Recently in Humanitarian Aid Category

I recently had a long conversation with an unenlightened American colleague of mine about the war on terrorism. "Just kill them all," he said. "These people do not know the value of life." He used the word "people" generously- I'm pretty sure he wanted to use a more sub-humane term.

Why is it so hard for people to understand that by killing more and more, we simply create more enemies and more terrorists, not less? While I understand there are a number of un-reconcilable elements in the world that have to be dealt with militarily, the vast majority really just want to live a normal life and stop fighting. This is especially true in Afghanistan, where many having experienced 30 years of war already.

We should be supporting efforts such as the Afghanistan National Independent Peace and Reconciliation Commission - http://www.pts.af. Reconciliation instead of fighting, don't you think?

With elections coming up, Afghanistan is buzzing with criticism of the past, but little talk of what to do next. I would focus on changing direction in three critical areas- security, infrastructure and education.

I was pleased to read in The Washington Post, "Civilians to Join Afghan Buildup" (3/19/2009) that President Obama has not forgotten the need for humanitarian assistance as a part of his strategy in Afghanistan. Increasing the U.S. civilian workforce in Afghanistan is a movement in the right direction. However, my question is, are they the right people and will they have the tools necessary to be effective? In my nearly four years of working in Afghanistan with the UN and later with the USAID I learned some valuable lessons on how to "do" humanitarian assistance the right way. I also witnessed far too many instances of ineffective attempts at assistance.

"We're making progress with community leaders," Abdullah told me over a popping and hissing fire in his Kabul office last month. He is an angel-faced, black-bearded man in his mid-thirties who serves as an international humanitarian aid manager on the Afghan-Pakistani border. Here Abdullah took a tense pause, stroked his whiskers and sipped tea.

"We have worked hard to earn the tribe's trust and we like helping them achieve their goals. But sometimes when we are on our way, the elder will warn us not to come because the village is hosting Al Qaeda."

Abdullah, his deputy Anwar and I met to review our agency's humanitarian and development efforts helping poor civilians trapped in isolated villages across the craggy ridges of the Safed Koh Mountain range. The duo regularly lug laptops and break sandals over high passes just to reach some of these tribal councils. The area is just a stone's throw from the conflict-ravaged SWAT Valley in Pakistan.

Now after all his toil to help that village, Abdullah wants to know if foreign terrorists crossing paths with the team may accuse them of being Western spies and target them for assassination. They are not spies at all; they're men of peace. And it's now up to me to advise the agency on how best to protect them while continuing to help isolated families in their district.