A Call From Afghanistan

My son called me yesterday from Afghanistan. He is a sergeant in the United States Army. A call from him is always welcome as I am sure you understand. Yesterday though, I almost cried with relief when I heard his voice.

How many other mothers across the United States today feel the same as I did when their sons call? Daughters are in just as much danger, but yesterday the Army let the public know the kidnapped soldier was a man. How many mothers, like me, catch part of a headline or story and worry?

After I spoke to my son, I considered all the issues I knew of currently in play in Afghanistan. We invaded this poor battered nation supposedly to locate and eliminate Al-Queada militants. For some reason though, all we do is battle the Taliban.

Now, I have no love for the Taliban. After the Nazis of World War Two, they are probably the most vicious and power hungry political organization I have ever heard of. Regardless of what they preach, their actions show them to despise females. The life of a woman within the Taliban is one of unending despair. She cannot receive medical attention from a man yet women cannot practice medicine. She cannot appear in public unless she wears a burqa. A burqa is a covering the goes over the head and extends to the feet. There is a small mesh panel to see through but it permits vision only to the front. It blocks peripheral vision completely. A woman under the Taliban cannot wear makeup, not even nail polish on their hands, in public. The penalty for so risqué a behavior is to have her hands cut off!

Girls cannot be educated under the Taliban. Homes with women or girls in residence must have blacked out windows to hide the females. Women cannot work outside the home.

This is not a show of respect or high esteem. The men of the Taliban do not honor their women with this unholy treatment.

Still, as much as I would like to see the Taliban ousted from Afghanistan, this is not our stated mission! Nor have we publicly altered the parameters of our mission in Afghanistan to include the ouster of the Taliban.

So. What exactly are we doing in Afghanistan? What is our mission? What is our goal?

Afghanistan is a battered and demoralized nation. They suffered for years under the thumb of the Red Army. They have few native resources left to them. Anti-personnel mines still litter the countryside ready to injure an unwary child. Financially, the country is decades if not centuries from stability. Politically, the country will probably not be able to recover any time in the near future.

I find myself asking – why are we there? Why do the mothers of soldiers and marines have to pray for the safe return of their children from a hostile country? If we have no clear goal to meet, how will we know when we have achieved it? Will we continue to deploy our children to this bitter land for another ten years or fifty?

Our continued presence in Afghanistan interferes with and impedes the natural and necessary recovery of this abused nation. We cannot save it. It must save itself and it will not be able to do that as long as we are in the way.

I know it is difficult to think that in trying to help we are doing harm. In this case, however, that is exactly what is happening. Unless there is proven Al-Queada presence in Afghanistan it is our duty to pull out of there now.