Witness to War
is a documentary from CNN International in which six war
correspondents -- Atia Abawi, Stan Grant, Nic Robertson,
Reza Sayah, Ivan Watson, and Michael -- discuss the war in
Afghanistan/Pakistan and the people and events they have
covered there.
(to view just the
portions of the program in which Michael is interviewed,
go here)
Part 1 Length: 6:57
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(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
TEXT: Afghanistan and Pakistan are two of the most
dangerous places on Earth. Coups, unrest and war have raged
since the 1970s. Since 2001, both nations have been front
lines in the U.S.-led "War on Terror." CNN recently
debriefed six of its correspondents assigned to the region.
These are their stories.
CNN PRESENTS: Witness to War.
BATTLEGROUND
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Afghanistan
is a place that's been bypassed by the Industrial
Revolution. It's been bypassed by most major modern
developments -- and by modern, we can go back, you know, a
century and a half.
Afghanistan doesn't have a railway network. It doesn't have
a national grid for electricity that reaches across the
country. It's very hard for people's lives to improve. And
as the rest of the world races ahead in the computer age
and in advanced medical techniques around the world,
Afghanistan is very much stuck in the Dark Ages.
REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's the
Afghan/Pakistan border, the tribal region. It's a primitive
lifestyle. We've been to some of these local villages, the
homes are made out of mud. It's very hot. It's one of the
most mountainous and rugged regions in the world.
And these are people that were born to fight. You know, for
ages their way of life is fighting.
STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thirty years
of war, a generation raised in war, children left orphaned,
women left widowed, an economy flattened. People sickened
by this endless conflict. They are fed up. Everyone you
speak to says, when will this end?
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Upon landing
in Afghanistan, it was my first visit there. And what
really struck me was how primitive and backwards that
country was. There was no electricity. There was no running
water. There were no paved roads. Quite simply, some of the
worst roads I've ever been on.
And as you explored that area, bouncing around on these
awful roads, riding through river beds even to get from
place to place -- another thing that struck me was the
leftovers of nearly 25 years of conflict were littered
across the Afghan countryside. Old Soviet tanks and armored
personnel carriers just sitting on the side of the roads,
ruined, pieces of tank shells, of cannon shells.
And it made me realize that this country was accustomed to
living with conflict for a quarter century.
GRANT: How did it start? Look at this. I'm sitting on a
shell of a Soviet tank on a hill overlooking Kabul.
Here -- this is where so much of it began. This battle with
the Soviets and the mujahadeen for control of Afghanistan.
The local warlords rising up, backed by Pakistan, backed
with money from the United States, from Saudi Arabia,
fighting the Soviets, to drive the Soviets out. The Soviets
leave and there's a vacuum, the warlords turn on each
other.
Who enters the fray? The Taliban.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's easy to
argue that that's when 9/11 and a lot of other problems in
the region were born. When America simply walked away once
the Soviets withdrew.
Don't forget, there was a war under way in Afghanistan at
the time of 9/11. There were front-lines active at that
moment as the Taliban were fighting other Afghans.
9/11 obviously changed everything. The reason why the West
is there is to answer a security threat being posed by the
al Qaeda organization in exporting terrorist attacks from
its planning and strategic bases in Afghanistan and in the
tribal areas of Pakistan.
ATIA
ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Afghanistan has always been a
country where it's been a battleground of ideologies. And
unfortunately, it's been the Afghan people who have to live
through that battle.
WATSON: One narrative that I hear again and again, not only
from Afghans but also from Pakistanis is the abandonment
they experienced after the withdrawal of the Soviets and
the withdrawal of U.S. aid to that region. After pumping in
so much money and so many weapons, both of these
superpowers agreed to just stop, leaving huge numbers of
armed militants, leaving a raging conflict, leaving
millions and millions of refugees
behind.
Part 2 Length: 6:10
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REFUGEES IN
AFGHANISTAN
GRANT: Let me talk about the latest experience we had. We
were driving on the outskirts of Kabul and we saw in the
distance this collection of tents and mud huts, and we
pulled over. It was a refugee camp.
These are refugees from the fighting in the worst parts of
the country, the people who are really caught in the middle
of the battle between the Taliban and allied forces.
And the immediate impression when I walked in there was
just depression and hopelessness. Children with bare feet,
ragged clothes, open sores on their faces, sores that are
going to become infected and ultimately can kill them if
they don't get the medical treatment that they urgently
require.
