Thank you for your additional comments. Perhaps over winter break I will try and watch “Restrepo.”

Take care

Thank you very much for your thoughtful response.

I can see the benefits of all external entities leaving Afghanistan; but I continue to wonder how this will come about. In other conflicts, when one side left, a power vacuum was created that was filled by the other side. Is it possible to prevent this in Afghanistan? I can visualize what might bring about the withdrawal of American and coalition forces, but it unclear to me what will bring about the political and cultural destruction of the Taliban. It is well armed, and at least from the outside, seems determined.

I understand the power politics that has taken place in the past, but it is difficult for me to see any strategic advantage for large numbers of American and coalition forces to stay in Afghanistan other than being a foil against the Taliban. The central government seems weak and may not be able to standup to the Taliban. American and coalition forces can probably pursue counter terrorist activities without having large numbers of people in Afghanistan.

My impression is that there is a huge difference in Afghanistan between the institutions in urban and rural areas. Insurgent movements in other conflicts have been more effective in controlling rural areas than urban areas., but when the central government loses control of rural areas, urban areas seem to become more vulnerable.

My sense is that outside of the metropolitan areas, the tribal system has been very strong politically and culturally. One article I read on this is “Backgrounder: A tribal Strategy for Afghanistan” by Greg Bruno, November 7, 2008, Council on Foreign Relations. http://www.cfr.org/publication/17686/tribal_strategy_for_afghanistan.html

As for Restrepo, I think that you might find it interesting in terms of its form and content. What makes this so interesting to me is that it allows people to see through the camera’s lens war in its most elemental form. It is a canvas that can be used for understanding what waging this type of war actually looks and feels like from a perspective frequently ignored. This same technique could be used to present other perspectives. As for the language of the war, the front stage language tends to be very antiseptic, and the back stage language tends to be very crude. Perhaps you could provide some terms that you feel work better to describe the most elemental aspects of war. Maybe you have already.

One of the benefits of airing documentaries such as Restrepo is that it provides visibility the war, and as acts as a catalyst for discussion. I’m afraid that many Americans would like to forget about Afghanistan, just like we have about other unpopular wars.

As you said in your last post, “This is a real dilemma.” The only way “out” that I see is a withdrawal of all external intervention in Afghan (Central Asian and Arab) affairs–this includes the so-called Taliban. Also I was not suggesting a “cultural turn,” at least not for Afghans.

For Afghanistan to recover, there needs to be a political and military withdrawal of American and coalition forces. The destruction of the Taliban–politically and culturally–will take place, I have no doubt.

By “we,” I am assuming you mean Americans. To this, as I have noted in my previous post, I would say that Americans have stayed far too long in Afghanistan beginning in the 1970s and after the Soviet withdrawal. Let us also remember that the Taliban was created by the Pakistani intelligence services and also funded by the United States. Many view a stable, independent Afghanistan as a threat. This opinion has indeed made Afghanistan the “threat” that they feared by leaving the country vulnerable to all sorts of religious, political, and cultural indoctrination from many different parties.

I have much hope in Afghans, and I do not think the Taliban would have survived very much longer, had the US and coalition forces not invaded. There were a great many Afghans who were resisting–whether armed or otherwise.

Also, I do not understand what you mean by “tribal culture” and why it should not continue. One should be careful not to denigrate other forms of culture nor to equate Afghan tribal culture with the sort transported to Afghanistan, esp. from the Arabian peninsula. “Tribal cultures” are not monolithic and unchanging.

Like many, I do not view the Taliban as an indigenous group. As for what I view as “tribal culture,” I think of the centuries-old political system and division of power. Such a system prevented the monarchy from absolutist rule while also protecting those living in the peripheries.

Though I have not seen Restrepo, I must express my frustration with this new genre of war documentaries with filmmakers following military units around. Of course the “locals” are upset by armed foreigners occupying their country. Of course it is “difficult and dangerous to ‘work’ in isolated areas.” However, I would not call what soldiers do “work.” After all, it would be neither difficult nor dangerous if these young men and women stayed in their own country or visited “exotic” places without guns and the always present threat to kill the “locals.” I also have a problem with the usage of the term “collateral damage.” I am sure that the dead Afghan men, women, children and their families deserve another term–or even their names recognized in the New York Times or anywhere at all for that matter. I think the least of worries is the enlisting for the Taliban by killing innocent people. Those innocent dead should be the first concern.

There are too many stories of family and my family’s acquaintances killed by Americans, Soviets, and Taliban. This is not to mention the dispersal of Afghans; Afghans just want to be left alone. My family’s house was not shelled by Taliban, but by the Americans and coalition forces. Fortunately no one was hurt that time.

Thank you for your article and thoughts. We have too few serious scholars researching and writing on Afghanistan. I apologize, in advance, if this note seems fragmented, but there are just too many issues to discuss.

