Afghan Unity Success

Thank you for asking my opinion of the proposal that you submit to General McChrystal.

I admire the strength of your desire and the other members of your organization, AfganUnity.org (AUO), to assist in the development of Afghanistan, i.e., your and their beloved homeland.

I think that the success of your plan will be based upon the number of AUO members living outside of Afghanistan who will be willing to leave their comfortable, successful lives in other countries to return to Afghanistan to start what will surely be a long, slow and difficult process. If you can get large numbers of AUO members to return to their homeland for this type of project, it just might succeed.

If these AUO members would be advisors, mentors, facilitators, consultants, etc. for the local, indigenous entrepreneurs who would actually start and develop their own local businesses and services, then the likelihood of success would be even greater. The AUO members could elect to return to their current place or residence or remain in Afghanistan at the “conclusion” of the project.

Rather than providing guns, ammunition, and other weapons of war, the United States would be in a position to use its resources and capital for other, more productive purposes, such as extending small business loans, providing the necessary equipment to these new businesses and services that can be purchased with the loan proceeds, etc.

My main concern is the fact that this project would be concentrated in a single city or town, which would make it vulnerable to attack by the Taliban and others who would have a vested interest in seeing the project fail. The United States would likely be required to assist the Afghanistan people and the AUO members in maintaining security in the area. A secondary concern is the fact that the benefits of the project, assuming that it is successful, will be best known primarily by the people in the project’s city or town, unless its success is well publicized throughout the country. Neighboring cities and towns will be the first to know of its success, so maybe the project can best be expanded in that manner, i.e., to neighboring cities and towns..

As I have discussed with you several times, I have often thought over the past several years that we could accomplish a lot more by demonstrating what a few hundred tractors, plows, irrigation equipment, seed and fertilizer could do to produce income for the farmers and food for the local people. I would expect more success from a radical approach such as this, i.e., similar to what you are proposing, than simply supplying more guns, ammunition and other weapons of war into a poor, largely undeveloped and, presumably, agrarian society that has been ravaged by war for decades upon decades.

In the past, it is my understanding that U.S. military personnel have doled out millions of dollars for various projects directly to Afghanistan citizens. This process is highly susceptible to mistakes and corruption, and, based upon my knowledge, has been a failure. Your approach would place highly skilled and qualified Afghani’s in the position of selecting the people who would receive loans and other assistance. They should be in a much better position to select the most appropriate recipients and to ensure that the U.S. can audit the results.

I hope for Afghanistan’s sake and ours that your AUO project succeeds. Good luck!

Best regards,

Robert P. Hagemann