Afghanistan visit

A north bay activist’s independent fact-finding tour of Afghanistan recently found growing violence closing in on the capital city of Kabul, and a scarcity of aid for refugees or civilian redevelopment needs.

Norman Solomon says his trip to Afghanistan was informative and constructive, but its primary impact was emotional.

Part of that impact for Solomon came in meeting a young refugee girl who had lost an arm when her town was bombed and her family's home was destroyed. Guljumma, seven years old, is seen here with her father, Wakil Tawos Khan, at the Helmand Refugee Camp District 5 in Kabul . Last year, an air attack by the U.S. military struck their home in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.  (Photo copyright Reese Erlich 2009)

The most profound finding Solomon brought back from his visit to Kabul was the disparity between our government’s professed intention to provide meaningful assistance to the Afghan people, and the absence of follow-through on those promises.

Among the small delegation organized by Solomon’s non-profit, the Institute for Public Accuracy, was a former US soldier who had served in Afghanistan, Rick Reyes. 

After enlisting in the Marine Corps, Reyes served as an infantry rifleman. He was deployed in "Operation Enduring Freedom" (Afghanistan) 2001 and then “Operation Iraqi Freedom” (Iraq) 2003. In 2008 he got involved in the Brave New Foundation's Rethink Afghanistan project and testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Video of that testimony is posted here. Reyes is a co-founding member of Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan.