The harsh reality is, it’s not safe, and the road ahead is full of snares and pitfalls. The real battle has just begun in Afghanistan, and it is the most dangerous of all.

Our hearts have gone out to the peoples of Afghanistan. Images of stark poverty and despair have breached our defenses, overcoming our own pain and hurt. All across America, people are giving, reaching out in hundreds of ways, to ease the suffering they see. Especially among the women and children who have endured so much, for so little reason. We all want so very badly for Afghanistan to be rebuilt and become a safe open society. I know, I get impatient, when I still see women wearing the burq, wanting to shake them, saying-“it’s over! It’s safe, you don’t need to wear this hideous symbol of oppression anymore” Like the rest of us, I want to see women walking free, happy, educated, healthy, and above all, respected members of their culture.


The harsh reality is, it’s not safe, and the road ahead is full of snares and pitfalls. The real battle has just begun in Afghanistan, and it is the most dangerous of all. Afghanistan is not a united country by any means, but made up of various tribal factions: Pashtuns, the Northern Alliance, the Eastern Alliance, and other tribal cultures. Minister Karzai is already experiencing difficulties, with two recent appointees, including his new Minister of Defense. There is mounting pressure to reduce or eliminate peace keeping forces, before they have even established themselves. There is no sense of loyalty as a nation, but each to his own tribal area. This is going to take intense monitoring and scrutiny. There are many hidden pockets of resistance still in country, including Al Qaeda, waiting to surface, with the help of hidden sympathizers. It is a dangerously unstable environment, ready to collapse at the least provocation.


Women, in some areas of the country are still not safe, as there are hidden fundamentalists all around the area. And some women wear the burq by choice. This is part of their cultural/religious upbringing, and as repellant as it is to western women, it is part of who these women are. But even women who have become doctors, professors, and lawyers, express apprehension over the long term stability of the region, and their own futures. So, even amidst the joy and hope, there is intense mistrust and fear.


We cannot walk away from Afghanistan again. We can’t bow to pressure to leave this country to sort itself out. They have had 20 years of war and oppression. Tribal fighting is just as vicious and fierce as any Al Qaeda assault. This country has led a near stone age existence for a very long time. And, it will take intensive training and help to bring it into the 21st century, without trying to change their culture. The goal here is to help rebuild their infrastructure, modernize their medical and education systems and make certain they are self supporting. We, meaning the global community, need to help them find ways to work out a fair and just system of governance. What we must not do, is impose our system on them.



One of the least discussed, but biggest “hot” spots, concerns the growing of opium. Afghanistan is the largest producer of this crop. We have to make this a priority, to restore their agriculture, with a variety of crops, they can feed their country with, and find alternative sources of cash crops so that opium production can be eradicated. The specter of Viet Nam rears its ugly head here, but I truly believe we have learned from our mistakes in this respect. If we don’t make this a condition of receiving aid from the world community, we are at best hypocrites. As long as heroin manufacture continues in Afghanistan, the conditions will exist for a repeat of the last 20 years. We can’t mouth words of pious morality, and speak of the rightness of our position in this fight, if we allow narcotics trafficking to continue. This perhaps, is one of the most difficult tasks we in the Western world face in this ongoing struggle.



This war will not end with the capture or death of Bin Laden, or even the arrest of every Al Qaeda member. The men and women of our Armed Forces are in for a long and sustained stay in the region. Our intelligence community, which has performed superbly in this effort, is going to require our support. As President Bush has repeatedly stated, “we are in this for the long haul”. It is going to require Americans to be patient and understanding about what we hope to accomplish over there. We must remain resolved that the September 11th massacre will be the last one. And that we help clean out the fertile breeding grounds of terror, wherever they are. If we, as a people waver in our support for this campaign against terror, we will pay a much greater price than we have already. We helped create the conditions that led to this attack, by abandoning Afghanistan 20 years ago. We can’t allow this to happen again.