Imagine you’re a villager living in southern Afghanistan.

You’re barely educated, proud of your region’s history of stopping invaders and suspicious of outsiders. Like most of your fellow Pashtuns, you generally dislike the Taliban because many are overzealous, truculent nutcases.

Yet you are even more suspicious of the infidel American troops. You know of some villages where the Americans have helped build roads and been respectful of local elders and customs. On the other hand, you know of other villages where the infidel troops have invaded homes, shamed families by ogling women, or bombed wedding parties.

You’re angry that your people, the Pashtuns, traditionally the dominant tribe of Afghanistan, seem to have been pushed aside in recent years, with American help. Moreover, the Afghan government has never been more corrupt. The Taliban may be incompetent, but at least they are pious Muslim Pashtuns and reasonably honest.

You were always uncomfortable with foreign troops in your land, but it wasn’t so bad the first few years when there were only about 10,000 American soldiers in the entire country. Now, after President Obama’s speech on Tuesday, there soon will be 100,000. That’s three times as many as when the president took office, and 10 times as many as in 2003.

Hmmm. You still distrust the Taliban, but maybe they’re right to warn about infidels occupying your land. Perhaps you’ll give a goat to support your clansman who joined the local Taliban.

That’s why so many people working in Afghanistan at the grass roots are watching the Obama escalation with a sinking feeling. President Lyndon Johnson doubled down on the Vietnam bet soon after he inherited the presidency, and Mikhail Gorbachev escalated the Soviet deployment that he inherited in Afghanistan soon after he took over the leadership of his country. They both inherited a mess — and made it worse and costlier.

As with the Americans in Vietnam, and Soviets in Afghanistan, we understate the risk of a nationalist backlash; somehow Mr. Obama has emerged as more enthusiastic about additional troops than even the corrupt Afghan government we are buttressing.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned in his report on the situation in Afghanistan that “new resources are not the crux” of the problem. Rather, he said, the key is a new approach that emphasizes winning hearts and minds: “Our strategy cannot be focused on seizing terrain or destroying insurgent troops; our objective must be the population.”

So why wasn’t the Afghan population more directly consulted?

“To me, what was most concerning is that there was never any consultation with the Afghan shura, the tribal elders,” said Greg Mortenson, whose extraordinary work building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan was chronicled in “Three Cups of Tea” and his new book, “From Stones to Schools.” “It was all decided on the basis of congressmen and generals speaking up, with nobody consulting Afghan elders. One of the elders’ messages is we don’t need firepower, we need brainpower. They want schools, health facilities, but not necessarily more physical troops.”

For the cost of deploying one soldier for one year, it is possible to build about 20 schools.

Another program that is enjoying great success in undermining the Taliban is the National Solidarity Program, or N.S.P., which helps villages build projects that they choose — typically schools, clinics, irrigation projects, bridges. This is widely regarded as one of the most successful and least corrupt initiatives in Afghanistan.

“It’s a terrific program,” said George Rupp, the president of the International Rescue Committee. “But it’s underfunded. And it takes very little: for the cost of one U.S. soldier for a year, you could have the N.S.P. in 20 more villages.”

These kinds of projects — including girls’ schools — are often possible even in Taliban areas. One aid group says that the Taliban allowed it to build a girls’ school as long as the teachers were women and as long as the textbooks did not include photos of President Hamid Karzai. And the Taliban usually don’t mess with projects that have strong local support. (That’s why they haven’t burned any of Mr. Mortenson’s schools.)

America’s military spending in Afghanistan alone next year will now exceed the entire official military budget of every other country in the world.

Over time, education has been the single greatest force to stabilize societies. It’s no magic bullet, but it reduces birth rates, raises living standards and subdues civil conflict and terrorism. That’s why as a candidate Mr. Obama proposed a $2 billion global education fund — a promise he seems to have forgot.

My hunch is that if Mr. Obama wants success in Afghanistan, he would be far better off with 30,000 more schools than 30,000 more troops. Instead, he’s embarking on a buildup that may become an albatross on his presidency.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/opinion/03kristof.html?_r=1&em=&pagewanted=print

In a historic address from Cairo last month, President Obama promised a new beginning in relations between the United States and the Muslim world. In his speech President Obama acknowledged the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a major source of tension, and affirmed America’s “unbreakable” bonds with Israel. More importantly, in a marked shift from the Bush administration, he acknowledged that, “the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable.”

Unwilling to tolerate a continued siege on Gaza and to show that Americans stand for justice and human rights, a convoy of nearly 200 American citizens – Viva Palestina USA, under the leadership of British Member of Parliament George Galloway, former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and New York City Councilman Charles Barron – with more than $1 million of humanitarian aid, set off for Gaza on the American day of independence..

