Joanne King Herring: The Red Herring Was War With Afghanistan

The title I’ve just changed as I saw clearly the red herring in Afghanistan was war. The real issues were nation building, educating the afghan people and ensuring they were self sustaining.

In the previous blog I introduced the importance of mediators in war zones. I mentioned the former US Congressman Charlie Wilson who changed the dynamics of the Soviet war in Afghanistan by directing funding for weapons to the Northern Alliance. A movie was made about him called Charlie Wilson’s War. In truth it was an intervention orchestrated by Joanne King Herring the wealthy Texan socialite. She was passionate about Afghanistan and became well known for her magnetic charm and ability to understand the complexity of Afghanistan, she was the person who moved and guided former Congressman Charlie Wilson to act and supply weapons to the Northern Alliance (opposition group). This changed the war and the Soviets were defeated by 1989.

However, as core problems were not resolved at the root, you can see links of actions that create more problems down the track. The problems today of the rise the Taliban (former Afghan orphans) and Osama bin Laden (worked along side CIA to fight Soviets) can be understood more clearly when strategy is seen as a means to solve a problem rather than to win a war.

Charlie Wilson, at the end of the Soviet war (1989), proposed funding in social areas e.g. education to help the Afghan people rebuild their country. This was ignored as they had won the war. Yet what emerged were future wars that arose out of this neglect for solving the real social problems that arose from war.

In the future, we will start to understand that conflict and the competitive desire of winning produces a win/lose. No-one wins. We only start to win when the real problems are addressed. Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations on the planet. The suffering of the people in this country is extreme, yet those needs were ignored by leadership on all sides.

I knew Afghans personally and I was deeply affected by the suffering of a mother who ended up dying of cancer, both breasts removed. She spoke to me of the politics of war and her despair at the ransacking of her country. She was a quiet person and deeply humble. In a gentle way her and I were able to walk and exchange our languages as we pointed out flowers, trees etc. I helped her when she had her breast removed as she was in significant pain. Her real pain was the death of family members and being in exile out of her beloved country. The suffering of the people was always the real story and had we cultures of nonviolence and compassion, to assist the people would be the first step. In conjunction with Austcare here in Australia I organised an event called an Afghan Bazaar to help the drought victims in Afghanistan. This was around the time of September 11, 2001. I did this event to build understanding between the people. The event was to share understanding, culture, food, and some of the political issues as they were relevant. However, I did not want it to be political, I wanted the event to help raise money to help people. What I see clearly is that we are the same. It doesn’t matter to me if people are Afghan, African, Haitian, Pakistani, Israeli, Palestinian etc. I see the people on the ground with families trying to survive in conflict, this is the real focus. The politics of conflicts can be undertaken in a myriad of ways that are effective in building peace, when there is a will to build peace. Until that time, I feel ordinary people can do great good to build understanding, empathy and friendship across the world. Joanne King Herring is one of those people, she did what no politician was able to do, as she saw differently. This is the key.

In the future we will understand the link between compassion and success. The two are intimately linked, the greatest heroes of our time are very seldom seen, they do the real work in the background of rebuilding shattered lives and promoting peace. Peace making is the key to world peace and it is reached when we see humanity in the eyes of the ‘other’. Women can play a significant role here. As women typically resonate with the suffering of others and feel their pain. It is the joy of being a woman, to nurture those in need and bring peace in nonviolent ways to our world family.

The article below is a very good piece. It depicts Joanne King Herring engaged in conversation with the former President G.H. Bush. She encourages him to call Obama. The first step is dialogue. Her focus was to ultimately create self sustaining villages in Afghanistan for the Afghan people.

The Afghan’s would have appreciated that as they were traditionally self sustaining and community orientated. Anyone who has spent time with an Afghan family will feel like they are the most honoured person, they make sure you are not lonely (sit with you), they give you all they have and the best of it. They never leave you unattended. They play music and entertain you as they are happy when you are. That was a new experience for me, I saw clearly what was missing in my own culture. When we open our hearts, we see differently. This I can assure you.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7354630.html

New plan for an old cause

The force behind Charlie Wilson’s War is at it again — trying to bring Afghanistan and its people into the 21st century
By ZAIN SHAUK

HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Dec. 26, 2010, 6:55PM
photo
Karen Warren Chronicle

Joanne King Herring admits she once was “worn out” by Afghanistan, before a chat with friend Caroline Firestone reignited her interest in turning the country around.

Former President George H.W. Bush thought he was agreeing to 15 minutes with Joanne King Herring, but an hour later he was shooing away his next commitment, riveted by her ideas for Afghanistan.

The two were in his office for a private meeting, with ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer and a television crew waiting for him outside. Herring, a vibrant 81-year-oldwhose prior work to spark CIA action in Afghanistan was depicted by Julia Roberts in the 2007 film Charlie Wilson’s War, wanted their support for her new effort, one that was neglected long ago.

An hour earlier, Bush said he couldn’t offer anything but would hear her out. Now he was asking what he could do. “I want you to call Obama,” she replied.

