Another Day At the Office

There's drama in our little slice of Afghanistan. Shootouts between
the Afghan Army and the Taliban (Taliban as shorthand for "the bad
guys." The real mix of insurgents is much, much more complex) in the
town square. Local officials getting unilaterally (and, in my opinion,
unfairly) sacked. Busted mosques. Someone had the idea to invite a
handful of local leaders out to one of our field bases to have a
little meeting, an elders' shura, to hug it out. We expected 8. 100
came.

It was an impressive, but by no means rare, collection of respected
elders from a particular valley. The exchange lasted for hours, often
at a roar. As a state department colleague put it, "Democracy in
action." And it made for a lovely picture.

But clearly, I'm tired. My mind drifted towards cynicism, despite my
best intentions. We invited 8. 100 came. "Who's stacking the deck?" I
wondered. They railed against the government, against the Afghan
Army, against the Americans. "What have you done for yourselves?" They
argued, they yelled, they agreed to kick the Taliban (and the rest of
the riff-raff) out of town. "But who among you will take
responsibility?"

In a way that's never been clearer to me, the devil's in the details.
All the big talk of governance, development, and security that fills
the pages of innumerable Afghanistan "strategies" comes down to how
deal with groups of old guys who's concept of Afghanistan barely
stretches outsides the confines of their respective valley, or
mountainside, or whatever geographic barrier/ family allegiance
defines their place in this world.

Allow me to drastically oversimplify: Ask too much of these guys, and
you risk re-establishing the warlord system, and destroying any chance
to help build an Afghan national identity (we're not Nation-builders,
I know). Ask too little, and you've built a welfare state (Janet
Jackson's "What Have you Done for Me Lately," would be a fitting them
song to many of our relationships here.)

I've seen the pendulum swing. I've struggled to find the balance. I've
struggled even harder to convince my colleagues and superiors that
that balance has, thus far, eluded us. I need a vacation.