ABAWI: The first time we walked into a refugee camp in
Afghanistan, it was actually a refugee camp in Kabul. It
was our first few days into the country. I was shocked. I
mean, there were acres and acres of makeshift tent homes
and it was just astonishing to think that thousands of
people still lived in that kind of environment in the
capital of Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON (January 2001): The fear among aid organizations
now, that if the drought continues, so will the
displacement of people on a scale much greater than before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON; Conditions in these camps are horrific, I've
seen camps in Afghanistan where, you know, it's been hard
for people to find any wood to cook their meals on, hard
for them to find any water. Where the tents have been what
looked like just rags tied together -- rags and, you know,
a few humble possessions.
There's a resilience. But there's an utter desperation,
because when you see food coming in, and when that food is
in limited supply, unless there are people there sometimes
quite physically beating people back in the crowds, that
food will just be torn from the weakest people's hands. So,
there's a -- it is a survival of the fittest.
(PEOPLE SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
REFUGEES IN PAKISTAN
WATSON: We walked into a refugee camp in western Pakistan
in spring of 2009, and there were hundreds of Pakistani
men, refugees, milling around, waiting for food
distribution and increasingly agitated.
(PEOPLE SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WATSON: And they wanted to tell their story. They wanted us
to hear what they had to say, and they were furious that
the camp administrators, whom they accused of stealing the
very aid -- food aid, that they were supposed to be
distributing, were charging money for it. Those were
allegations that I could never really confirm.
It was a dangerous atmosphere. And you can see how if you
leave these people living in these conditions for longer
periods, they will become breeding grounds for all sorts of
problems, from crime to insurgencies. They could become
recruiting grounds.
SAYAH: Because of these terrible conditions here, these
children are developing conditions that are difficult to
treat.
Doctor, tell us what we have here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's some kind of allergic skin
reaction which has gone chronic, it's been there for about
a month.
SAYAH: Okay.
I've never seen anything like the scenes that I've
witnessed in refugee camps. And sometimes, it was so
overwhelming it didn't seem real.
Tent after tent after tent, families, husbands, wives,
children, and it didn't seem real to me that so many
families, so many millions of people had been displaced,
lost everything, lost their homes, their livelihood and
they were now living in tents looking forward to one meal a
day with an uncertain future.
There were so many times when I asked them, "What now? What
do you do now?" And it was a shrug of the shoulder, "We
don't know." That was, you know, heartbreaking. You know,
seeing the children obviously in distress.
They were so excited, you know, to see us whenever we came
with cameras, whenever we came with our crew. There was not
a time when we didn't get a rush of people coming to us,
telling their stories. And to me, that was a desperate cry
for help, saying, "We are here, help us, somebody do
something." Because nobody else appeared to be doing
anything.
And you know, I think the refugees are key -- because you
are not going to beat the militancy in Pakistan if you
don't have consensus, if you don't have the support of the
people. And if the people aren't being taken care of by the
government, if the people are living in tents without food
and water, with uncertainty, how are you going to get them
to support your cause?
Part 3 Length: 8:31
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DECISIONS
GRANT: The Taliban had been routed, 2001, after 9/11, and
then the push into Afghanistan by U.S. forces. The way that
the U.S. and others were able to tap into the existing
militias here who'd fought the Soviets to then rise up and
drive out the Taliban. The Taliban were defeated in
Afghanistan. But the U.S. left.
WARE:
The Bush administration shifted the focus of its
counterterrorism operations, its anti-al Qaeda operations,
its so-called "War on Terror" to Iraq. Iraq!
We now know that there was no
casus belli
for that. Al Qaeda wasn't here. Saddam wasn't projecting a
terrorist threat beyond his immediate borders, certainly
not to the United States. Heck, the regime of Saddam
Hussein didn't even possess weapons of mass destruction.
The U.N. kept saying that.
So, like it did after the Soviet withdrawal, the invasion
of Iraq took America's eye off Afghanistan. And America is
still paying a price for that to this
day.
GRANT: The decision to go to Iraq diverted attention and
resources from the fight in Afghanistan, opened the window
for the Taliban to come back. It slowed the rate of
reconstruction and progress and development in Afghanistan.
It made people feel here as if they had been deserted --
and deserted again.
WATSON: The shift from Afghanistan to Iraq was palpable. I
mean, we in the media did it as well. I closed the National
Public Radio bureau in Kabul because we all knew a war was
coming in Iraq.
ABAWI: When there's media attention on the country, the
country improves. When the media attention goes away, the
country falls apart.
