Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Kristen Rouse about her concerns over the introduction of a form of Sharia law in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Rouse is a former US Army Supply Sergeant who served along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. She says she's seen the damage the Taliban's done in Afghanistan, and thinks it's a mistake for Pakistan to make deals with the Taliban.
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LISA MULLINS: I'm Lisa Mullins, and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. Two top British government officials visited Washington today. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Defense Minister John Hutton met with their counterparts at the Pentagon and the State Department. Near the top of their agenda, the Obama Administration's view of US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The administration is looking at everything from troop levels in Afghanistan to the idea of opening a dialogue with certain Taliban commanders. Negotiating with the Taliban seems unthinkable to former US Army Supply Sergeant Kristen Rouse. She served along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Rouse doesn't have a lot of sympathy for the Taliban, based on some of her own experiences in Afghanistan. She wrote about those in an op-ed piece published yesterday by the New York Times.
KRISTEN ROUSE: When I was at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan in April of 2006, we got word that there would be dozens of casualties coming into the hospital there and that they would need assistance carrying the litters, because it was this – it's called a mass-cal, or mass casualty. And we learned what had happened is that in a schoolyard outside of a mosque, the Taliban had launched two rockets. One rocket made a direct hit on the schoolyard of children, and another rocket hit nearby. 7 children were killed and 34 were wounded, and this was a primary school. These were very young children and they were boys and girls being taught together.
MULLINS: What was your own role as you received these children at Bagram Air Base?
ROUSE: Well, because there were so few that actually came over, I was not needed. But I did go visit them, I believe, a day or two later. We walked through the hospital wards and visited with the kids who could move around, but it's just devastating to see children who are hurt by adults. These are not accidents. It's just devastating.
MULLINS: Did you, Kristen, gain any insight – I mean, I know that soldiers, Marines there are engaging even more than ever before the Afghan people themselves. Did you ever find out for yourself, to your own satisfaction, why there are some people in Afghanistan, certain parts of Afghanistan, who despite this kind of violence targeted at schoolchildren, why they would still support the Taliban over the government of Afghanistan?
ROUSE: Well, I think in many cases, I can't blame them. What other choices are they left with? You know, the United States has under-resourced the conflict in Afghanistan from the beginning. These regions have – I mean, just the eastern mountains I can speak to ‘cause I've seen it firsthand – it's unbelievably huge.
MULLINS: This is the area that borders Pakistan?
ROUSE: That's correct. And the US and NATO troops must respect that border. However, the people who live there have never respected a border there. You know, even in 2006 when I was there, we were two mountain ranges over from Pakistan, and the two nights that I stayed there, we sat there waiting for what seemed to be an imminent attack from the Taliban who were two ridges over. They were going to come over, attack us, and then go right back.
MULLINS: What happened?
ROUSE: Fortunately, I led a charmed life while I was in Afghanistan. We were not attacked but you know, I woke up the second morning to a barrage of outgoing artillery fire. So the guys on base did take action.
MULLINS: Well, you're getting to some of the many real frustrations on the ground and dangers on the ground, and I think this is one of the reasons Barack Obama has called for talks with moderate Taliban members. I know you don't believe in negotiation. I wonder if you believe that there are moderates that the United States can successfully address?
ROUSE: Well, I'm not a policy expert, but I think bargaining with the bad guys just is going to create more of the same.
MULLINS: I'm sure you know that it was bargaining with, in some cases paying off the bad guys, the insurgents, that helped along this military surge in Iraq and changed things dramatically on the ground?
ROUSE: Right. And I had the good fortune to hear a panel at Fort Benning, Georgia, of returning infantrymen who actually were part of the beginning and the success of the Sunni Awakening in Anbar Province. And it was stunning to hear, you know, how they overcame some of the rough spots and how they were able to move forward and really have the – really unbelievable success that they did just by reaching out. I hear that and I understand that. However, I think that you know because the US and NATO have had to respect that Afghan border for the last eight years but the rogue elements that the Taliban could just sit on the other side of that border in Pakistan and grow and flourish, what ends up inadvertently happening is there's sort of this trail of broken promises -- where, you know US forces will do a lot for people, but they won't do everything that they say. Or they may neglect some big projects that they promised. The end result is that it's a trail of broken promises, and it sort of mirrors what, you know, the broken promises that we've made as the American people, you know, saying in 2001, “We're going to come in. We're going to liberate you Afghan people from these groups, the Taliban, and we're going to empower women. We're going to bring business to your country. We're going to do these great things,†and not all those promises have been fulfilled.
MULLINS: Kristen, is there a chance now – you're a 1st Lieutenant in the Army National Guard. Is there a chance that you'll be going back to Afghanistan?
ROUSE: There's a very good possibility. And I'm helping to prepare my unit for what I feel is an inevitability. You know, it's true that not every one of the people calling themselves the Taliban are brutal murderers. But you know what, they're fighting on that side. And in my mind, I bear no ill will toward anybody, but you know what? If you choose that side, there's a consequence for that.
MULLINS: All right. Former Army Supply Sergeant Kristen Rouse, thank you very much for speaking with us.
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