funding both sides of the war.

This particular revelation should come as no surprise for anyone who’s spent any time in this country and observed some of the fairly consistent patterns of violence (or non-violence, as the case may be) in certain areas.

In any good post-conflict scenario, loyalty is going to the highest bidder, or in the case of Afghan security companies detailed in the article, both of the highest bidders.

The pragmatist in me sees the reality behind paying off Taliban to allow for safe passage of necessary goods and products, but the American taxpayer in me who still remembers 9/11 pretty clearly shudders to think that any of our funds are being funneled to support acts of terrorism of any scope and in any location.

The issue here is less about whether or not this is taking place, but what can be done about it?

While the article fails to give any real concrete examples of possible solutions, once again I will trumpet the virtues of MAJ Gant’s One Tribe at a Time approach to the Afghan situation, and expand that to include even troops without the same level of expertise who can still act as the most effective ambassadors of American goodwill and positive energy that we can possibly muster.

There is absolutely no way to 100% account for every single dollar of USG funds that’s disbursed in this country, but by establishing closer working relationships with the populace at a government level as well as a population level, we would dramatically increase our chances of success in these areas.

We are experiencing frustration with Afghanistan for the same reason we experienced frustration and eventual defeat in Vietnam: we don’t understand the people, and are making little to no effort to breach that barrier.

Outside of a few cursory hours of classroom instruction on the culture, the average ISAF soldier has little to no daily contact with the average Afghan, someone who carries a cellphone but who may not have access to clean water on a regular basis.

Coming from a technology-saturated culture, the “great divide” that separates Afghan understanding from American logic will never be bridged as long as we continue to surrender large portions of daily hours to the interaction by the Taliban.

Taliban live where they live, Taliban sleep next door, Taliban have all the guns and money.

Until they see as a partner and a neighbor, we will only continue to be perceived as an occupying force with imperialistic aims.

And they’re still going to get paid, anyway.