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Afghanistan: What the…?

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Apr 15, 2009

Kabul, April 2009 (Photos: Roberta Bonazzi)

A number of you are writing to ask what I think of President Barack Obama’s strategy of committing more troops to Afghanistan.

He’s explained it this way: 4,000 more soldiers will support the Afghan army and police so that the people there, like Iraqis, can soon stand on their own. By staying ‘focused’ and ‘realistic,’ Obama’s vision sounds like a winner. Except…

I’ve just written a commentary about why I can no longer defend our military presence in Afghanistan. Here’s how my editorial begins:

There was a time when I believed. With every fibre of my feminist Muslim being, I believed in our Afghanistan mission. No longer.

On Sunday, the Taliban assassinated another Afghan women’s rights activist. It happened only days after the world learned of yet one more anti-female statute that Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, signed into law.

Critics accused him of caving to warlords ahead of the coming elections. Only when Western voices amplified the protests of liberal Afghans did Karzai put the law “under review.” Human rights advocates called it a triumph.

The victory, such as it is, will be short-lived. I’m increasingly convinced that Afghanistan’s problem lies deeper than a recalcitrant Taliban or a gutless central government. It’s a problem so profound that for the first time I have to ask: Should coalition troops just get out?

My good friend Roberta Bonazzi, Executive Director of the European Foundation for Democracy, disagrees with my new pessimism. Having just returned from Kabul, she argues that to pull out now would be to abandon the people of Afghanistan.

But in this editorial, I point out why “winning” might only mean reinforcing age-old patterns of cyclical violence. How does that empower the people?

Think and decide for yourselves after reading my full commentary in the Toronto Globe & Mail.

Update: The commentary has generated a lot of debate — so much so that two days later, CBC Radio’s main news show, The Current, had me on to discuss my doubts. The interview was more heart-wrenching than any I’ve done about my book. Am I betraying the cause of human rights by asking my questions out loud? Listen here.