Dear Brothers and Sisters, President Obama is asking for our ideas. At Change.Gov, the American People are the designated resource for changing the direction of our country and defining the ideas that will transform America.

This is a chance to become collectively empowered to voice the knowledge,experiential truths,and wisdom acquired during over 50 years of peace corps service. The Foreign Policy Agenda demands our input if only to relieve us of our years of frustration and dismay at the lost possibilities for the peopoles of the world.

Afghanistan's RPCV's have to read the Financial Times,Feb 14/15 weekend issue describing Kabul in the 1960's as flowering.. liberalism,"the Paris of the east...girls in miniskirts,"people left the city at weekend to stay at ski lodges".... When one writer tells us that Afghan cities in the 60's and 70's were among the most developed and cosmopolitan in the Muslim world, we know that Afghan RPCV's might have many more insights into those times.

Afghan RPCV's cannot be imagined to be silent when a young scholar calls for billions more and greater increases in troops to resurrect Afgthanistan to its former glory.

Brothers and sisters from all countries of service, we know in our deepest hearts that we have something to contribute to the discussion that has largely gone unheard over these last 50 years.
Sincerely, Patrick J. Reardon,Afghanistan,Group IV,1964-1966