Listening is Important

He is a terrible speaker.

But he makes up for it with his message, and it is one of help and hope for war weary Afghanistan where elections were held last week.

Mr. Mortenson is the author of the best selling book, Three Cups of Tea. It is his story about his effort to educate Afgan children, especially girls.

Since 2001, Mr. Mortenson says, the United States has built over 680 schools in Afghanistan. He himself has helped build 78 schools. That doesn't make the news like suicide bombers do.

This is great progress for a country where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30, according to TIME magazine. Equally heartening are the quotes by these young people.

Says one, "The young are the only ones that can rehabilitate our country because you cannot start over with the old generation." Says another, "If we give young, talented and ambitious people opportunities, think what we could do for our country."

Opportunity is what the United States has been giving Afghans for eight years, and so far, they haven't done much with it. We will spend $55 billion just this year in Afghanistan. Over 800 American soldiers have died there since 2001.

President Hamid Karzai has done little to bring his tribal nation together. Rebuilding projects such as roads, and water and sewer systems have made slow progress. Corruption is rampant as is the opium trade. The biggest lost opportunity is Mr. Karzai's failure to recruit and train a viable army. The Afghan army is no match for the Taliban that reportedly has a permanent presence is 70 percent of the country. News reports this year tell of illiterate, undisciplined, and unreliable soldiers.

How can this be in a country that is legend for its fierce fighters?

I'm old enough to remember Senator William Fulbright's hearings on the Vietnam War.

He asked an administration witness why the Viet Cong were willing to live in tunnels and wear little more than G-strings to wage war and our Vietnamese allies, decked out in US supplied weapons and uniforms, had to be cattle-prodded to fight.

President Obama should be asking similar questions of Mr. Karzai. He is quick to condemn American military mistakes, but he is slow to offer Afghan troops to do the fighting.

Mr. Mortenson believes we will succeed by listening to the Afghan people.

It is good advice for Mr. Obama, too.

He should listen to the American people because more and more of them believe that they have seen this war before, in Southeast Asia.

And that show didn't have a happy ending.