Spring Offensive

#1 Women in Taliban times and still in many parts of Afghanistan, outside of Kabul. While many women in Kabul still wear burkas (the blue all encompassing garment), they are now allowed to walk unaccompanied by male members of the immediate family.

#2 Taliban. Asa calls them "animals". While most Taliban are from the Pashtun tribe, not all Pashtun are Taliban. Indeed, I work with many Pashtuns and they are most gracious men.

It's spring in Afghanistan which means a resurgence of the Taliban. You may have read of late the Taliban are attacking police convoys and taking the young police hostage (or so we hope). To date, there have been at least 50 hostages. With the 50 men come uniforms, weapons, police radios and vehicles. That gives rise to great security concerns here in Kabul. Security is now pretty tight and we've been locked down on a few occasions. To date, no Taliban success; however, there is concern it's only a matter of time.

Unfortunately, Afghans who work for the government (particularly police and army) or associated with the coalition are at greatest risk. Two young police men I work with in the ministry have come to my office of late and very covertly shared their stories. One is being directly threatened because of his work with the coalition, which he understands. His consternation is that the threats are being posed against his wife and parents... he's scared for them. The other is from the Hazara (Mongolian descendents) tribe, and there is just no future here for him. He wants to join other members of his family who are already out of the country for good. I'm trying to help him through my contact at the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHCR); however, it's not looking good.

At this point we (the US) has invested very heavily in both the Afghan Army and Police and it's imperative to the future of this country to defeat this threat. To date, they've been successful here in Kabul but it's just not looking good in the outlying provinces, especially around the Pakistan border. I know our American young men and women are valiantly fighting out in those outlying areas along with many brave Afghans to prevent Taliban resurgence and I'm confident they'll prove successful in the end. Doesn't good always win over evil?