War

Sometimes I forget that there really is a war here. For the first four weeks I was here, the sounds of war were fairly common, especially at night. For a long time, I didn't even realize what I was hearing. However, the large military operation that has been going on just west of the city finished a few days ago and now, by the sound of it, you would think there is relative peace. But what is peaceful here?

Just a few days ago, the coalition governments were handing out compensation through an Afghan NGO- compensation for families whose homes were destroyed in the military operations. We hear that there are many refugees in the city now and I met some at a home we visited yesterday. Everyone is trying to get out of the villages which are unstable right now. We also heard from Western media that over 500 people were killed in the operations. Maybe they were Taliban, maybe they were Pakistanis, maybe they were Arabs, maybe they were Afghan civilians. The Taliban denies that many were killed. Who will ever know the truth? But rumors like these remind me that people's lives are being destroyed all around us.

Yesterday, our language teacher was searching for a word to describe Afghanistan to us and he ended up saying, "What word do you use when there IS no government?" So we settled on anarchy. The situation is very complex but basically... the government in the capital really has very little power of most of the southern part of this country. The international forces are trying to maintain stability, and it is admirable, but there are so many deep, systemic problems in this country that it will really take years of persistent change to make a lasting difference.