 |
| Round Two contestants. Note the head coverings on the female contestants. |
My job here can be extremely frustrating and depressing. A sizeable portion of the Afghan Army's JAG Corps is not legally trained and we know that some of the JAGs are not even literate. The insidiousness of the crimes and corruption we deal with is staggering -- right now, we have active investigations where (1) an ANA soldier shot and killed a 12-year-old girl while he and two fellow soldiers tried to rape her, and then escaped with the help of his brigade commander; (2) a two-star general allowed human rights abuses to occur under his watch and not only is he not being prosecuted, but through his ties with an influential warlord may even get a promotion; and (3) a brigade commander who recently completed a one-year prison sentence for raping his own male subordinates has been returned to his unit and is back in command, thanks to his ties to a different powerful warlord. So yeah, it's hard to even imagine an Afghanistan relatively free of corruption and ethnic violence -- unless of course you work for our general in the "Information Operations" section and you've got a Congressional delegation in town.
But yesterday I had a hope-affirming experience. Along with several other U.S. JAGs here, I was asked to help judge a few rounds of the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. The Jessup is a world-wide competition and it happens to be one of the most prestigious moot court tournaments around. Students from five different Kabul-area law schools were competing. I agreed to judge because (1) I'm a law dork who did moot court all through law school and (2) it meant getting out of the Green Zone for a day and eating Afghan food. But I was apprehensive, especially after I learned the arguments would be done entirely in English. Look, I almost pee myself having to argue in my native language -- doing it in a second or even third language is just unfathomable to me. I speak Spanish moderately well, but I could never give an oral argument ... unless the argument was about Spanish soccer.
I judged two rounds and I was completely blown away with the competitors. There were three individuals in particular who could have held their own against American moot court participants. They obviously had spent a great deal of time researching complex, obtuse international law principles -- principles that deeply affect Afghanistan, as this year's problem involved the legality of (1) using Predator drone strikes to attack civilians engaged in an insurgency; (2) banning burqa-like religious dress on public safety grounds; and (3) refusing to respond to bribery complaints filed by another country. But perhaps most impressive, the contestants' oral advocacy skills were highly advanced -- they answered (and deflected) tough questions, made cogent arguments, and appropriately conceded arguments they couldn't win. At one point, I had to pinch myself as I sat across from the female competitor at the podium, who despite wearing a conservative head covering, argued passionately that a religion's requirement that women cover their heads was discriminatory and a potential human rights abuse.
Unlike law students in the States, the Afghan competitors are undergraduates. They're poor -- a few didn't have ties, and several had mismatched suits. Oh, and they've all presumably be raised in a country that, just 10 years ago, was ruled by a bunch of a-holes who drove around in pickup trucks and beat women who had the audacity to show their ankles, smacked around kids if they took off their turbans, and killed shopkeepers who refused to close their businesses during the hours of daily prayer. It was one of the most inspiring days of my deployment.
The temptation, of course, is to point to these students' performance as a sign of progress, a beacon that we're starting to stem the tide against extremism and feudalism. In some ways, it is -- and trust me, the spin doctors have already mined it for its propaganda value. I couldn't help but notice that the competition was sponsored by USAID (a U.S. State Department organization) and that USAID personnel had been pumping money and personnel into this program since at least September, including working closely with the students. Don't get me wrong: I think the program is extremely worthwhile and will contribute greatly to the confidence and competence level of these students, who I truly hope will be the types of leaders this country needs. I just wonder how we can maintain the momentum without having to pump our seemingly limitless resources into Afghanistan. Hopefully, these students can use the skills they've built upon through their participation in the Jessup to help find an answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment