Truthout has a report about a movement that started among peace-minded young people in central Afghanistan and that is beginning to attract followers elsewhere. Here’s a quote:
In the United States, we may find it hard to believe that anything good can actually come out of Afghanistan, or we may have fallen into a trap of thinking that Afghans cannot accomplish anything useful without foreign aid and assistance. I confess that I struggle to live outside the shadow of this narrow-mindedness and ethno-centrism. Certainly, if the scope of our imaginations is limited by CNN and Fox News, we would not be likely to imagine an indigenous peace group forming in Bamiyan Province. But this is exactly what has happened.
More information is available here and here and here.
acilius
believer1
lefalcon
losthunderlads
vthunderlad
Panther Red 
Vigilante
/ October 22, 2010I am not sure about David Smith-Ferri’s ability to “live outside the shadow of his narrow-mindedness and ethno-centrism”. What I have had great and enduring difficulty with is expecting that “anything good can actually come out of” our counter insurgencies/armed occupations of Afghanistan or Iraq. Because of these two self-administered calamities, the 21st Century has not started off well, if my fellow countrymen are deluded that it will be an American Century.
acilius
/ October 22, 2010I don’t think Smith-Ferri thinks those were good ideas- it’s hardly likely he’d be writing for Truthout if he did. And of course Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers are not part of the US war effort.