The country is at the threshold of a new era of either or both despair and hope. This is because Afghanistan has fast become a land of controversies. Everything that happens there is controversial. Think of its government, its president, its war, its future and you will find controversy everywhere.

Now that the file has been closed on a controversial election and the country and the world are looking at a survivor with anticipation and anxiety, Afghanistan's immediate future has been tied by that very survivor to conferences and Jirgas. Having failed to find a solution to the country's wide scale corruption that reportedly has even found its way into higher echelons of his government, President Karzai has promised to solve the problem by holding a conference, soon, in Kabul where he will listen to participants who should advise him on what to do about this national calamity.

He has further promised a Jirga, a higher Council, outside the system of parliament, to advise him on what to do to find peace, that elusive commodity that has evaded the country for the past thirty years.

So the Afghan nation, and Afghan watchers are given hopes that one day their aspirations for a peaceful democracy in the heart of Asia would be realized in the form of a marble castle to be built by two conferences up in the skies of a one mile high city that has otherwise been profoundly injured, partially resuscitated, and wrapped in dust and smoke around some five million ordinary Afghans the residents of this capital who have suffered for long years of war, insecurity, poverty, unemployment and disease; castles built by emotionally compromised people for other emotionally compromised people to reside in.

Next Tuesday, the United States President, Obama would announce his new strategy on Afghanistan. Weary of the country's failures, bad governance, corrupt officials, a hard and difficult war, he has been asked to send more troops to fight some more an enemy that is evasive, yet getting more organized and becoming more daring by the day.

It is reported that he is also looking down the road to a time when an exit strategy would become necessary. Perhaps only he knows the hardship of carrying the heavy burden of war where his countrymen fight for democracy, kill or get killed and do not see an end to their endeavor.

Whether more troops, as the US military thinks, is the solution is the question in the minds many US citizens and all those interested in Afghan affairs. Non military solution, an area that has so far not received sufficient attention has not been studied in any meaningful depth. This column has consistently analyzed other civil solutions to complement the military action. These include a massive mass educational program attempting at enlightening the public as to the real problems of the nation and the schemes of its enemies for destroying the fabric of its life by violence resulting in the killing of the innocent and halting the country's progress towards social and economic prosperity. On the other hand, supporting improvement in governance, helping the legislation through training to work on laws based on the nation's priorities, helping improve the judicial system and improving and empowering the police to enforce the law should be thoroughly considered.

There is no doubt that Afghanistan is in turmoil. Corruption and insecurity top a long list of ailments of the country and its government. Truly, it is a dark era. But is there a silver lining somewhere in sight?

There indeed are rays of hope even during these troubled times in Afghan history. But the hope is conditional. It is conditioned on the wisdom of the leaders and on prudence of the international community. A wise leader would be an active leader who would roll up his sleeves, go to the drawing board and draft a path for overcoming the problems based on the priorities of the nation. He would then have to give this to technical experts to hammer out and change it to a clear and clean plan that would address, chapter by chapter the ills of the government such as corruption, insecurity, economic and social development. A wise leader would be a person who would reassess his country's relations with its neighbors, regional powers and international community at large. He would have to reassess the country's relationship with the foreign military that is fighting a war on terror on its territory, on its turf. It requires diplomacy and wisdom to refine these relations and affairs and regulate them in international agreements mutually agreed upon. It would require making it cleat to everybody concerned that war alone is not the solution to the problems in Afghanistan. Non-military solutions would work much better and would give more positive results. The leader of the government should preside over a team that is conversant in peaceful remedies to threatening issues in the life of the nation. The leader should choose a cabinet that works for the country and not for the person of the president, a cabinet that is not involved in any form of corruption. A wise leader would find ways to free himself from the strong net that has been woven around him by the warlords and gun toting personalities and movements.

Yes there is a ray of hope. It would shine through talks and negotiations with friends and foes and with the international communities and with the United States, in order to convince all parties concerned that Afghans yield to kindness better than to war, that their wounds would heal better with kind dressings and kind words rather than more aggression. The fruits of peace are sweeter and more nutritious.

Yes there is a ray of hope, but a sound leadership would have to find it and pave the way for it to shine. The leader should not be afraid of making daring and tough decisions when needed. 11/26/2009