PBS Point of View: Regarding War
Sep 1 at 9:09pm by David Tate
Just wanted to take a few minutes to catch you folks up on some things and to direct you to where you can find some of my current war related writings. Unfortunately my personal life has taken a significant hit that has forced me to sideline ABT until I can pull it all back together. Recently, however, a PBS editor approached me about joining a small team of vets, journos and other folks connected to U.S involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, contributing to a blog called, “Regarding War”. After a lot of thought, I agreed… partially because it may be good therapy for me.
Anyway, that’s the skinny and here’s my first post. There’s also a QA interview if interested.
DT
One Response for "PBS Point of View: Regarding War"
Ben Paz
September 11th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
1Good to hear from you again, David. I imagined you were busy there, and sooner or later you’d be able to break from the gathering phase & switch to the analysis/publishing mode. I have a couple of q’s for ya, and you can answer when u can.
One q is what do the Kandaharis/arghandabis think of the current effort underway (ie. op. hamkari) in the larger context of a possible american exit 12-24mos. down the road? Specifically, are they (the locals to the valley) anything but cynical of american efforts, I mean, keeping in mind that these guys will have to live among the people that we call the enemy, but to them are their cousins, tribesmen, or simply the entrepreneurs (you know, the guys with money and a few pickup trucks) that will generate employment, american exit or no.
Another q for you is now that you’ve mastered more pashto, perhaps arghandabi pashto, can you read the people better? I mean, can you talk to young and old, read their body language and pickup any signs of optimism when they see you, or when you ask them questions? I ask that because my idea of despair, my concept of utter lack of hope has a strong element of isolation, alienation. Then, when a sympathetic outsider (like you) walks alongside a local (doctor, soldier, farmer, shepherd) I would imagine a tiny bit of kinship develops such that you can ask someone about life, and perhaps they ignore you and swat your q aside, or they let you have it and open up like a torrent of emotion, or some middle ground.
Hoping you stay safe,
Ben
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
Leave a reply