One foot in front of the other

These pictures tell quite the story.

They show the opening moments of a 10K running race held on April 8th just north of Kandahar City. The run was called the "Race for Peace and Unity" and five hundred Afghans competed for a $1,000 (USD) winner's prize donated by a local wireless service provider. The race was attended by both Asadullah Khalid, the Governor of the Kandahar Province, and LCol Bob Chamberlain, the KPRT Commander, and it was an unqualified success.

You'll undoubtedly note the date of the race, which is the same day six Canadian soldiers were killed supporting Operation Achilles further west of Kandahar City. The reality is that Zabul is safer than Kandahar, which is now safer than Helmand. But security continues to push to the south and west. This race couldn't have happened in Kandahar last year. And because Canadian soldiers continue to fight the good fight further west, a similar one may be able to take place next year where our men in uniform died this year.

You'll also surely notice the fact that the participants are wearing shorts. While that would be normal in Canada and most other countries around the world, until recently it was decidedly unhealthy to wear shorts in Kandahar:

In May, 2001 – four months before the attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan – a soccer team from Pakistan visited Kandahar to play the local team at the city's sports stadium. When the Pakistani team took to the field, officials of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue descended on the field and the Pakistani players were arrested for wearing their shorts too short. The Taliban had decreed that soccer shorts must reach the knees. As punishment, Taliban authorities shaved the heads of the offending athletes.

Some critics of this mission talk about the Taliban the same way we in Canada talk about the Green Party or the NDP - like they're a viable alternative political entity. They're not. The only thing they offered the Afghan people during their years in power was security, and even that was an illusion: it was security for devoutly religious Islamist men.

Today, Afghans can do something as simple and healthy as run a road race. Canada had a hell of a lot to do with that. If we leave these people to the punishing rule of thugs who actively target civilians with bombs and beheadings, who stone women to death and shoot them for defending themselves and their children, who storm on to a soccer pitch to arrest players for wearing shorts, for heaven's sake, what will our collective sacrifices have amounted to? What reason could we use to possibly justify such a craven policy?

Breaking faith with those who count upon our assistance and protection - not to mention those who have laid down their lives for Canada and Afghanistan - is not a "Canadian value." It would be positively cruel to abandon the Afghan people when they've already started down the road to freedom and prosperity as these runners have in Kandahar.

Update: Funny how, even with the ISAF press release, this doesn't merit any news coverage in Canada (ht:milnews.ca in comments).

More great detail on the event can be found in a private news release by race sponsors:

The 10K race started in Breshna Kot and ended at Sarkari Bagh. And all along the route, were 10,000 or so watchers who were brought to tears as the 500 racers went by.

The youngest entrant was 10 years old. The oldest was 55, who ran alongside his grandson.

This is the first time for an event like this in Kandahar. And it drew runners not only from Kandahar but also Helmand and Uruzgon.

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Similar races will be organized in other regions in the future and the regional winners will than participate in the final race which will be held in Kabul in August/September. People from all across Afghanistan are expected to participate.

Similar races will be organized by the Bayat Foundation in the future. The Bayat Founation hopes that next years race will have even more participants and some females participating. The Marathon held in Kabul for the past 2 years had more females register the second year than the first.