The two-week trip—12 days in Egypt and a mere 24 hours in Gaza—quickly opened my eyes to the brutal situation in Gaza and the lack of its coverage by the American media. Despite a commitment by the most powerful man on the planet, very little has changed on the ground in Gaza. In fact, the suffering of the Palestinians has only worsened.

Following the latest Israeli invasion in January, the infrastructure in Gaza lays in ruins. More than 21,000 homes, hospitals, mosques, and refugee shelters were destroyed indiscriminately, causing an estimated $2 billion in damage. Gazans are desperately in need of medical aid and reconstruction materials (with the BBC reporting 1,400 dead and more than 4,500 injured by the Israeli assault). Even with the pledge of millions in international aid, including $900 million from the Obama administration in March, everything is on standby in Gaza. As innocent men, women, and children continue to die, the political battle over accessibility is played in a game of tug of war over Israel’s complete blockade of Gaza, which we witnessed as we struggled to deliver the humanitarian supplies.

In the first of many frustrating bureaucratic hurdles we faced while still in Egypt (direct access to Gaza is blocked because of Israel’s siege), $500,000 worth of vehicles Viva Palestina purchased to help with the transportation needs of NGOs and hospitals in Gaza were held up by the Egyptian government. Israel does not permit vehicles into Gaza as part of the unjust blockade, even though these vehicles are desperately needed to carry injured civilians or deliver humanitarian aid to different parts of Gaza. Egypt willingly complies with Israeli restrictions, so it can continue to receive U.S. aid.

The convoy members were eventually permitted to enter Gaza for 24 hours, but the 47 vehicles were not permitted. As we proceeded to Gaza, about 30 members of the convoy were additionally detained at the Suez Canal Mubarak Peace Bridge, halfway between Gaza and Cairo (where Obama addressed the Muslim world a month earlier). Our colleagues weren’t told exactly why they were detained. Congresswoman McKinney and Councilman Barron attempted to reach the White House but to no avail. Eventually, all the members of the convoy returned to Cairo, visited the US Embassy, paid $30 each to waive their rights as American citizens and left the embassy with an affidavit saying that the U.S. government would not assist us in any way once we entered Gaza.

I could not help but feel utter disappointment at the lack of support by the Obama administration to ease or even acknowledge our efforts as American citizens attempting to deliver humanitarian aid and in turn, forge a new beginning in the relationship between the besieged people of Gaza and America.

Arriving in Gaza was the most uplifting and emotional experience for convoy members and myself as we united with the people of Gaza on Wednesday, July 15, 2009. Their hospitality, generosity, and determination continued to inspire me throughout our stay in Gaza and even now after we’ve returned home. Having kept themselves updated on our progress in Egypt, our hosts continually thanked us and asked us to forgive them for the “suffering” we faced in our journey to Gaza. In reality, though, we could only confess that our suffering paled in comparison to the suffering of the people who had opened their hearts and homes to graciously host us despite their daily difficulties.

The deliberate destruction of infrastructure—homes, schools, and hospitals alike was clear. For example, even the American International School (AIS), a site visited earlier this year by Congressmen John Kerry (D-MA) and Keith Ellison (D-MN), lay in rubble. As the only international school in Gaza, students at AIS once enjoyed a state-of-the-art facility, co-ed education, and an American curriculum promoting “an understanding and appreciation of the world’s diverse cultures,” according to the school’s website. AIS students’ schooling is on hold as reconstruction materials are denied entry to Gaza by Israel.

Then at Shifa Hospital, we met a young patient named Arafat, who had several visible cancerous tumors in his forehead. His case was especially critical, as his doctor’s informed us that Arafat’s treatment is readily available just an hour away in Jerusalem; however, Israel has continually delayed his travel documents without any explanation, making his situation far worse than it needs to be.

Later at the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees (the ministry for the support of family members of some 11,000 Palestinians who are in Israeli prisons facing political charges), we met three young girls who had become orphans after the recent invasion. Each of the girls had lost not only her immediate family members but also many relatives. One of the girls actually lost 29 members of her family. The girls showed patience in the face of immense hardship and asserted that Israel’s genocidal onslaught would not weaken their struggle for self-determination and to live peacefully in their homeland, Palestine. Their message widely resonated among other Gazans who expressed to us their desire to live in peace and security in their homeland.
On my way back, the hope I had felt when I heard President Obama’s message to the Muslim world diminished and was replaced by immense grief and frustration. Does the President actually mean what he says?

President Obama has an opportunity to establish a new beginning—a new beginning with actions that speak louder than words, a new beginning affecting policy change that will address Israel’s blatant disregard for international law on expanding illegal settlements, using American weapons upon innocent Gazans and implementing a brutal blockage of Gaza. If the situation of the Palestinians truly is “intolerable” as the President asserted in Cairo, then it is time that he take decisive action to stop the devastation and suffering of Palestinians living in Gaza, acknowledge their right of self-determination and take strong measures to bring about a lasting peace in the Middle East.