Hearts & Minds vs. Bullets & Bombs

Can’t help it… I have to repeat myself. We’d make better progress in Afghanistan if we sent in the Peace Corps alongside the Marine Corps.


I saw journalist David Ignatius on TV the other day. He was in Afghanistan in April, then again recently, and noticed a big difference. The Taliban is gaining ground and influence with the people. There’s a growing feeling that the US is on its way out, so we either have to stem that notion or get out, or the people will be disinclined to cooperate. No point in throwing your lot in with the folks who are deserting you!

He says they’re making progress against the Taliban in Pakistan! How? They’re using 10 times as many national troops in the regions where the Taliban have found refuge. But they don’t shoot people, they get the soldiers & local police into the towns and cities mixing with the people, making friends -- and beefing up aid for schools, jobs, health care.

Pakistanis are doing it by themselves in their own country. Can American soldiers do it in Afghanistan?

Confounding the situation, we also learned that the governments whose troops we are supporting in the region are corrupt. Of the $6+billion US dollars given to Pakistan to support their military efforts against the Taliban, only $500Million actually got to the military. The rest went to … who knows?

But get back to the earlier observation, that Pakistan is making headway. People are people. In the end, it’s Afghanistan’s fight. The people there have to make up their minds who they trust to be in control. Would you trust people who shoot your friends and bomb civilian homes because there might be Taliban leaders in there? Or the people who shoot the foreign occupiers? Or the people who help you build water treatment plants, and plant corn, and operate clinics to make people healthier, and supply schools with teachers and books?

Whoever they trust, they will support.

Don’t give President Obama a hard time because he’s taking his time trying to decide the right course of action in Afghanistan. Could YOU decide based on what you know, when everywhere you turn is evidence for a different rationale?

The President’s decision is not just about troops, but also diplomatic effort. If civilians don’t decide to step up, we will fail. We need to protect them to get them on board.

We need to have a plan and goals in Afghanistan. I’ll submit these: First, we need to earn their trust. Second, we need to defend whoever we put there. Third, we need to make a recognizable contribution to their well-being. The goals? First, train local people to do everything WE can do there. Second, convince the people that they can and should take responsibility for their own future. And third, stabilize the region (Pakistan has nukes!) by getting our visible military presence out of there.

JM