The eastern border of Afghanistan butts sharply up against Pakistan, but the exchange of ideals and extremism seems almost fluid between the two countries especially in the border tribal lands. Where Afghanistan has denied its girls education under the Taliban regime, most of Pakistan has -- if not directly supported it--at least allowed its existence. With the presence of Taliban militants increasing, especially along the border regions, that is quickly changing.
Many people have questioned our tactics in this ongoing war against such a fluid enemy whose tentacles are far-reaching and expanding despite our concerted efforts. Many have wondered at the affect more humanitarian aid would bring to a people who often resort to the strictest islamic extremism because nothing else has given them hope. Education is key to this effort to giving the people - whether Iraqi, Afghani or Pakistani--a way to live honorably and progressively. It is also one of the main targets which the Taliban want to close down. Education for girls has seen the brunt of it. The New York Times ran in incredible short documentary on the plight of these school girls in the Swat region of Pakistan. It is entitled
"Class Dismissed in Swat Valley" Over 50,000 girls in this little valley in northwestern Pakistan have been forced to quit their education. Fearing for the safety of their families and their own lives, school authorities have been threatened into shutting the doors of schools struggling to bring a country's young hope and a brighter future. Girls still risking it have been found mauled, burned with acid, and beheaded. The Pakistan government allows education for girls, but in this and other areas, their rule is no match for the Taliban presence in the towns and surrounding villages and the demands of obedience that go out every night on the FM radio.
The thing that strikes me so much is the intense desire to learn these children have. Looking around them, they know there is more to life than incessant fighting. The girls want to make a difference just as much as the boys. They envision themselves as female doctors, lawyers, politicians, teachers. They have hopes and dreams and now are stowed away, afraid to come out of their gated dirt yards. The Taliban shows no mercy and every day those who were too interested in "social causes" are found in the town square beheaded, beaten, or worse. The fight to learn is unreal in these children. They are not happy with complacency. They want more and when all around them is unrest and hopelessness, their optimism and determination are hopefully the needed drops in a swelling tide for change.
Greg Mortenson was a wellknown mountain climber attempting to summit the treacherous K2 mountain in the Hindu Kush. His book, "Three Cups of Tea" is an inspiring account of how he stumbled into this Pakistani village lost, malnourished, and near death. The Balti people brought him back to strength and in the process, Mortenson gained an incredible understanding and appreciation for the hearty mountain people whose own survival was barely scraped from the rough existence on one of the world's tallest mountain ranges foothills. Unable to hire a full time teacher or build a school, the children of Korphe studied outside in the cold, often by themselves, determinedly scratching out multiplication tables in the dirt with a stick.
Mortenson described their dogged determination: "Can you imagine a fourth-grade class in America, alone, without a teacher, sitting there quietly and working on their lessons? I felt like my hear was being torn out. There was a fierceness in their desire to learn, despite how mightily everything was stacked against them." With that experience burned in his memory, Mortenson returned to America to fulfill his promise to build the children of Korphe a school. Over the next decade , Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five schools --especially for girls--in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban.
If one man can make such a difference, how can we as a nation not succeed in our endeavor to bring not just peace, but a better way of life to a people and a land that so desperately wants it?
Listening to my podcast should give you a better sense of the guys' mission and what they were able to do while deployed. Its both interesting and painful for me to hear of the incredible amount of children being caught in the crossfire of this war every day. The physical wounds are acute and desperately evident. There is also the more subtle would they all suffer mentally through the hardship and confusion of living life in a third world country and through a wobbly and distorted lens of the "outside" world that is often misconstrued and wharping. To many of these kids, we are the enemy. Does that not cause you to flinch? For an overall mission who's goal is as much humanitarian as combative, the knowledge that many of these Afghani children are growing up learning to hate us is discouraging to say the least.