Though I would have to agree that women have regained new means of re-entering social and political life in Afghanistan, I believe there is too much ignored by the strong focus on women and women’s rights. Laura Bush’s comments, as noted above, were extremely difficult for me to handle when they were made as part of a grand justification for the war. As if the killings of civilian and seizure of power by the “Taliban” was completely acceptable before. (By this last statement, I do not mean that I would have been in favor of any sort of military action before.)

In addition, too many emphasize this image of a Westernizing/Westernized Afghanistan in the 1950s and 1960s when people were dancing, going to the cinema, and women were wearing miniskirts. As if these are the images of a free and just society–a glorious past. Afghan bodies, especially women’s bodies, are too often the focus of the discourse of freedom and liberation pushed by the occupying forces and back in the US.

Prior to 9/11, Afghanistan was ignored and continued to deteriorate under the so-called Taliban. One intervention occurred with the planned destruction of the ancient Buddhas in Bamiyan; unfortunately, they were joyously destroyed by the “Islamic” regime and to the disappointment of many Afghans (especially people like my parents, living in exile since the Soviet invasion and occupation and the United States’ first foray into Afghanistan).

The struggles faced by Afghan men are ignored and effaced because, as we know, Afghan men are terrorists. However, their mere “inclusion” in society and presence in public life is also a matter of life and death. Those without beards, for instance, risk imprisonment or even immediate execution. Men and boys brave all sorts of dangers to work for whatever meager wages they can manage.

Why don’t we actually speak more about the Bible verses marked on the sides of American weapons or on the targeting sights? Why don’t we speak of the American boys handed guns with the knowledge that they will most likely be shooting people? What does such an act do to American society? Why does the government offer the poor and disenfranchised a chance at an education only if they go to war? Are there those who believe that Afghan children, who have grown up and are growing up through nearly four decades of war, will forget invasion, occupation, and death?

I guess what I am trying to say is that a women’s soccer team is an important step, but is the least of my worries at this point. Afghans are not happy–not with the US and the coalition forces nor with the “Taliban.” However, with the atrocities being committed on all sides, the situation is considered even more hopeless and dire by many Afghans. Whereas life was difficult, not to say impossible, under the previous regime, Afghans now face additional dangers and threats to their lives. This, in itself, is one reason why “winning” hearts and minds is an impossible task that the United States needs to recognize–whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, or Pakistan.

We should also recall that the Afghan monarchy was first uprooted and the country cast into chaos as a part of the Cold War rivalries between the US and Soviets (not to mention the [failed] British invasions of the country in the 19th century). As a result, Afghanistan was ripped apart from its core with Afghans comprising the largest refugee population in the world. I should make it clear, if it is not already, I am firmly against wars of whatever nature. In addition, I am also against both the “Taliban” (also foreign invaders for the most part) and the Coalition’s presence in Afghanistan. Of course, I do not have any answers of what to do next, as each party has made it difficult to take a path besides an endless war.

In the end, perhaps it is better that these girls get to play soccer on a launchpad that is used by helicopters that may sprinkle bombs across the Afghan landscape…rather than on the Afghan soccer stadium turned into a grand execution platform. See http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSP12564220080913

But I believe that Dr. Goldfarb has pointed out one of the few bright spots in Aghanistan, and something which might not have happened had the US not invaded, and something which may not survive after the US leaves. (One could always hope for the power of cultural persistance though.) And I don’t think he’s making a case for the war necessarily, but being an eternal optimist, is characteristically looking for some glimmer of light in what is otherwise a dismal situation.

I’m glad there is now a women’s soccer team in Afghanistan, but it should have been the result of a bottom-up fight (that is, as in Poland, an indigenous mobilization againt a despotic regime, not something imposed from above); such a development would have made something like this more sustainable, because it would have emerged from a possibly more stable and legitimate social order.

The truth is the war in Afghanistan has been extremely destructive to Afgan society, civilian life, and the plight of women in general. Am I the only person the remember Laura Bush’s bizzarre appeal advocating war in order to help Afgan women?

November 17th 2001:
“Because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their homes. They can listen to music and teach their daughters without fear of punishment . . .”

“The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women.”

“Only the terrorists and the Taliban threaten to pull out women’s fingernails for wearing nail polish.”

The plight of women in Afghanistan has always been a coy political tool to advocate war and nothing more. Michael’s statement “I don’t really see how enough security forces can be put in place to set the conditions for a cultural change” is extremely telling- perhaps he might simply say- ‘security forces cannot create cultural change.’

I too have see the documentary Restrepo, and I recommend it to anyone who still believes that the US military ‘liberated’ Afghanistan or that ‘Afghanistan with its national women’s soccer team is a different place than it would be without these women playing and competing.’

Netflix Instant-watch-
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Restrepo/70129360

Perhaps I have gone too far, I do agree that Afghanistan is a ‘different place;’ a place that has become a war-zone, a developing country occupied by the most powerful nation in the world, a place where soldiers call in air strikes on mud brick houses with no running water . . .