Keep guns away from polling places
Nearly a dozen years ago, I sat in a sweltering room taking notes as others with me focused on a map spread across the floor. Most of us had pistols strapped to our hips or rifles propped against the wall next to our body armor.
The men focused on the map were discussing the national election scheduled to take place in about three weeks.
The stakes were high, and our planning was fraught with tension and anxiety. The incumbent seeking reelection was believed by many to have been illegitimately installed a few years earlier by foreign intelligence services. There were rumors that the Russians, Chinese and Iranians were participating in covert shenanigans to sway the election results in their favor, or just disrupt the national government. Skepticism of the fairness of the upcoming vote was widespread, especially in the rural parts of the country, where the population felt neglected and isolated.
The tribalism that had long been simmering in the country was turning violent, with one of the larger disenfranchised tribes embarking on a campaign of intimidation, violence and disinformation spread through print and electronic media, often through anonymous and unattributable means.
This scenario might seem familiar to anybody closely watching the pre-election drama unfolding in the United States. But the events described above took place in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, where I was deployed as a U.S. Marine in 2009.
In June of that year, I joined several thousand Marines taking part in Operation Khanjar, the start of President Obama’s “surge” of military forces and civilian advisors into Afghanistan. Helmand was at the heart of the Taliban insurgency wreaking havoc on the country. Two months after we arrived, our battalion had forced out many insurgents and established a secure environment that allowed the district’s residents to travel safely, engage in commerce and till their land without fear of harassment, “taxation” or worse from the Taliban who had previously operated with impunity.
A contingent of Afghan government officials was in place, providing Afghan solutions to Afghan problems. Schools were scheduled to reopen soon because teachers had returned after a nearly twoyear hiatus due to threats from the Taliban. In short, normalcy was returning.
An efficient, fair and transparent election was our next challenge. The Taliban had gone underground and there was an increase in IED attacks, ambushes and sniper attacks on Marines and Afghan security forces, as well as covert attacks (and even a few assassinations) on locals known or suspected to have been cooperating with Marines and the local government. The eyes of the world were watching, and it was imperative that the election be viewed as legitimate.
Our security plan ensured that the roads to and from more than 30 polling places in an area roughly the size of New York City’s five boroughs would be cleared of IEDs. Quick reaction forces were queued up to respond to any Taliban attacks, and medical resources were on standby.
But we drew a firm line on one point: Marines would not stand guard at polling places. Instead, polling places would be staffed only by Afghan officials, NATO civilian advisers and a handful of authorized international election observers. We recognized that a polling place is a sacrosanct icon of democracy, where a person can freely exercise their rights without fear of intimidation or coercion. Armed Marines hovering around such a place would instill a sense of fear and uncertainty in the democratic process that the Afghans had not had the luxury of participating in for nearly a decade.
The August 2009 elections in Afghanistan weren’t perfect, but the way they were conducted in my district gave a sense of confidence in the local population. We had our share of violence that day, but the polling places remained a beacon of democratic inspiration as roughly 30,000 local residents cast their votes, emerging from their polling place with an ink-stained finger showing they had cast their ballot.
Now, in the final weeks of the U.S. election, the incumbent is urging his supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.” The president’s campaign calls it “Trump’s Army.” While he hasn’t explicitly urged those followers to suit up in tactical gear with assault weapons, his suggestion to similarly dressed and armed protesters to “LIBERATE” Minnesota, Virginia and Michigan and exhortation to the Proud Boys to “stand by” make it clear that he’d welcome those intimidation tactics.
Regardless of our politics or preferred candidate, we should honor the principles our military service members and foreign service officers — like those I served with in Afghanistan in 2009 — stood for and protected. Guns and militias don’t belong at polling places.