ROBERTSON: Everywhere you look at it, Iraq has hobbled the
military operation here, the political and diplomatic
initiatives in Afghanistan. I remember going around
Afghanistan in the past few years where troops have told us
they don't have the helicopters to get around, they don't
have the helicopters to bring in the regular food supplies
that they need. Why? Because these assets have been in
Iraq.
GRANT: Why leave here? Why go to Iraq? You've got them on
the run. You've got the upper hand in Afghanistan. Why walk
away? That's what the people here are saying.
WATSON: Now, you have NATO fighting against Taliban
insurgents, you have a very unpopular Afghan government,
and an Afghan population who no longer trusts the
international community, no longer has great hope for the
international community or the Afghan government the way
they did in 2001, and there was an incredible window of
opportunity there. And I fear that that window has closed.
And now, the country is mired in yet another chapter of its
endless civil war.
Five years after the overthrow of the Taliban, I met with a
Taliban fighter who had been in the front lines, in the
trenches, facing off against the northern alliance during
the U.S. bombing campaign of the Taliban. He described to
me the retreat of the Taliban from that area, and basically
how Taliban fighters, they got the order to run and then
they just picked up and left, and went back to their
villages.
And he went on to say that many of these fighters were back
in the movement again. They were back involved again and
wanting to fight against the U.S. and the NATO forces in
Afghanistan.
WARE:
For a year after 9/11, I lived in Kandahar, pretty much
with the Taliban. They'd changed uniforms. Their turbans
mightn't have been the same. They suddenly may have been
the chiefs of police in districts and local administrators,
but they were still the Taliban.
ABAWI: All they did was shave their beards and blend into
the crowds and live normal lives just so they wouldn't get
caught, they wouldn't get in trouble. The Taliban have been
around, and will still be around, and right now, they're in
disguises that you won't ever guess. I mean, lately, we had
a suicide bombing, it was a suicide attack within Kabul, an
infiltration where eight Taliban suicide bombers went to
various ministries and how they got in, they were wearing a
suit and tie, perfectly shaven, gelled hair, had men
pretending to be their bodyguards, and they got into these
ministries.
WARE:
The Afghan Taliban is a complex beast with many, many faces
and many, many applications. One thing for sure is that it
has proven its capability to endure. What we now also see,
however, is the emergence in recent years of a Pakistani
Taliban. These are two entirely different organizations,
yet in many ways, they share a similar philosophy and
ideology, and a war-fighting capability. In essence, the
concept of the Taliban is flourishing and growing across
the border.
ROBERTSON: The natural place they ran to was Pakistan,
because that's where many of them had come from, that's
where they got their training, that was a way to escape
U.S. and coalition forces that were arriving inside
Afghanistan after September the 11th.
So they brought with them those same values that they'd had
in Afghanistan, their sort of extreme religious views, et
cetera, et cetera -- and slowly imbued that into the
communities that they were living in along the border with
Afghanistan inside Pakistan.
WATSON: The Pakistani military made several attempts to try
to dislodge the Taliban that created a lot of refugees, did
a lot of damage, killed civilians and ultimately failed.
And then the Taliban would just come back again.
SAYAH: Even in the established settled areas, like Swat,
this is not the tribal region. If you look at what's
happening in Swat. That place is supposed to have
governance, but it's not.
That's a region where there was conflict and what security
forces do? They ran away. What did the government officials
do? They ran away. And that's why you had the Taliban come
in and take over.
Now, when you have the people of Pakistan see this, that a
group of militants easily -- just like that -- are able to
wipe away the government, the security forces from a region
like Swat, which was the jewel of Pakistan, how are you
supposed to have confidence in your government?
GRANT: I remember meeting one woman who refused to show her
face, she was still in fear of the Taliban recognizing her.
She'd left the Swat Valley after the Taliban rule of terror
there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have three, kids for God's sake. The
whole point is, if it's not contained in Swat, it's going
to spill all over. It's going to spill all over in Pakistan
and the West also doesn't realize the seriousness of the
situation. Because probably your next 9/11 is going to be
from Swat.
GRANT: She said the next 9/11 will come from the Swat
Valley. This is what the people who have emerged from those
societies are telling us.
TEXT: While the situation remains fluid, Pakistani forces
have now claimed victory in the fight against Taliban
militants in the Swat Valley.
Part 4 Length: 9:32
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CONVERSATIONS
WATSON: An interesting thing that I experienced this spring
in Pakistan was there were a number of people I talked to,
Pakistanis, who like the Taliban, who think they're good
Muslims, who believe that the Taliban is fighting for
something honest and noble.
