[Ed. 7/21: The last names of Afghan filmmakers and images of those still in the country have been removed due to the increasing insecurity in Afghanistan.]

Afghan civilians are asking for a responsible and sustained engagement by the international community that will secure their peace and not only the end of the international community’s war.  Every week I hear from Afghan friends and colleagues about their fear that the international community is abandoning them to another civil war and humanitarian crisis.

What Afghans see everyday on their news, is a situation that looks more and more like a return to the 80s and 90s when their plight was ignored, 32+% were displaced as refugees and 10s of thousands of civilians were killed. Afghans hope we will not promote outcomes that lead them to look back 10 years from now at an Afghanistan once again left to civil war and humanitarian disaster.

As Zahra, Afghan NGO leader and maker of the film Hands of Health, stated during on congressional briefing, “American troops … are fighting a war rather than creating stability and peace. [The US] should focus their attention more on diplomatic approaches and dialogue rather than fighting a war.”

We should help Afghans achieve the following:

1. NATO shifts its combat mission to a population protection strategy until a long-term international and culturally sensitive stabilization force is mounted and deployed;
2. The UN leads all-party regional peace talks to extricate Afghanistan from its geopolitical conflict;
3. The international community transfers a fraction of the billions spent on a failed military strategy to fund cost-effective and locally implemented economic and social development projects that have proven their value and efficacy and are essential for long-term peace and prosperity in Afghanistan.