Local physician visits Afghanistan with group

The average man on the street in Afghanistan probably can’t see the advantage of democracy in the Central Asian country, a local medical missionary said. But many of the educated people there are afraid the country soon may fall back into the hands of the Taliban, said Dr. Louis Carter, a Chattanoogan who joined the Memphis Afghan Friendship Summit for a trip to the country. "If America doesn’t continue to give them support, they’ll come back under (Taliban) control," he said. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States, Allied and Northern Alliance military action toppled the ruling Taliban, which had sheltered the mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden. A late 2001 conference in Bonn, Germany, established a timeline for political reconstruction. The Memphis Afghan Friendship Summit was created in late 2001 "to see what we could do to help the people," said Cindy Taylor, executive director of the organization. Since then, it has sent several teams each year to offer leadership, business and medical training in four Afghan cities. "We’re helping where we can," said Mrs. Taylor, a nurse whose husband, Zack Taylor, a gastroenterologist, leads the medical trips. On the trips, doctors partner where possible with Afghan physicians in their specialty and update the local doctors with new techniques, she said. Dr. Carter, a plastic surgeon, did not have a counterpart at the CURE hospital in Kabul where they served, but "he was very helpful in being another set of ideas and hands," she said. The trip Dr. Carter was part of was the organization’s fourth medical trip and fifth overall to Afghanistan in 2006. He said the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to quell the country’s civil war and anarchy, has regained the major of Kandahar and most of the Southern part of the mountainous country. "The doctors in residence (at the hospital at which he worked) are very fearful of the Taliban moving into the north in the next year or so," he said. Dr. Carter said the NATO military alliance now in place in Afghanistan doesn’t have the manpower to stop the Taliban. "They can’t stop them, and there is not the wherewithal, the money or the loyalty to fight them," he said. Dr. Carter said he felt safe with his team and in the guesthouse where he stayed. However, he said Americans very rarely walked the streets and did not pause long during stops in a car because they could become targets. "The team (members) had to be very, very careful to watch for each other," Dr. Carter said. He said there were no suicide bombings in Kabul while he was there, but several mines in the area were found and detonated. "There are more undetonated mines in Afghanistan than anywhere in the world," Dr. Carter said. Most of the "very beautiful" people live in mud brick homes and exist on $2 a day, he said. However, women, who were prevented from working and attending school by the Taliban, now are doing both. Most, he said, still keep their heads covered per Muslim custom. At the CURE hospital, the Lookout Mountain resident, working with an Afghan general surgeon, did more cleft lip or cleft palate procedures than any other operation. "At every hospital around the world we have before surgery," Dr. Carter said, "but not there. And where we were used to taking off Sunday, their holy day is Friday. We did not operate on Friday, and Sunday we worked all day." Missionaries, as such, are not allowed in Afghanistan, a country slightly smaller than Texas, he said. Dr. Carter said the members of the team he went with are all strong Christians who wanted to work side by side with the Afghan people to "show them America cares." Christians in Afghanistan have to "be careful what they say" and practice their faith through longterm relationships with other people, he said. They hope non-Christians will see a difference in them, he said. "They’re not totally quiet about their faith, but they’re circumspect and careful," Dr. Carter said. E-mail Clint Cooper at ccooper@timesfreepress.com GET INVOLVED Medical and other professionals interested in sharing their leadership skills in Afghanistan through Memphis Afghan Friendship Summit may contact executive director Cindy Taylor at (901) 493-2578 or by visiting www.mafsummit.org.