It sounds like the Taliban are heroes to you.
(voice-over): "We love the Taliban," this man says. "Poor
people only like those who care for the poor."
(on camera): The Taliban come in and they say, we will
defend you, you are our fellow Muslim, we are going to
protect you against this corrupt system of government,
against these corrupt policemen and judges and ministers,
and that resonates with ordinary Pakistanis.
GRANT: The one that really stands out for me was a Taliban
member I found -- I met along the Pakistan/Afghanistan
border. He had been captured by the Pakistan army. And this
was a striking image. Here was a man, bound in chains.
What struck me about him was that this was a gentle man.
This was a man who was incredibly soft-spoken. It was
disarming to see him there. He was defeated. He was hollow.
We asked him, why did you do what you did? He said, I was
misguided. I was told to fight the U.S., to fight the
infidels, but now I know this was not right. He said that
he would fight no more. He said he realized it was wrong to
kill people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am sorry. I'm very much sorry. And I'm
ashamed of my acts. And I will not fight again, inshallah.
GRANT: It wasn't the Taliban that we associate with
bravado. It wasn't the Taliban with the gun raised in the
air. It wasn't the black turban and the dark glasses. This
was a man who had been on the front line and was defeated.
It was a very unnerving moment when I met him. And it will
stay with me forever.
WATSON: Afghans are probably the toughest people I've ever
met. These people have lived with conflict for a quarter
century and they have a sense of humor that I've never
really seen anywhere else in the world. And they put up
with more hardship than I think most any society has ever
seen.
ROBERTSON: You know, one of the strongest images that I
remember was this old man in a burned-out building, it was
a mud building and it was a windy day, and there were dark
clouds scudding over the sky, and I remember he was digging
through the rubble of his building and he was pulling out
from this burnt rubble of a mud house this torn-apart,
battered, twisted metal frame of a bed. That is who the
Afghans are.
They won't be beaten easily.
SAYAH: One of the things that sticks out in my mind was
when we went to the tribal region, we went to Bajaur
agency.
And so many people here are carrying weapons because they
formed what is called a lashkar.
And we met a militia that these local tribes had formed to
fight the Taliban. They were actually sick of the Taliban.
One of the things that I'll never forget is that I asked
some of the members of this militia, who do you dislike
more, U.S. and NATO forces across the border or the
Taliban?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We are against those who are disturbing
our situation. Both of them -- Taliban and American/NATO
forces -- are equal to us.
SAYAH: Here's local tribals saying, we dislike U.S. and
NATO forces just as much as we dislike the Taliban. And
that's the indication -- that's an indication of how much
work there is to be done on the part of the U.S. and NATO
forces.
REPORTING
TEXT: Since 2001, 40 journalists have been killed in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Source) Committee to Protect
Journalists, July 2009
WARE:
Afghanistan and to a slightly lesser degree Pakistan are
places where it's very easy to lose your life.
It was in Afghanistan where after 9/11, it was first I had
AK-47s pointed at my head. It's where I first learned how
to watch a room. Where I first learned to pay attention to
what was outside my window on the street every day, looking
for things that changed. It was in Afghanistan that I knew
that there was no one you could trust and you're on your
own. You were going to survive by your own wit.
WATSON: It's not easy to report in Afghanistan or certainly
in the conflict areas of Pakistan because I have a giant
target on my head just by virtue of being a foreigner and a
Westerner. We are effectively hunted by people that if they
weren't operating this way, we'd probably interview them.
SAYAH: I remember there was a group of militiamen who were
listening to their leader, there was a group of reporters
including myself. And one of them could speak English, so I
was asking them questions in English, several questions in
English. So during that time, they perceived me as The
American. They noticed I was speaking English. So after all
this was over, I'll never forget a couple of them came up
to me, they had grenade-launchers and rifles. And they
stared me in the face and said, "You're American, you go
home, you go home." And for the first time I saw the rage
and the animosity in them. Now, I did my best to diffuse
the situation because I understand the frustrations they're
facing. So with a handshake and a brief embrace, you know,
I diffused the situation, but that was a moment where I got
a real close-up glimpse at the rage that is within these
people.
ROBERTSON: Journalists have been killed here. That hasn't
happened particularly recently but I think there's a very
real possibility if you're a journalist working in this
area to know that if the Taliban can get you or some
elements get you, or even criminals, they'll take you for
money or they'll take you for political gain, they'll want
to exchange you for other prisoners, for Taliban prisoners.
