Bonus- RGS Lecture: Afghanistan Peace Building By Dr. Daniel Taylor

In an hour, Dr. Taylor’s intriguing lecture on “Afghanistan: Peace Building” had opened my eyes to what was happening with the War on Terror, and how it was affecting countries in the middle east, like Afghanistan. The War on Terror was raged the day after 911. As Dr. Taylor explained, September 11 was not the real tragedy, September 12 was. The day after 911 was the “golden hour”. It was a chance for world peace. However, we all know that it didn’t turn out this way. And thus, the War on Terror began. If the United States had taken the opportunity for peace, many countries around the world, including Afghanistan would have been in very different situations today.

In 2001, the war in Afghanistan was raged by the United States in response to the 911 attacks. This resulted in the fall of the Taliban government, and the beginning of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban insurgency took root, the Afghan people have faced a large wave of armed attacks and bombings, which have been increasing year after year. Over 1500 Afghan civilians have been killed so far this year- a 40% increase over the previous year's numbers.

In the lecture, Dr. Taylor identified several key issues regarding the situation in Afghanistan. The international community that came to “help” the Afghan people after 911 had now created a problem for Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan is slipping away, but there is a new war- a battle amongst the Afghan people. Through these hard times of war and conflict, groups of people who trusted one another, called sub-clans, are all that hold Afghanistan together. Dr. Taylor works with his organisation, Future Generations Afghanistan, to bring peace and stability to the Afghan people. They build from the sub-clan level, focusing on the successes and resources available in each community.

I feel that by raging a war on terror and by stepping into other countries to try to “fix” imperfections, the United States is causing more and larger problems along the way. After 911, the United States decided to point their fingers at one man and his organisation: Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda. This completely changed the world’s views against the people of the Middle East. With this, the world became prejudiced and less tolerant towards people of a different faith. As Dr. Taylor mentioned, people are “veering to the wings of religious thinking” and are becoming more fundamentalist in their approach to dealing with or responding to various issues. I believe that people have become this way because extremists have resulted to using violent actions as solutions to their problems. I strongly believe that we need to find other ways to solve these problems. Violence only makes matters worse. Obama is definitely leading the world in the right direction with his diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. Some say that the war on terror is crucial in protecting innocent people against terrorist attacks, and that the war on terror also helps to disrupt the activities of terrorist organisations around the world. However, I strongly believe that by stepping into Afghanistan and wiping the Taliban government out of power, the United States had interfered with the country’s domestic issues, destabilizing its political and military balance, which created new and even larger problems for Afghanistan- the Taliban insurgency. It is easy to see why the Afghan people have lost total trust in the international community.