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On Tuesday April 28th, an intimate gathering of prominent Afghan Americans and progressive analysts met at a conference in Queens College, New York, to come to consensus on how best to achieve peace in Afghanistan. Organized by the Afghanistan Peace Association, the conference raised the various challenges facing Afghanistan including widespread poverty, ineffective government, and a growing insurgency. The US/NATO war in Afghanistan is a center piece of President Obama’s foreign policy. But Afghanistan has seen a dramatic escalation in violence over the past several years, and is set to receive a boost in US troops this summer. With rampant corruption in the central government, bloody suicide bombings by the Taliban, and civilian killings by US and NATO forces, the Central Asian country is headed toward a path of seemingly intractable disaster. I attended the conference as a speaker through my work with the Afghan Women’s Mission, and was joined by progressives such as Christian Parenti, Sameer Dossani, Ann Jones, Fahim Vorgetts, and Fariba Nawa. I had the chance to speak with several of them while I was there and today, I bring you part one of my report-back.

GUESTS: Dr. Dawer Nadi, one of the organizers of the conference, and one of the founders of the Afghanistan Peace Association, Fahima Vorgetts, board member of Women for Afghan Women1 and director of the Afghan Women’s Fund.