My Question to Senator John Kerry about Afghanistan and His Response
After the ‘Afghanistan and Pakistan: America‘s Challenge: Solving the Impossible‘ event at the Washington National Cathedral, I pestered Senator John Kerry until I was finally able to ask him a question about the United States and Afghanistan.
The Senator and his wife were running late to another event so he had me walk with him out of the National Cathedral and ask him my question.
question:
I told the Senator that as an Afghan living in America (which he either didn’t hear, though I said it 10 times or didn’t care about) I really appreciated all of the panelists bringing up the sordid history between Afghanistan and the United States as part of why the United States cannot leave Afghanistan.
Then I asked him what role communication, or lack thereof can play in getting the American people to understand the United States’ effort in Afghanistan and abandon the increasingly popular mentality that the United States must leave Afghanistan? Because in my estimation much of the problems the Obama Administration is having with the American people in terms of Afghanistan has to do with lack of communication with the American people about the importance of Afghanistan, any possible strategies, and why the United States cannot leave.
answer:
You’re right, the Administration hasn’t done a very good job at communicating their strategy to the American people. But that is because we have yet to come up with a good, clear strategy to communicate to the American people.
Then an aid told me the Senator had to answer another question before he was off to his next engagement.