So goes Herring, the determined advocate for a solution in Afghanistan whose charm and Southern drawl are back in action for an old cause. She has a 500-page plan to support a coalition of nonprofit organizations for coordinated, village-by-village redevelopment that she argues is vital for peace.

Government heavyweights agree, but getting them to fund the solution — which would involve targeted investment in infrastructure and education – has been a 20-year challenge.

In the late 1980s, Herring and U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-Lufkin, pushed for spending on education and development assistance in Afghanistan after the United States ended its covert support of a guerrilla campaign against the Soviet Union. Their failure was depicted in the film when Wilson, portrayed by Oscar-winner Tom Hanks, asked his colleagues to approve funding for a school in Afghanistan. He was ignored by members of Congress, busy celebrating the success of the covert mission.

In the years that followed, the largely illiterate and underdeveloped nation fell under the influence of Muslim extremists, who eventually developed into the Taliban and took control. Development work in Afghanistan could have prevented that, Herring said.

“A tiny, little bit of money would have made such a difference,” she insisted. “So many lives would have been saved.”

Did her research

Herring initially backed away from the issue, choosing to focus her energy instead on her two sons and two grandsons.

“I was so worn out by Afghanistan that I almost never wanted to see it again,” she said.

But a conversation three years ago with Caroline Firestone, the widow of the late rubber heir Leonard Firestone, changed her mind.

Firestone was active in providing assistance in Afghanistan through a Kabul hospital. She told Herring stories of Afghan children being sold by their parents. Some children, Firestone claimed, were being used to supply organs for transplant.

Herring began researching out of her River Oaks condominium.

She found that most Afghan villages did not have the infrastructure to let families build sustainable lives. Some villages had roads or shelter, but there was little food or agriculture. Others had no water or educational opportunities whatsoever. She found aid groups installing water systems in some villages and building schools in others, but there was no coordination. No one focused on helping villages become self-sustaining, she said.

“There was never any real showable progress because everybody was fragmented around doing all the same jobs,” she said. “But each (group) had a specific job, so I got the best ones to do their specific jobs, then wanted to go out and raise money for them.”

Obstacles to progress

Herring tried to tap into the United States’ current funding stream for aid to Afghanistan, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, but ran into obstacles, then found that it would only support portions of her plan. So she declined the money and began to discover flaws with the agency’s spending, which has produced little or no measurable progress in Afghanistan after at least $11.5 billion directed there since 2002, according to federal audits.

Herring and her supporters argue that USAID is flawed and that government money could instead flow directly to aid groups from the Department of Defense as part of its mission to win over hearts and minds in the country.

“There’s going to be spending in Afghanistan, and we want to do it because we can do it for less than anybody,” Herring said of her nonprofit coalition.

She has a new partner – a new “Charlie,” she says, referring to the late congressman – to help lead the effort past Washington’s reservations: Greg Mortenson, known for his success with building schools in the volatile border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, plans to help direct Herring’s group of nonprofits. Mortenson has advised President Barack Obama and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, on working with locals in the region. His pioneering aid efforts were documented in the book Three Cups of Tea.

First, a ‘model village’

Herring and Mortenson plan to use private funding for at least one “model village” in Afghanistan, hoping to make an impression that will draw future federal dollars. Those who support their ideas include former world leaders, such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as current lawmakers and military officials.

With an energy and passion that defy her age, Herring has been aggressively lobbying members of Congress, tossing her head in laughter and coaxing them with her resonant voice. She stays close with Washington power brokers, making frequent phone calls and hosting luncheons, commanding attention as her petite frame glides into rooms.

Her enthusiasm for the cause is palpable with each development, which often prompts phone calls and voice-mail messages to interested parties (“Greg Mortenson flew in to see me today and opened the windows of heaven,” she said in one message. “Everything has changed.”).

“She has a great drive,” Firestone said. “She never gives up on it. She’s just remarkable.”

Herring bounced her ideas off of Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when she sashayed her way into his heavily guarded vehicle before a trip to a local airport. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., also expressed interest in Herring’s approach after reading her 500-page plan – “and he’s a Democrat,” noted Herring, an outspoken Republican.

Bending some ears

Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn are on board. She hosted a luncheon at River Oaks Country Club in October with former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and corporate executives, asking them to back her plan.

“I’ve never heard anyone say this is not the way,” Herring said.

She recruited Connie Duckworth, a former Goldman Sachs executive. Duckworth’s nonprofit organization, Arzu Studio Hope, organizes Afghan women to weave rugs, then markets and sells the finished products to create job opportunities in villages.

Leaders in water infrastructure, soybean farming and medical services have also joined the coalition of more than 10 aid groups planning to help redevelop one village at a time. Herring named the coalition Marshall Plan Charities, after the post-World War II initiative to help rebuild Europe. The goal is to start small and then expand, putting Afghans on their feet in the process.

“Nation-building is what I’m talking about,” Herring said. “We have to rebuild their strength and then we can leave.”

That is something that didn’t happen in the past, Herring said, after the Afghans fought off the Soviets.

“We just abandoned them.”

zain.shauk@chron.com

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7354630.html#ixzz1QuNq6eQQ