Since the Taliban resumed control of Afghanistan in August 2021 after the U.S. withdrew, I have devoted roughly ten percent of the essays in my daily newsletter to the conditions in that country, even though I realize that to most Americans it seems like a remote place with little relevance to their lives.
Central Asia is indeed a long way away, on the other side of the world. The people and cultures seem exotic and strange; we learn little about their history or relevance in school; and they are primarily from ethnic and religious traditions completely unfamiliar to most Westerners.
But I believe what is going on in Afghanistan matters directly to those of us living in Western democracies and that if we don’t pay attention, we will soon pay for our inattention with dire consequences, much as we have in the past.
Yesterday’s special report from my Afghan correspondent that the Taliban are pushing educators in the country to return to the use of an educational materials that celebrate jihad as religious war against infidels and encourages suicide bombers should be a red alert, because it marks a return to the conditions that led up to the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001.
Most Americans don’t know that a U.S. government aid program from 1986-’92 provided textbooks throughout Afghanistan that encouraged jihad and suicide bombers in the rebellion then underway against the Soviet forces occupying their country.
Or that once the Soviets were expelled in 1989, the Taliban emerged and reoriented local anger toward the West, especially the U.S. The initial cadre of Taliban leaders were educated in Wahhabbist madrassas (extremist Saudi-financed religious schools) using the very textbooks financed by $50 million in USAID funding. The Taliban allied themselves with Osama bin-laden and al-Qaeda and the rest is history.
Providing aid to people in war zones like Afghanistan was at that time is a tricky business to be sure. As it is a tricky business today. Most people still live in rural villages, are deeply religious and poorly educated. They are desperately poor by our standards and inexperienced with democratic values and the merits of a secular education.
They also are deeply suspicious of their own urban elites, many of whom favor the West or are neutral and who oppose the Taliban.
But rural Afghans also greatly value education and they want both their boys and their girls to go to school, despite reports t the contrary, because they see education as the key to escaping poverty. Village parents just want their kids to get religious training as part of that education to be consistent with their deeply held Islamic faith.
Enlightened educators understand this and also that there is not necessarily a contradiction between religion and a high-quality education (think of Catholic schools in the U.S.) And to its credit, during the 20 years up until its withdrawal in 2021, the U.S. government tried to provide better textbooks and approaches to educational aid in Afghanistan.
One result is that many more Afghans today are college-educated, like my friend who sends me his special reports (58 to date.) But the educated Afghans are eyed suspiciously by the Taliban, whose base remains in the countryside.
In any event, all of this background is simply my attempt to provide an explanation and a plea to my readers. Even if your eyes tend to glaze over when I publish yet another essay about Afghanistan, please consider this:
The Taliban apparently now want to educate a new generation of suicide bombers. ISIS is getting ready to launch attacks from Afghanistan. You remember 9/11. We cannot allow that to happen again.
It’s time for some preventative action over here.
LINKS:
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