WATSON: One of the saddest things about Afghanistan was to
watch the area of operations, the area where journalists
and aid organizations could operate freely in, to watch
that shrink progressively from year to year. That highways
that we could once travel down were now off-limits, too
dangerous because the Taliban was freely roaming in those
areas.
SAYAH: Sometimes it gets a little dicey, you know, when you
are approaching people and they have grenade launchers and
automatic rifles and they know that you work for CNN or a
Western media organization, they come at you with
suspicion. But if you treat them with respect, if you come
out and tell them that you're there to tell their story,
you know, I've found that you get respect back and you get
a pretty good dialogue it's important for the world to
hear.
WATSON: I count myself really lucky that in that,
especially in those first two years in Afghanistan, that I
had the freedom to drive all across that country, from
Kandahar to Jalalabad to Mazar-e Sharif and explore and
just sit down with people and talk with them. And it's
really sad that that era has passed.
Part 5 Length: 8:27
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CHILDREN
SAYAH: The one child I remember most is Shaista (phon).
Shaista lived in the Swat Valley and when the offensive
happened, like so many other people Shaista and her family
were forced to leave. And their father went to look for a
place for them, so it was Shaista, her siblings, and her
mother. And an incoming mortar fell right next to them and
it wiped away her entire family. And we saw Shaista at a
hospital, and this was another instance where I was in
disbelief that I was looking at a girl who just days ago
had lost her entire family. What did she have to do with
the Taliban? What did her family have to do with the
Taliban?
ABAWI: There was a little girl, one of our very first
stories we actually did in Afghanistan, her name was
Banafsha (phon). She was 11 years old, she was begging for
leftover morsels of bread. She was going from house to
house in a richer area of Kabul where she knew that
security guards stood outside the homes and they'd have
their lunch. So she'd go after lunchtime with her little
bag and beg for bread.
When I was talking to her, she was so matter-of-fact.
Everything was matter-of-fact, every answer she had. "Well,
I do this because my dad's a heroin addict. I have to help
feed my family of eight. My mom has to take care of the
babies." She was okay with it because it was a part of
life. But it came to a point where I asked her if she
prayed.
And that stone face cracked and one lone tear fell from her
eye. She went to go wipe it and as she wiped, she brought
her hand back and was biting her thumb. So this little girl
became a little girl again. That whole time I really felt
like I was talking to someone who had experienced so much
more than me, because she has. Her life was hard. It was
harsh. It was not a child's life. But for a moment she
became a little kid again. And it was beautiful to see
that.
WATSON: These orphans who had to flee their orphanage in
the Swat Valley because it was caught in the middle of the
fighting this spring between Pakistani troops and Taliban
fighters.
Raise your hand if you love the army.
Uh-huh. Okay. Now, raise your hand if you love the Taliban.
Wow.
And I sat with these kids and they were incredibly
well-behaved and polite. They had wonderful manners. And
many of them came from families that were so poor they
simply couldn't feed their kids and they handed their kids
off to this shelter, where they were getting, by all
accounts, really a remarkable education. But they'd not
only been in the middle of this battle over preceding
weeks, but they'd been living in the Swat Valley around
this intermittent fighting between the Taliban and the
Pakistani security forces for two years They'd seen really
horrifying scenes. For example, I asked them, have you guys
seen the Taliban, what's been the scariest thing that you
guys have seen? And the kids responded, the suicide
bombers. And then they started making motions like this
(imitates explosion).
Scary, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Yes, this is very dangerous.
WATSON: So these children have actually seen and heard the
impact of suicide bombers attacking the Pakistani army
checkpost very close to their orphanage. It's an appalling
thing to imagine for an 8- or 9-year-old person to see the
aftermath of that, the pieces of flesh littering the street
in the bazaar right outside the shelter where you live and
study and eat.
I think that was really a terrifying thing to imagine, that
kids would live and live with this knowledge and know what
a suicide bomber is and even impersonate one.
ROBERTSON: Children are always so vulnerable in these
situations. Just talking here in Pakistan, some aid
organizations believe that somewhere between a quarter and
one third of all children who've seen and witnessed the
fighting here in Pakistan, between one-quarter and
one-third are all traumatized in one form or another.
But sometimes it's the children who have the best hope. I
remember just in the past couple of days seeing a small
girl who was displaced. And I asked her if she wanted to go
back home and she said, "Yes, I do want to go back home."
And then she said, "Please take me with you." And her whole
family sort of laughed a little bit in embarrassment. But
this idea that even a little child could know that there's
a better life where Westerners come from really kind of
stabs you in the heart.
