By Lawrence J. Halloran
Director of PSC's International Development Initiative
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal story* about non-profit aid groups “distancing themselves from the U.S.-led coalition” and cutting separate safe-passage agreements with the Taliban in Afghanistan exposed a dangerous naiveté among some humanitarian actors there who are complicit in appeasing a lethal enemy. I wonder how fast those same aid workers would cover the distance between themselves and the nearest NATO military unit when some of Mullah Omar’s men who didn’t get the memo open fire.
To pretend the Taliban is just another benevolent community organization looking to “register” foreigners for their mutual peace of mind ignores the Taliban’s bloody past and their brutal plans for all they subjugate, especially women. Too many dedicated professionals from aid development and other firms have already suffered tragic losses of life to conclude that anyone’s safety lies in such dangerous delusions.
And if the Taliban’s safe passage registration is “free” in terms of money or tactical military intelligence, it surely comes at the price of an explicit endorsement of the group’s goals and the tacit acknowledgement of their illegitimate governing authority. Why else would the local Taliban bureaucrat quoted by the WSJ welcome “unaligned” aid groups into areas he controls while he feels free to shoot at others doing essentially the same work on behalf of the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan government?
When a congressional subcommittee found that transport contractors were paying insurgent militias for convoy protection for supplies for U.S troops, the practice was roundly denounced. The widely publicized October 2010 Senate Armed Services Committee report concluded it was important to address those “who act contrary to our interests and contribute to the corruption that weakens the support of the Afghan people for their government.” Is it so different when a non-profit aid group pays the Taliban with its good name? Even when no money changes hands, letting the Taliban take tacit credit for the provision of medical supplies and other aid paid for by countries with soldiers in the field gives comfort to the enemy. Even the most expansive view of the humanitarian space between active combatants and innocent civilians does not have room for that indefensible double standard.
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