Hearts and minds staying neutral in Helmand

CENTRAL ASIA: "Caught in the Middle: In Helmand province, Afghans are way of both U.S. troops and the Taliban," by Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 24-30 August 2009.

Depressing article. To win confidence of locals will take a VERY long time.

This is a babysitting job that will stretch on for many years. We will have to stay until globalization's networks move in big time and the system can support and defend itself.

The good news remains: Afghanistan is not poor in resources, but extractors will not come in enough numbers unless we stay. Nor will the railroads.

Comments

[David Sutton]

Talking to me father who was in town for the wedding was interesting. He tore through GP is three days!

Dad spent most of his life with BP, and now does renewable energy. His thoughts and I agree were that if this is a long haul journey, and there are no indications that it will be any thing other that that, there needs to be more articulation from Obama on that journey.

It seems to me that most people are fed up with the war, that it seems to have no end and no real strategic goals (I still argue that girls in schools is valid enough). It’s been touched on before , but what is lacking is the grand vision of the thing, the idea that it will take time but here are the tangible benefits for the US and the world in a connected Afghanistan.

[Chris Isgrig]

Time to build the railroad from Pakistan to Uzbekistan through Afghanistan and from China to Iran. China, Pakistan, the Central Asian countries and Iran are already building the rail links going around Afghanistan. The current rail link goes through Iran from Pakistan to Turkey. Afghanistan can either provide wealth and employment for its people by helping realize the over a century old dream of a railroad through Afghanistan or they can continue to be poor people isolated in the mountains.

The Transcontinental railroad helped decide the American Civil War and solidify the nation. It worked for Germany in the 19th century. So what's the problem, is it because no one can see that a 19th century solution is a big part of the solution to a 21st century problem?

We have been in Afghanistan for eight years and there are no railroads in Afghanistan. It took seven years to build by hand an muscle power the American transcontinental railroad.

We could put half of the young men in Afghanistan to work building it and the other half guarding it so the only people left to fight for the Taliban would be foreigners.

So lets build the first Southern from Chaman, through Spin Buldak, through Kandahar to Herat, then on to Kara-Tepe and Kushka in Turkmenistan.

Then the Northern link from the Khyber Pass, through Jalalabad, Kabol, Charikar, Mazar-e Sharif then to the Friendship Bridge into Uzbekistan.

The copper mines are along the northern route so that route will have the most immediate economic return. This is the route that opens the Jalrez Valley south of Kabul, that will enable the exploitation one of the world's largest unexploited deposits of copper, and turn what is now a Talaban stronghold into an economic engine of international trade.

The booming Irish economy defeated the IRA, the prospect for the people of Iraq to benefit from Iraqi oil helped defeat the insurgency, the way to defeat the Taliban is with the railroad.

[Malcolm Ritchie]

Chris is right on the money. An Afghan transcontental railroad would defeat the Taliban. These young men want hope for the future, such a project would give that hope to tens of thousands of them