I Heart Kabul Roadblocks

It is only my second day in Afghanistan which means that I'm surely under qualified to talk about what is true and false and good and bad about the big picture. I'm green. Multiple times a day someone is telling me about Afghan culture or history, and they're telling me things I had no idea were so.

Despite this, as I stroll cautiously past the rubble of old buildings and open sewers, past strange alleyways, and old men who stare far too hard at me, I'm rethinking opinions that I felt so sure about once upon a time. Brace yourself because I realized something today that will surely anger some of you and goes against my words in the past. I'm in favor of international forces being present in Afghanistan. Maybe I should just say Kabul since that is the only place I've been. Now I can hear your opinions and denunciations already, Stop the war, bring them home.... I know... but I don't want that anymore. I'll try to explain why:


Whether I am walking the streets or riding in a taxi in this chaotic city, I can feel tension. Naturally I think there is tension because I'm the odd man out, I'm the foreigner in place where I don't belong. But then I feel and hear examples that show tension between local people, for political, historical, or religious reasons. Someone is angry because of what someone else is doing, which they shouldn't, during a religious holiday (Ramadan). This person hates people who support that political party, and might even hate them enough to get violent. Members of this family were murdered during the civil war by members of that family who to this day they hate them and might even want revenge someday.

Meanwhile there are police who in some communities might help maintain order and be vigilant to resolve or stop conflict and crime, both proactively and reactively. Yet many police I see don't seem prepared or capable of doing any such work. They are present, and I give them credit for that because honestly I am comforted when I see them with their clunky machine guns and their olive green jumpsuits. I may doubt they will do anything, but when feeling this tension and walking down semi abandoned streets, knowing there are groups somewhere in this country that want to either murder me or kidnap me, when I see them I feel just a little bit safer. Take it a step further, when I see military, in this case Afghan military, I also feel somewhat better. I feel like, they might not act or in fact BE able to stop much, but at least there's some kind of defense, a chance they might scare off these violent criminals.

It's much too early for me to really qualify as someone who speaks with alot of knowledge and experience. But having experienced only two days in Kabul, I can see there is still great danger if national and international efforts are abandoned now. Dressing up like a cop or as a soldier isn't going to be enough to save Afghanistan, but it is a start, and the international community has the capacity and the expertise to help them get to where they need to get. The question is will we support the effort and do what is difficult even if it takes longer than politicians promised us, or then we ourselves wish it would. Without this help, I'm afraid that the uniforms, weapons, and the makeshift roadblocks, won't be enough to stop the return of something beyond terrible.