Yeah, you can't help but think about your own children.
It's inevitable.
GRANT: Any father can't help but be moved by what you see
here. It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking, and I don't
know what the future for these children is. I don't know. I
don't know what they'll do in the future. I don't know if
their country is going to have peace. 30 years of war, what
will the next 30 years bring? I don't know. I look into the
faces of these children, are they the next generation of
insurgents, of Taliban? Are they going to grow up to hate
my children?
WARE:
The kids don't leave you. Never.
I remember a time when I was living in Kandahar back in
2002. It was in the first blush after the invasion, the
Taliban had only just left. I was living in this very dingy
hotel in the center of the city. Next door was an abandoned
government compound. A displaced family moved in.
The way a lot of Afghans cut grass is by burning it. A
6-year-old boy and his 8-year-old brother were burning the
grass. They didn't know that there was unexploded bombs in
the grass. They detonated right next to the hotel, and we
ran down and we found these two kids. I remember by the
time we took them to the hospital, we were just covered in
blood, and when we got there, there was no medicine to give
them, not even painkillers. The boy who we watched die, I
gave him Advil because it was more than anyone else could
give him. I can still remember his brother wailing. I
remember that sound as I left that hospital. I can remember
it right now. That's kids in war.
Part 6 Length: 5:34
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THE FUTURE
ABAWI: The Afghan people are tired. They're exhausted. This
perception that the Afghan people are used to war, that
that's their life, that's their history? They're normal
people. You have to see them as human beings.
No one enjoys 30 years of war. No one enjoys watching their
kids starve to death. No one enjoys thinking that they
could die at any moment. The next turn, there could be a
suicide bomber.
WATSON: I find Afghans are really wise because they've
dealt with a quarter-century of war and they've heard every
promise and lie from every different kind of politician
possible, spouting every different kind of ideology
possible.
And they're really clever at figuring out where the truth
lies. Afghans, the majority of them may be illiterate but
they're not gullible.
GRANT: And right now they'll take salvation where they can
find it. If it comes from the U.S., it comes from the U.S.
If it comes from within Afghanistan, if it comes from
movements within Islam, peace is what people want.
If someone can deliver peace, they'll happily latch onto
it. That's the message we get time and time again from
people. They just want a break. They've had enough.
ROBERTSON: Most Afghans absolutely want war finished. They
want a peaceful life. They want to get on with their lives.
And that alone should tell the international community that
peace can be achievable, quickly.
GRANT: I don't think that you can set foot in Afghanistan
and Pakistan without being impressed by ordinary people.
Just getting up every day and trying to make your life
better is a heroic act. You know, these people are
phenomenally brave and phenomenally tough. What they have
had to endure has been more than most of us could bear.
SAYAH: In the time that I've lived in Pakistan, the
overwhelming majority of people that I've met are kind,
generous, peace-loving, moderate people.
They are not extremists. They are not fundamentalists. They
don't believe in killing anybody for a cause. They're not
suicide bombers. And I think it's important for the world
to know that because that gives a sense of hope.
The suicide bombers, the extremists are a minority. But
unfortunately, they are capable of making a lot of noise.
Suicide bombs get attention. They make headlines.
GRANT: When people talk about the future here, it's hard
for them to look beyond the past. The past is what
dominates people's lives in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
They've lived through war, particularly here in
Afghanistan, 30 years of war. It's very difficult to
imagine a future.
ROBERTSON: Until you have security here, the world cannot
afford to take its eye off what happens here, and it cannot
afford not to work for peace. The international community
has to bring stability here. It has to keep an eye on
what's happening.
GRANT: But we need to be very, very concerned that we don't
create another generation of hate, another generation of
insurgents. This is the fine line we're walking now.
It's a very, very fine line. There is a strong sense of
anti-Americanism amongst many people here. The Taliban
feeds off that, al Qaeda feeds off that.
Of course the terror that is hatched here, we can see
transported. We can see carried out elsewhere. And that is
a big concern for the rest of the world.
WARE: And in many ways, it's in the West's national
interests to see these issues resolved. And in many ways,
it's just the right thing to do.
WATSON: And there are efforts under way where people are
paying with their lives and with millions and millions and
billions of dollars to try to stem this growing tide. And
they've failed so far, because the Taliban insurgents are
still there.
ABAWI: I believe that certain generations are lost. My
generation, the generation older than me, they're lost in
Afghanistan. They've grown up with a mindset of war, with
survival of the fittest. You have to focus on the younger
generation. They're the ones that can improve
Afghanistan.