A Battlefield Tourist

War on Education

Feb 17 at 11:11pm by David Tate

Cpl. Jake Haasnoot, Amery, Wi., spends time talking with a student outside of Musa Qala's school located in the District Center.

February 15, 2009

One of the Taliban’s main objective in their war on Afghanistan is education.  Last year, scores of coalition-built government schools have been torched, female students have been attacked with acid and if to make a capital point, just two weeks ago suicide bombers attacked the Ministry of Education in downtown Kabul.

In Musa Qala, the British have spent quite a bit of money, and time, building the school that sits in the District Center; a project, from the outside, that seems to be moving along flawlessly.

Teaching is Hazardous

While the Marines here are tasked with mentoring the ANP, on this particular week, most of the mentoring has been shelved because most of the ANP are disbursed throughout the district in preparation for the upcoming presidential election no rescheduled for August.  In the meantime, the Marines are also tasked with securing the district center.

The Marines had been hearing stories that the teachers in Musa Qala are being threatened with death for teaching the children of the area.  With that in mind, we all geared up for the short walk to the school to find out what was going on first hand.

The school is two long buildings with a breezeway in the middle that echos with the sound of young boys playing, learning and laughing.  On the outside everything seems normal.  Once at the school, we are met by several older men, and a few young men, who are the teachers of what seem to be several hundred boys (I saw no girls and was not surprised).  While the Marines conversed with the elders and delivered school supplies, I knocked on the door of a classroom and accepted an invitation in.  Immediately the boys’ attention came to me, most smiling, all certainly interested.

Just like I do in the states, I gestured for them to pay attention to the teacher as I took a seat so I could get some good shots of their daily life.  The teacher, like most Afghans, stood proudly before me waiting for me to take a picture.  I have noticed that Afghans do not grasp the idea of carrying on, instead, they like to “pose” whenever a camera comes out.

I gestured several times for the old man to continue, which he finally did, and I got some excellent, candid video of the education process.  These are the types of memories I keep with me forever.  I cannot explain the satisfaction of being a “fly on the wall” in a place so far from my own regular world.

The next half hour, or so, was spent exploring the place, trying to converse with the kids (who were often getting in trouble for doing so; nothing a stone from an old man didn’t fix.) and getting some pictures.  It went by rather quickly and before I knew it, we were ready to leave.

As the Marines had heard, the teachers are terribly afraid for their lives.  Taliban “night letters” have been showing up at local mosques warning of dire consequences for teaching these children anything but religious instruction.  It’s amazing what a handful of zealots can do to the psyche of so many.

“Today was hearts and minds,” said one Marine.  ”Tomorrow we’ll do more security work.”