In Search of the Warrior-Poet

I arrived in Kabul just under a month ago. Born and bred on Long Island, NY I had never been further east than Italy before coming to Afghanistan. Needless to say, I didn't know what to expect.

Before having the opportunity to come here, I lived and worked in Washington, DC for the past 4 and a half years, and although I genuinely enjoyed and appreciate my time spent there, many things in my life demanded I make a change, whether I wanted to or not, whether I was ready to or not. But I will not bore you with the circumstances that led me here. Suffice it to say, God often gives you what you need and not necessarily what you want. And you can never be quite sure of what you really want or what you really need - only time, personal honesty, and the ability to remain resilient can give you the meaning and purpose we so desperately seek behind the events in our lives.

After all my farewells to my loving family and friends, I embarked on this journey with indescribable apprehension, having left some business unfinished back home and having no clue what type of business I was about to get myself into. But I continued to frame this new chapter in my life as a personal odyessy, resolved to view the people I would meet and places I would go as all meant to be. I took a blind leap of faith, literally and spiritually, believing, nay more like hoping, that there was some grander design behind all of this.

The reason I mention this is not to ruminate on the trials and tribulations of my life, not to air my dirty laundry for all the world to see in order to relieve myself of some of my emotional burdens and ellicit sympathy from you all. Rather I believe there is something in this that can be informative to the situation the Afghan people have and continue to face. Part of what sustains my fortitude is the idea that God gives you what He thinks you're tough enough to handle - in my view, the Afghan people are no different. Like all of us, they need to be reminded of this from time to time.

The Afghan cultural ideal is the warrior-poet. Now obviously decades of war, death and destruction can harden anyone, but not anyone engaged in conflict can be rightly considered a warrior. Experience, courage, vigor, and most importantly, discipline are essential components. Moreover, such despair does not always harden people into soldiers of honor - people can also become cynical, corrupt and selfish, petty and vengeful. Again, like all of us, the Afghan people are a mixer of both good and bad. We all share the same tendencies because we are all human; we all share the same weaknesses and the same strengths. We all fall off our horses once in awhile but the warrior in us all compels us to get back up and ride on.

A poet, like a philosopher, must have wisdom, and as Dostoyevsky once wrote, "in order to have true understanding, one must experience deep suffering". Pain and suffering are key, and the Afghan people are no strangers to either. Such suffering is both a partial excuse for some of their more unsavory characterstics as well as the essential ingredient for their potential greatness. The Afghan people, more than any of us, need to remember this about themselves. Some of our greatest weaknesses can always be the source of our greatest strengths.

As an ideal, the warrior-poet combines strength and bravery with fortitude and a sense of the beautiful, however tragic. It is the epitome of action coupled with vision - without one the other remains shallow. Sadly, it is this ideal that is lacking most in Afghanistan today. Despite the renewed attention and commitment of the international community, without the full resurgence of this ideal in the minds of the Afghans and without a deeper appreciation of it in the minds of the international community, action will continue to be uncoordinated and vision will remain nothing more than empty promises and naive pipedreams.

In the coming weeks and months I plan to revisit many of these ideas. This introductory post is not intended to answer all questions and solve all problems in a few paragraphs. Although I had learned many lessons before I left and I continue to learn many more each day, not only about life and about myself, nor about Afghanistan, it's history and it's people, but I also continue to find commonalities between the two - in what we value, in the advice we should both take, and the paths we have already taken.

This blog is not meant to be the say all and end all either. It will attempt to tackle the myriad problems and issues facing Afghanistan and the international mission here, but obviously, such an up-hill battle is bigger than any simple blog and its perscriptions it might offer. We haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the many strategic dimensions that concern the US, NATO, the Afghan government, nor its people and once vibrant culture. Afghanistan was once the ultimate crossroads between East and West, and I truly believe it can one day reclaim that glory. However, for now, as any introduction is intended to do, it is my hope that we now have gotten the ball rolling in the right direction. Henceforth I encourage any and all comments, suggestions, and criticisms. I look forward to posting as much as I can.....