Education is the key

July 11, 2008 By Troy
Posted in Life in the Military

Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7415315.stm and read this story. It is a prime example of how the Taliban and Al-Queda are trying to keep the people of Afghanistan back in the stone ages. I know the Ghazni province well as I spent many weeks during my tour in 2006-2007. Many of the blog entries I wrote during my tour were based on my time in Ghazni.

This is a place where I went into villages and was the first American they had ever seen, much less met. Even though we had been there for 5-6 years already, Afghanistan is so rural and spread out that the US forces had not gotten everywhere. In fact I am sure there are still places that US soldiers have not ventured into yet. There were even villages where they had never even seen a Afghan Army soldier or police officer before.

The only way that a country which I commonly say is “a week and a half out of the stone age” is going to move forward is to educate its people. Beheading teachers, burning schools, killing kids will certainly deter anyone from even trying to get an education. At one time when I was there, the Taliban typically only did this to schools that allowed girls to attend. Now it appears that the Taliban is afraid of anyone getting an education and is going after all schools.

The place is too big, and too spread out. We need a lot more soldiers there, we need to earn the trust of the people that we will protect them, the Afghan forces need to continue to grow and become more of a leading force and the people need to stand up for themselves as they have done here, http://www.afghannews.net/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=2922. This last story is a great one in the fact that it shows local afghans starting to stand up for themselves and fight for the rights they want and dream of. The right to raise their family in peace and lead productive lives. It has to start somewhere, and education seems like the right place.