Japan, U.S. scholars talk Afghanistan aftermath

“The U.S. left the job unfinished.”

Those are the words M. Ishaq Nadiri had for America’s war in Afghanistan.

Nadiri, Jay Gould professor of economics at New York University and a former economic adviser to Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, joined Sadako Ogata, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japanese special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, in a discussion on Japan and U.S. policy in Afghanistan. The Weatherhead East Asian Institute hosted the event in Faculty House on Thursday.

Ogata began the dialogue by citing Japan’s long-standing ties to Afghanistan, including Japan’s streamlining of Afghanistan’s water supply system, Japan Broadcasting Incorporation’s establishment of an Afghan national TV station in the late 1970s, Japan’s support for Afghans displaced during recent conflicts, and the Tokyo Conference in 2002.

“Japan is a venue for peace,” Ogata said, adding that the country was “interested in social and economic development” in Afghanistan, as well as finding “a way to help refugees get back to Afghanistan.”

She noted that unfortunately, Afghanistan’s “government at both the national and local levels is not strong.” JICA is willing to commit only 40 staff members to the region due to security concerns, and similarly concerned non-government organizations (NGOs) have been reduced to “remote-control” work.

Nadiri, a former teacher at Columbia, echoed these comments in seeking to convey the attitudes of the Afghan people. “They are not sure that the people who came in after the American invasion are justified to govern,” he said.

“Afghanis thought that with the U.S. they were fighting for a state of freedom [during the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion],” Nadiri said. “Then, when the last truck of Soviets had left, the U.S. abandoned Afghanistan ... One person said to me, ‘We gave millions of people to stop the Red Army, and we have gotten nothing.’” Nadiri also posited that the U.S. “promoted the Taliban for years” before “9/11 occurred ... and the American State Department and president chose to fight the Afghan problem.”

Despite Afghans’ general anger toward America, Nadiri said they believe that “America has an obligation to help us ... The talk from President Obama about pulling out makes us nervous that they will be pulling out for a third time.” Afghanistan wants the method, not the action, to change. “The problem is the NATO approach to things. This may be considered an alliance of the most powerful nations in the world, but this is not an alliance,” Nadiri said.

Ogata and Nadiri agreed that Afghanistan faces many obstacles on the path to stability and prosperity, from widespread poverty to inadequate policing to the continuing menace of the Taliban. Still, they said they have seen progress in urban development and education. JICA currently contributes to development in Bamyan, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad, and Kabul, and the organization has built about 500 schools in the country, with girls constituting one third of the student body.