Homeland Security
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 15:59 — grace.norman@gm...
description:
<p>Another perspective on homeland security.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan Today
Theme:
Geography & Destiny
Identity & Perception
Year:
2008
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>Australian Government Department of Defence, and ISAF. "20100129adf8246638_049.JPG." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4329296739/.<br />
Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</p>
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<div class="hang">Australian Government Department of Defense, and ISAF. "20100104adf8246638_131.JPG." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4258452373/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
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<div class="hang">Fayloga, Sgt. Mark. "ANA, Marines Address Local Water Concerns during Operation New Dawn." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. ANA, Marines address local water concerns during Operation New Dawn.</div>
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<div class="hang">German Air Force, Herbert Albring, and ISAF. "OMLT Training." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4140701920/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
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<div class="hang">Henry, Spc. William, and ISAF. "091130-A-2575T-032." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4183433659/.</div>
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<div class="hang">Hubert, US Army Spc. Christopher, U.S. Department of Defense, and ISAF. "091120-A-5864H-033." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4148969349/.</div>
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<div class="hang">ISAF. "Untitled (Gen. Stanley McChrystal)." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4151701671/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
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<div class="hang">Lail, Staff Sgt. Bradley, and ISAF. "ANA NCO Graduation." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4796794970/.</div>
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<div class="hang">Lopez, Tech. Sgt. Efren, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Department of Defense. "American Helicopters." Digital image. U.S. Department of Defense. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.defense.gov/multimedia/.</div>
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<div class="hang">Marino, Lance Cpl. Walter. "091204-M-3612M-014." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4178463246/.</div>
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<div class="hang">Nicholas, U.S. Army Photo by Spc. Christopher, and U.S. Army. "Onlookers from the Rooftop." Digital image.</div>
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<div class="hang">Rafoss, U.S. Marine Corps Corporal John Scott. "090103-M-6058R-033." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3166572484/.</div>
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<div class="hang">Rieger, Michael. "Photograph by Michael Rieger Taken on 09/25/2001 in New York." Digital image. FEMA Photo Library. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.photolibrary.fema.gov/photolibrary/photo_details.do?id=4184.</div>
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<div class="hang">Smith, U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt Laura K., and ISAF. "090208-F-6426S-120." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3276443396/.</div>
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<div class="hang">Wade, Sgt. Teddy, U.S. Army, and ISAF. "100102-A-6365W-160." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4248779652.</div>
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<div class="hang">Waezi, Fardin. "Photo of the Day: 7 June 2010." Digital image. UNAMA's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/unama/4677413023/.</div>
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<div class="hang">Producer: Kate Harding</div>
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Video Transcript:
<p>I think that our understanding of security in Afghanistan has been largely oriented toward our security.</p>
<p>We have seen Afghanistan as important in terms of maintaining American security. Ultimately I would argue if we are really concerned with the security of the United States of our geographical borders and of our people abroad, we have to be concerned with Afghan security. We have to be concerned with the integrity of their bodies and their spaces and their livelihoods.</p>
<p>Security for Afghans involves, it involves livelihoods, it involves being able to meet the daily needs of the people, so there’s an economic component of security.</p>
<p>There is a, as well as a component of security related to the physical spaces that they occupy. And one example of where our notion of security conflicts with their notion of security comes in situations where US troops decide that they need to search the domestic compound.</p>
<p>The domestic quarters of someone that they suspect might be with the Taliban or sympathetic to the Taliban or where arms might be hidden. And in pursuit of those arms or in pursuit of those people that they suspect they, the troops go into those homes, force entry into those homes and in doing so they violate the sanctity of that space.</p>
<p>For Afghans that’s a very important part of security. Even though no bodily injury might take place, even though no one is injured in any way or killed, for them the insult that is, that takes place as a result of that violation of the autonomy, the integrity, the independence of the domestic quarters, presents a problem and an insult that sometimes can only be rectified through violence. And I think we have not fully adequately appreciated how important that notion of autonomy and of the security, the sanctity of the home is for Afghans.</p>
<p>We have to make sure this is central now to the counter insurgency doctrine where we understand what the military calls force protection as something that involves a relationship between us and the civilian population.</p>
<p>That the only adequate force protection in the long run is going to come from our ability to interact and gain the cooperation of the local population, and the way that’s going to happen is because they come to believe that we are going to be there, that we are trustworthy, that we are reliable honest brokers, and that we are going to do everything in our power to respect their culture, their life ways, their norms and things like the sanctity of their domestic quarters.</p>
