The Columbia Daily Spectator
this week published a powerful opinion
piece written by Yoav Guttman, a Columbia University student in the School of
General Studies and the Jewish Theological Seminary, about United States
involvement in Afghanistan and its failure to effectively train the Afghan
National Police (ANP). His piece is a
response to Newsweek‘s “The
Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” which highlights the ANP’s
inadequate marksmanship and Taliban-provided ammunition, among others. Since
2002, the United States has spent nearly $6 billion in an effort to train the
ANP.
Guttman (who happens to be the son of a Reform rabbi!) makes
compelling case that against outsourcing of military work to private
contractors, as the US has done by contracting DynCorp International and
European paramilitary police units to take on much of the ANP’s training. He writes:
“This outsourcing of military work is perhaps the
most serious issue America faces. Rather than defining our mission and
goals,
we divert funds from our military to hire contractors to do the work.
But the
contractors are not accountable to the American government the same way
the
Army is. This leads to morally questionable tactics that are never
answered
for. Furthermore, in the eyes of the Afghans (or Iraqis), these troops
are seen as Americans and forces of American imperialism. Thus, their
actions
represent the American government. This ultimately undermines the
“winning of
hearts and minds” mentality, as again, our moral high ground is
challenged.
Guttman also addresses the “most distressing”
silence of the anti-war movement following President Obama’s announcement in
November that he’d be sending 40,000 more American troops into Afghanistan. He
writes:
Rallies and marches were held across American universities
and in our nation’s capital demanding that troop levels be reduced and that
America begin the process of leaving Iraq. Did the anti-war camp disband
because we elected someone we like as our president instead of Darth Vader and
Emperor Palpatine? As primarily liberal college students, we have the duty to
challenge our government, regardless of whether the commander-in-chief is Bush
or Obama. It is time to stop being so complacent and accepting of our noble
mission in Afghanistan.
Read the entire piece here
and let me know what you think.