Text of email to Congressman Michael
Capunao, Massachusetts, sent May 17, 2008
Dear Congressman Capuano,
As a U.S. Congressman, what would you say to a plan which would save
American lives in Afghanistan, prevent the Taliban from returning,
allow American forces to withdraw relatively soon, and save enormous
amounts of money, all at the same time? This is exactly
what a plan arrived at in conjunction with an Afghan colleague of mine,
who is at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, would
accomplish. We call it the Ten Percent Solution, after the fact
that we believe peace and stability can be had in Afghanistan for
one-tenth of the cost of the present US military occupation. I
have founded an advocacy group, Jobs for Aghans,
http://jobsforafghans.org/ in support of the plan. Please
see our mission statement at this website.
The plan attacks the insurgency at its economic roots, which are:
- Afghanistan has a 40% unemployment rate, and little to show for the
billions of dollars in U.S. reconstruction aid which has been poured
into the country.
-The Taliban is unpopular, but it pays $8 per day to its fighters, a
significant sum in a country where semi-starvation is real.
-The average Afghan would be delighted to engage in the hardest kind of
unskilled labor, such as building and maintaining roads or digging
water pipeline, for a mere $10 per day. it is our judgment
that this would remove much of the incentive Afghans have to fight.
- Decisions to join the Taliban fighters are driven much more by
economics than by ideology. This war is one we do not have to
lose, but the present purely military course is feeding a escalating
cycle of civilian casualties, attacks on U.S. forces using
tactics learned in Iraq, and radicalization of the
population.
Must we, like Cassandra, watch an inevitable tragedy unfold, helpless
to do anything about it? We cannot accept this, and now it is
incumbent on us as citizens of a democracy to force a change in U.S.
policy.
We, a delegation of your constituents, would like to meet with you to
discuss the introduction of legislation into Congress which would mark
a change in the U.S. course in Afghanistan. The mission statement
at http://jobsforafghans.org/ contains the core of the
legislation. There is still some research to be done. I
will be going to Afghanistan this summer, in July and
August. I invite you to accompany me on a fact-finding
mission, during which we would:
- Meet with foreign contractors involved in the reconstruction to ask
them, for each increment of U.S. taxpayer's money, how many Afghans are
actually getting hired? This would be in comparison to laborers
brought in by contractors from other countries.
- Visit work sites to interview Afghans working at these sites, to
determine how difficult it is to obtain these jobs, how steady the work
is, and any number of open-ended questions aimed at getting a "pulse"
of the sentiments of the people.
- Meet with government officials to discuss the administration of U.S.
aid, and ways to insure that the donor dollar is efficient in reaching
Afghans in need of work.
As the fourth poorest nation in the world according to UN poverty
indexes, and with 40% unemployment, conditions in Afghanistan are
nowhere near in accord with the nation's importance in the global war
on terror. To leave it to decrepitude would be as dangerous as if
we had, after winning World War II, left Europe to stagnate and fall to
the seductions of communism, rather than institute the bold Marshall
Plan. We stand ready to work with you in drafting this
legislation, as it is the proper role of Congress to control the purse
strings during war, and to say how the money will be spent.
History has given this generation the chance to reverse a tragic course
for our nation. It will judge us harshly if we do not. It
may be up to the young men to fight the wars. Is it not up to we
old men to stop them?
Best Regards,
Ralph Lopez
Cambridge, MA
Please see my Youtube video relating to Afghanistan
http://youtube.com/watch?v=plOf26sA0PE