Professor: American efforts in Afghanistan insufficient

The United States has yet to establish a clear policy of reconstructing Afghanistan more than a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to Boston University Anthropology Department Chairman Thomas Barfield, who recently traveled to the struggling country once ruled by the Taliban regime.

Barfield, along with several other professors from Boston-area colleges, spoke at Simmons College last night at a forum entitled ‘Afghanistan: Reconstruction or Chaos?’ moderated by Simmons College professor Charles Dunbar.

Barfield spoke about the state of reconstruction in Afghanistan, a nation that has been at war for nearly 20 years against the Soviet Union, the United States and international terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. Unfortunately, according to Barfield, the United States has not given enough aid to this struggling country after dethroning the Taliban regime after the Sept. 11 attacks.

‘What we find is talk about doing stuff, but nothing actually happening,’ he said. ‘We’ve neglected the reconstruction of Afghanistan and that’s a very dangerous policy. There are a lot of things that can be done in Afghanistan that wouldn’t necessarily cost all that much money or take that much effort, but we have to decide we are really going to get down to work and do something there.’

Since the war against the Taliban ended more quickly than expected, the problem of reconstruction surfaced quickly, Barfield said. Afghanistan lacks efficient roads, agriculture and electricity, and its infrastructure and economy need to be brought back together in order for the country to be put back on its feet, he said.

Reconstruction is an important factor in warding off further terrorist activity, Barfield said. When there are internal problems, it is much easier for terrorists to be harbored or ‘fly under the radar,’ he explained. Right now, he cautioned, al-Qaeda seems to be waiting in the wings for the country to fall apart again as a reconstruction policy has not arrived from Washington.

‘If we don’t [help to reconstruct], we already know what will happen,’ Barfield said. ‘It was Afghanistan under the Taliban where everything was falling apart. We want to try to make sure that it doesn’t go back to that condition again.’

Still, there is often corruption present when aid is given to Afghan leaders, Barfield added.

‘Afghanistan is not an easy place to understand,’ he said. ‘Afghans have a long tradition of appreciating nothing.’

Harvard Law and Fletcher School Fellow Hassan Abbas also spoke on the relationship between the Afghanistan situation and its neighbor, Pakistan. He said the countries have a great impact on each other, emphasizing the interactions that take place along their low-security border. He agreed chaos will serve to benefit the extremist terrorist groups.

However, the future is not entirely bleak in Afghanistan, Barfield added.

‘One of the most positive things was seeing how many refugees had come back from Iran and Pakistan and how they were rebuilding their lives,’ he concluded. ‘I found a very vibrant economy and people looking toward the future. That’s the reason that you want to help them.’