Me: "Agreed. But don't you think there is also racism in the Middle East against America?"
Professor: "No, no. That is just xenophobia."
This class, History of Afghanistan, is the most interesting class I've taken at Berkeley. There are a lot of things I disagree with, and I'm one of the not-so-favorites because I'm not Persian, but it really is fascinating. Out of 40 or so people, half is Persian (mostly Afghans) and the other half is ROTC or veterans. Being Mongolian and a military girlfriend, I fall somewhere in limbo land between the two. The lectures are traditional (aka: hard to follow and we're not allowed to ask questions until the end), so because of my non-Farsi background my notes are unintelligible and look something like this:
"
And the professor asks questions like,
"As we all know, 'amir' means..." to which the class resoundingly answers "King."
or
"As you all have seen Habibia high school, you know who it is named after."
Yeah. Classic white person problems.
But today the dynamic of the class made it particularly interesting because, instead of lecture, we held a discussion about the recent events in Afghanistan. For those of you who don't follow the news, those events include the US military burning Qur'ans and a US soldier who killed 16 Afghan civilians. Unrelated events, but both are emotional for Afghans and Americans. So, obviously, the discussion got pretty heated, pretty quickly. But some really interesting and important things were said that I think are worth repeating.
1) Role Reversal
After several people are claimed PTSD, multiple deployments, and insufficient numbers of soldiers in the US military (all of which are inter-related as reasons for each other), one very astute Persian girl brought up the question of what would America do if the situation happened to us? What if an Afghan soldier burst into your home in the middle of the night and murdered your family? What if he beat your wife's head against the wall until she died? I'll tell you what would happen: America would flip the eff out. Media reports would scream about jihads and Muslim extremists. But, no one, at least in my opinion, would stop to consider the stresses that that Afghan soldier was under as an individual. Just like we don't know what the US soldier was going through. It's not just American soldiers who deal with stressful deployments and training, every soldier, no matter the country, deals with some sort of stress. So while there are protests going on in Afghanistan right now because of what this soldier did, we need to think about where their anger is coming from. Afghans have a right to be upset. Americans need to understand that.
2) The Other Option
As the conversation continued, one of the ROTC guys said that he thought we should pull out before 2014 because the Afghan people don't want us there anymore. In response, an Afghan student told us about his time in Afghanistan. He grew up there and was present in when the US bombed the Taliban over ten years ago. He said that his family ran up to the top of their house to watch because they weren't afraid anymore. When the Taliban was in control and there was a shooting or bombing, everyone ran away and hid, but when the US troops were bombing the Taliban, they felt safe enough to watch and even celebrate. He spoke for his own family, but said that they were glad the US stepped in. He offered an opinion saying that Afghans are frustrated because the US hasn't done as much as they hoped. Peace hasn't happened. The Taliban is still around (proof of that is shown by the attack on the government delegation on Tuesday). However, he reminded the class that the Taliban has burned many more Qur'ans for a lot worse reasons. They've burned mosques, destroyed religious monuments, murdered Muslim leaders. So while Afghans may be upset over the US military burning the Qur'an, they need to recognize that there is a bigger bad out there. Also, if there's one thing I've learned in this class, it's peace doesn't happen in ten years, especially in Afghanistan. The tribal system is too complex, the combination of religion and government is challenging, and let's be honest, the US doesn't know a thing about either. Recognizing that the other option is the Taliban, I urge Afghanistan to be patient. We have the same goal, promise. Afghanistan needs to be patient. And America needs to accept that Afghanistan will never politically be Baby America.
3) The Big Picture
While both these incidents are news-worthy, they're not war-worthy. My professor showed his true history professor colors by claiming that neither of these events will change history. He said that most Afghans understand that burning the Qur'an isn't the end of the world. And while no one wants to negate the killing of 16 innocent people, the independent acts of one disturbed man do not speak for a nation. Yes, there are protests going on right now, calling for "Death to America and Obama" but one of the largest is roughly 600 people and mostly students. Come on, people, Berkeley puts on a bigger show than that. We can't use just those events when interpreting a nation, just like I sincerely hope no country ever uses Berkeley as the basis for America's opinion. And while there was a Taliban attack on a government delegation, people should realize that the delegation consisted of two brothers of Afghanistan's president visiting the families of those who were killed. The fact that the President's family came, in person, to support and comfort the families of those who were murdered speaks volumes. Yes, you can argue PR or whatever you want, but maybe, just maybe, they really are nice people. I know, right? Not to be a parrot, but my professor's opinion is that America will stay in Afghanistan until at least 2014, as the current plan states, and I think he's right. Because, in the grand scheme of things, these two events won't even make the history books. Afghanistan and America need to accept this.
Read up on the news if you have no clue what I'm talking about:
American soldier kills 16 Afghan civilians
US troops burn Qur'an
