Question: what, Mr. Stewart, can we do to gain the respect and legitimacy to make a positive difference in Iraq and Afghanistan? Is this possible? We clearly can’t overhaul entire countries; what ARE we capable of? What or who should we send to Afghanistan instead the brigades Obama suggests? NGOs? Anthropologists?

Perhaps we will begin to re-consider our operations in Afghanistan the way we have come to think of our violent entry and occupation of Iraq, ultimately an impossible endeavor. I know many who were against the Iraq invasion justified Afghanistan. And even I did as I felt this was a failed state whose people, so divided, allowed these elements to take it over.

I originally became aware of the Taliban along with many others (with all the media attention) to the destruction of the huge Buddha statues in Bamyan in 2001. That same year we were attacked. Then I saw ( and saved) the CNN documentary “Beneath the Veil”. We began to see into the country.

I fell for Ahmad Massoud and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and then Karzei in his colorful cape and hat. And the women- some quite modern and accomplished and beautiful. When we went to Paris in 2003 we spent a lot of time at the Musee Guimet, interested now too in the arts of Afghanistan- the sculptures which brought us to the history. At the time all this Silk Road music was beginning, interest in the route.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1701306,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhara_Art

So this was an opening for me- an awakening. Nor did it escape me that wewent there and killed so many innocents, many many more than we lost that fateful day here in New York City. (My son lost a colleague who was on the top floor of one of the towers).

What an introduction to Afghanistan!- or re-introduction since I am old enough to remember the Mujahadeen we merrily supported against the Soviets.

But as to what is said in the last blockquote above I could only think of what Sarah Chayes has done there in recent years. I believe this is a real accomplishment- on a small personal scale, done with love and caring.

http://www.sarahchayes.net/

It was fascinating to hear Rory Stewart reflexively re-evaluate the book and his intentions in Afghanistan after knowing what he knew in Iraq, however, I still think there is more to tease out in this before/after (the wars went bad) transformation of Rory’s thought. Mr. Stewart now claims that all attempts for mediation between ‘east’ and ‘west’ will inevitably fail because of intractible cultural differences (a popular position these days…also notice how the blame seems to fall on Islam and belligerent local populations who, even during the mythic classical past, could never be tamed).

“the growth of nationalism, of Islam, the potential for resistance, the voices of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, their capacity to disrupt these kinds of projects, are now such that even were you to transplant some Macedonian general of Alexander the Great and try to put him in charge with sway over Afghanistan — with all the charm, dynamism, charisma and savagery that that would entail– he would still fail.”

Mr. Stewart seemed to believe that if one only knew the rules of conduct governing another culture, it would be possible to inhabit the same territory peacefully, and has since realized that the knowledge of rules do not actually equate to peaceful rule. However, I think that the cultural rules Mr. Stewart sought to apply and has come to distance himself from, change rather than move along a pre/post or good/bad binary. What kind of rules were Mr. Stewart working with? Where did they come from (Kim, T.L. Lawrence, State Department, or The Economist)? And could it be that these rules did not fit the reality of cultural boundaries because of the context in which they were created as a westerner during wars defined by the apogee (and possible disintegration) of hegemonic relations between the West and the Middle East?

All this seems to be missing from Mr. Stewart’s re-evaluations of Afghanistan in light of the present failures of the west’s idealistic wars. Longer accounts of the creation of intentions and perspectives and the disintegration of these plans might lead us away from pre/post and good/bad binaries towards more telling genealogies about how our interpretations and interactions of other cultures formed, and also how we might go forward rather than giving up and forgetting all the “Places in Between” that are still worth encountering or that have yet to be critically explored.

What hits home with me is the seemingly paradoxical position by Rory – we must be more empathic of the other and the differences of her culture, but we must also be prepared to shake that other’s hand…and see ourselves. Ultimately, the mantra I dance to is:

We are ALL much more alike than we are different.

And it’s with that idea in mind that I believe Rory had the confidence to put one foot in front of the other.

I love the idea that Rory presents about nobility, if that individual is capable of it on a personal level, it will be possible to extend that nobility out. It must happen from the inside out, or from the bottom up (as President Obama likes to say). And Rory is apparently putting this to practice inside Afghanistan.

And ahhh…humility, what a concept! Rory Stewart doesn’t just preach it; he embodies it by exposing his own process of being wrong. And by being secure enough to not just admit it his avarice, but to dissect it as a western individual – he thereby is a credible witness to our avarice as a western culture.

But it dovetails with my own psyche on so many levels right now that I barely have breath to bring them to life. So please bear with me, there’s a question for Rory here somewhere – I hope.

Rory’s observation that salvation awaits us when living among the family men is so bogglingly simple that one wonders why it needs to be put to words. And yet it subtly pricks at a point of guilt among us. With all our grand machinations and knee-jerk alignment with the establishment of Empire, blithely committing brutal acts of faceless dehumanization, attributing our sins to powerlessness or worse, incompetence… So here’s one question: In your view, is it possible to develop a sense of empathy through the simplest of human interactions with the Known Ones that can transcend and become a real force capable of repressing the other human urge to avoid the complexities of having an empathic view of the Unknown Other? How would that work politically – grassroots? peace corps? service for tuition programs? A walk in the wood? Or are we so well wired to reject the Utopian ideal that as stultifying as status quo may be, it’s the best we can hope for? Can empathy become a heroic enterprise?

Maybe that’s too many questions. NAH, one more.

How did your integration of another culture change your own view of your own culture or did it? And which aspects of culture were the most compelling – Music? Poetry? Beliefs? Food? … What I’ve found in my own life – recently converted to a closer association with my own community of men – is: it’s the food stupid. In the end it’s really hard to argue with a guy or beat him up with a mouth full of chow. And nothing evokes the spirit of humility more fully than serving up a batch of home cookin’. Conversely, being on the receiving end of service invokes, albeit a more subtle and possibly overlooked, acceptance of ingratiation.

Enough.