'Great Game' helps bridge the gap between Afghanistan and the West

Afghanistan is one of the few foreign countries whose day-to-day affairs are interesting to Americans, but it also rates among those countries they know the least about.

Afghanistan has been the scene of three wars over the last century: the British invasion in the early 1900s, the Soviet war in the '70s and '80s, and now the U.S.-led war on terror.

Afghan citizens, who fought the Red Army three decades ago, argue that the U.S.-led international forces currently stationed in Afghanistan lack familiarity with the terrain and the local culture, as the Soviets did.

Americans seem to have realized that they launched the Afghan mission without doing their homework. With the rise in the Taliban-led insurgency across the country and a mounting number of casualties, the Pentagon has begun a serious effort to train U.S. troops in the traditional ways of making friendship with Afghan villagers.

But the U.S. government is not alone in attempting to understand Afghanistan. Theatres, books and movies are carrying the effort to ordinary Americans.

"The Great Game: Afghanistan," a British play on the history of Afghanistan's three wars, has generated attention in Minneapolis during its run at the Guthrie Theater. As an Afghan journalist on a two-month fellowship with the World Press Institute in St. Paul, I was asked about the play by almost every American I met. I heard that some of them had seen the nine-hour, three-part play twice.

WPI's schedule allowed me to see only one part of the play: Part Two, from the Soviet invasion to the capture of Kabul by the Taliban.

To aid understanding, the play presents the story in a very simple way. It is a scratch of the surface. Even so, the rapid political and social changes are shocking. The Taliban Islamic hardliners took over Kabul and publically executed former President Mohammad Najibullah, a whisky drinker -- as he is characterized in the play.

Such opportunities to learn about each other's culture are important. A large number of Afghans see the United States as a country where Islamic values are undermined, if not insulted, through initiatives to burn their sacred book, the Quran. They do not accept at face value that the U.S. government is committed to do its best to change the situation on the ground and end the stalemated war. Simply, Afghans doubt that the United States is honestly trying to stabilize Afghanistan. But in the United States, Americans still believe the war is religiously motivated, and a large number of them even doubt whether the fight is worth it.

I think that the Taliban, at least at the level of the foot soldiers, are no longer waging an ideological fight against non-Muslims but are now just fighting as a means of feeding their families and earning money. They can be easily reintegrated into the mainstream society if their foreign funding channels are blocked and alternative livelihoods are provided for them. Afghans think that the United States knows this but is reluctant to do it. Personally, I doubt that Washington wants to reach a resolution through talks.

This lack of understanding of each other indeed requires more cultural exchanges. In this, civil society and the media hold crucial responsibility.

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Said Lotfullah Najafizada is an Afghan journalist based in Kabul. He recently ended a two-month fellowship in the United States, touring the country to research about the U.S. midterm elections, health care policy and food sustainability. He spent half of the program in Minnesota, the home for his host organization, the World Press Institute.

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