Major accomplishment for JobsforAfghans.org

It was almost hard to believe when I opened and e-mail from a colleague at JobsforAfghans this morning forwarding me an article titled "US Afghan strategy uses economic aid to battle Taliban"...and my reaction was "they are finally seeing the light!"

We consider this a major accomplishment for JobsforAfghans, whose members have been working tirelessly to convince the US Congress to give non-military solutions a chance (of at least greater than 10% of military expenditure), by implementing large-scale, labor intensive public works projects that would keep the 40% unemployed men and women at work by paying them at least $10 a day, which is roughly near what the Taliban pay their low ranking fighters. This will not only promote (short term) economic growth and put cash directly on the poor and unskilled workers' hands, but also (hopefully) lure some of the non-ideologically driven Taliban to dignified, civilian work for relatively reasonable pay.

I understand that as the article alludes to it, this may seem like an unsustainable practice with horrible consequences…but we are knowingly pushing for such a strategy as a short-term solution only and if you compare these figures to more than $30 billion a year spent on military alone, it won’t look so unsustainable anymore…with only 10% of current military expenditure set aside to such interventions, millions could be hired, several millions would be fed and clothed, tons of visible improvements in irrigation, sanitation and infrastructure will be accomplished, local support to insurgency will be weakened and hopefully the country will be placed on a trajectory of safety and stability so that more long term development strategies may be designed and implemented.

Send me your feedback and reactions by e-mail to najimdost@gmail.com or as comments on this posting. Thanks!