BU Alum Journeys into the Heart of Taliban Valley
Matt Trevithick, who graduated with a BA in International Relations in 2008 and has since been working in Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey, has just co-authored a fascinating article in The Daily Beast on his journey into the heart of the fabled Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. Fabled, because it is amongst the most violent and dangerous parts of a most violent and dangerous country.
Trevithick, who is a Boston Univeristy alumnus of what is now the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), co-authored the article with Daniel Seckman recounting their journey into and the Korengal, the heart of Afghan Taliban country, once the most violent part of the Afghan war, and mostly untouched by Western journalists except in the presence of American troops. The article, tited “Heart of Darkness: Into the Korengal” was published in The Daily Beast (Nov. 15, 2014).
The narrative is fast-paced and personal, with many deep insights and nuances burried throughout. Here is a sampling:
The phone call came two days ago. Our contact muttered a simple, “It’s been agreed.” For a year we have been in discussions with the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province that ultimately included the shadow Taliban governor, seeking permission to enter the infamous Korengal Valley. These are the same Taliban fighters known to U.S. audiences from the documentary “Restrepo” and the film “Lone Survivor.” More American blood has been spilled and more American troops have died in the Korengal Valley during the last 13 years than in perhaps any other part of the country. It is known to troops as “the valley of death” and given the carnage that the U.S. experienced there, the nickname is deservedly accurate. We’re the first Westerners to be given permission to enter in more than three decades.
Trevithick and Seckman believe that the Korengal Valley can give them the most honest sense of what might await Afghanistan’s future. But their sense of the country’s present is already precient. Here is a sampling:
The surge, announced what feels like a lifetime ago with the approving nods of celebrity generals like Petraeus and McChrystal, has receded. From a peak of more than 130,000 US troops, less than 35,000 remain, most of whom will be gone by the year’s end. The private security contractors and their for-profit development cousins are shuttering offices and laying off staff, while the U.S. Embassy throws just enough money at the usual women’s conferences and capacity building efforts to avoid the appearance of looking like they too don’t care. The main problem facing Western governments here is the fate of their equipment: what to bring home, what to scrap. The West is packing up, victorious in battle but defeated in war. After more than 12 years of combat and more than 2,200 U.S. soldiers killed, the message is writ large: Let Afghanistan fend for itself.
Or at least that’s the narrative passed along by Western journalists. While claiming to speak with authority about the entire nation, their view is largely restricted to Kabul, the country’s capital and the place from which the overwhelming number of news stories are filed. And yet, even while seldom leaving the capital, they offer a perspective on the city that tilts toward distortion. Their stories—often implicitly, sometimes explicitly—suggest that the country’s only possible destination is the apocalypse. They remain relentless in peddling a prognosis of doom.
The article is worth reading, and can be read in full here: “Heart of Darkness: Into the Korengal.”
Matt Trevithick is the co-founder and Director of Research at the Syria Research and Evaluation Organization in Gaziantep, Turkey. Previously, he spent four years working as the Director of Communications at the American University of Afghanistan after working for more than a year at the American University of Iraq. Before going overseas, he worked as a writer and researcher at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C., as well as at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Earlier this year, he had spoken at a Pardee School panel on “The World in Flux: The Changing Face of Security.”