As a young Congressional aide, I once visited the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
As we gazed out at the North Korean landscape, our American guide told us, “My father served in the Korean War and his whole life he wondered whether it was worth it.” At the end of his life, the man had gone back to South Korea and saw a free, prosperous nation. When he got on the plane to go home, he looked back at the South Korean countryside and broke down and cried. It had been worth it — the truth was evident.
Will our veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan be able to look back at the nations where they served in a similar way one day and see that their sacrifice was worth it?
In the coming years, no person will play a more critical role in determining the answer to this question in Afghanistan than Dr. Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, the nation’s new president.
Can Ghani save Afghanistan, a nation plagued by violence and corruption? He has an impressive background — studying at Columbia University, working at the World Bank and serving as his nation’s Minister of Finance as well as the President of Kabul University.
Ghani kept his country together through a disputed election through a power sharing agreement with this main rival.
In an eloquent speech before Congress last month, he spoke of the need to root out the “cancer” of corruption that has plagued his nation and promoting a mainstream version of Islam in the world that rejects “intolerance, extremism and war.”
He also spoke extensively about his determination to improve upon the strides Afghan women have made in education and civil society since the horror days under the Taliban.
With regard to the economy, he envisioned Afghanistan becoming a “self-reliant nation where free trade and the rule of law create jobs and prosperity for its people” with his nation as a central trade location in the midst of 3.5 billion people in Asia.
With regard to security, Ghani raised concerns when he talked about forgiving members of the Taliban and welcoming them back in society.
Ghani’s gesture towards the Taliban is undoubtedly due to the major security challenges he will be facing without direct help from the United States. President Obama officially ended the U.S. combat mission in December and plans to remove all U.S. troops by the end of 2016.
By Afghan estimates from the end of 2013, 40 percent of the districts in their nation were under elevated security threat due to the resurgent Taliban. The Afghan army has too often proven woefully inadequate — hampered by corruption, desertions and poor performance.
A related, urgent security concern is the fact that opium production has doubled in Afghanistan since 2001 — due in large part to deals former President Hamid Karzai cut with provincial leaders. They are now supplying 90 percent of the world’s heroin. It is hard to imagine Afghanistan becoming or remaining free, prosperous or democratic if it is to be an opium narco-state.
Ghani needs an Afghan version of Plan Colombia — the U.S.-backed plan that smashed cocaine supply lines and dealers and helped bring stability and peace to a South American country that was once among the world’s most dangerous places.
A “Plan Afghanistan” would have to look carefully at the recent expensive failures to curtail opium. And it would have to be marketed as a plan to help win the global war on drugs and help an impoverished nation and key ally in the War on Terrorism transition to a legitimate economy.
Even though there are many figures other than the Taliban involved with the opium trade, a “Plan Afghanistan” would also bring in additional resources in the fight against this group.
One of Ghani’s most hopeful moments in his speech before Congress was when he said that U.S. veterans, “will always be welcomed in Afghanistan…not as soldiers but as parents showing their children the beautiful country where they served in the war that defeated terror.”
We all hope this day comes, but to save Afghanistan, Ghani will need tremendous help from both his fellow Afghanis and from nations who love and have defended freedom in the world.
George Phillips served from 2001-05 as an aide to Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., working on international human rights issues. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions for editorials, available at this link.
