Amin Tarzi Speaks About Afghanistan

October 02 - 03, 2008

Afghan analyst Amin Tarzi directs Middle East Studies at the Marine Corps University. During an October 2-3 visit to Vancouver, he gave a passionate defense for staying the course in Afghanistan in an intense day and a half of meetings with journalists, students, Afghan immigrants and researchers in South Asia. His audiences heard at first hand about Tarzi’s recent trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tarzi commented that assuaging Pakistan about the disputed border with Afghanistan—by working to eliminate Afghan claims to Pakistani territory-- would be key to future regional stability. He suggested that talk of « winning » the war in Afghanistan is misguided. Rather, we should talk of enabling the Afghan government, army and police to establish order in the country. Tarzi’s visit enabled the Consulate General to make contact with key future opinionmakers, namely the graduate journalism students at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and the University of British Columbia (UBC). It also allowed us to continue conversations with Canadian immigrants, in this case members of Vancouver’s Afghan community.

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