Perspective

A while back, when I was getting ready to go to Iraq and when I went to school, a big topic of discussion was whether or not we were able to get an accurate reflection of what people really thought about what we were doing in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. I haven't really seen it discussed a lot lately and I'm not sure why. It could be because the international uproar over our engagement has died down or maybe it's just not as relevant as we've changed our tactics for dealing with the populace.

Yet, it's still something I often consider as we talk about whether or not we can succeed in places like this. When I first started to study the social sciences I was incredulous at how disconnected and utterly worthless a lot of the discussions were on some of the key issues facing the problems I grew up experiences. Bottom line: Inner city schools suck and paying teachers an extra 3 grand is not going to change that. So, I often wonder how skewed our perspectives are when we talk about bringing stability to places like Kandahar. 

I'm writing this because I got an interesting letter from a friend of mine from Kashmir. She talks about the ongoing situation in Kashmir and one of the things that jumped out at me is how things are portrayed in the local media and how skewed some of the perspectives of people involved in the conflict are. I obviously can't attest to the veracity of the letter and while I'm sure there is some level of bias to it, I wouldn't even know where to begin picking it out. So I present it here in its unadultered form with the caveat being that none of these are my thoughts and definitely not that of the United States Government: 

John McCain comes to visit

When you work for the State Department one of your biggest responsibilities is to handle visits from high ranking officials who are interested in what is going on in whatever region of the world you happen to be in. In peace time these types of visits can be career makers or breakers. When I was in Karachi I was flown up to Lahore for an entire week to staff the visit of Secretary Clinton to Pakistan. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Here's how the typical exchange went:

Overstressed Staffer: Do you think we have these chairs in the right place?!?

Me: I don't know. It's a conference table? Actually, I don't really give a shit. Feel free to move them however you want. I'll be in the shade.

As you can imagine I enjoy these things immensely and don't avoid them like the plague at all.

Yea. So, aside from high level official visits there are can also be CODELS or Congressional delegations. This is when policy makers from Washington visit a particular place to get more information about the impacts of a strategy or a particular policy that we my have. You can imagine that Kandahar has suddenly become a very popular place. The new counter insurgency put forward by McChrystal predicates success on making demonstrable progress in Kandahar. It's the second largest population center in Afghanistan and the "Spiritual home" of the Taliban. In the midst of the new emphasis on Kandahar, we're in the process of transitioning from a Canadian led engagement to a US led one. I'll talk a bit more about this later, but needless to say everything is coming to a head here. Article on McCain's trip visit after the jump.

Regardless of whether we succeed or fail it's likely that the politicians will be jockying for to place blame or claim credit and they'll all need to prove that they know what they're talking about by making a visit. So, I can only imagine who else will be stopping in over the next few weeks/months.  This week we had John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham come through for a visit. Should be interesting.  Article on the McCain visit after the jump.

So what brings you out here?

I was having lunch with an older member of the PRT. He's a guy who in all reality has no business being here because he's done enough in his life that he probably doesn't have to worry about his legacy. Yet, here he is. I was sitting there wondering what would bring him out here when he caught me off guard by asking the same question.

Him: So what brings you out here? I'm sure you could be doing something else back home.

Me: Uhh..I don' t know. I guess it just seems like the place to be.