Jamaat al-Muslimeen International (Forum)
Understanding Afghanistan
Rebuilding a Shattered Country to which we Owe our Freedom
by Kaukab Siddique, Ph.D
THE WHITE HOUSE has once again cast its ugly shadow on the Muslim
world by making a well-thought-out policy statement according to which
the focus of "terrorism" has shifted to South Asia. It then singles out
Afghanistan for special calumny.
Afghanistan is a seemingly dirt poor, landlocked nation. It has no
oil and no media through which it could influence the world. Afghanistan's
civil airlines is blocked from the minor routes it travelled earlier,
owing to sanctions imposed by the United States (through the UN).
Other than Osama bin Laden, whose every move is traced by the CIA and
Mossad, there is no one in Afghanistan who can be called a "terrorist"
even by the U.S. definition. Afghans have always fought against armed
forces, not against civilians. And the Afghans have never fought the U.S. Thus the
mystery of the USA's moves against this tiny country needs to be unravelled.
FIRST A LITTLE HISTORY: Lest we forget.
The Afghans fought the USSR's occupation army in every town and in
every village and at every hillock. A million Afghans gave their lives
in the resistance. The Soviet kill ratio in Afghanistan was higher than that
scored by the Nazis against the Russians in World WarII. Yet the Afghans
persisted and made it impossible for the Russkis to win. The Chinese Institute of
Strategic Studies estimated that the Soviets spent $30 billion on the
war in Afghanistan. After the defeat of Communism, the Russians themselves
disclosed that the figure was twice as much: $60 billion
That's how the Soviet empire became untenable. It had many internal
contradictions, but the Afghans pulled it down.
Eastern Europe would not have been free without Afghanistan. At
least Polish and and East German leaders admitted it.
U.S. Funds and Pakistani help: After the Soviet withdrawal, the
Zionist media saw Afghanistan as a threat to their interests and started
using the terminology "the CIA-funded war in Afghanistan." This was the
media's way of making the Afghans unpopular. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE
TERM "WHITE HOUSE, CIA-FUNDED and DEFENDED ZIONIST ENTITY." No one has,
despite the fact that Israel would not even exist but for U.S. funds, weapons
and surveillance.
Even Muslims are sometimes driven to the idiotic conclusion that
somehow the CIA was fighting the war. The amusing fact is that only
FOUR American fighting men entered Afghanistan in all those years. These
were from a private group and had to be carried out because their stomachs
couldn't take it.
If outside help could win wars, the South Vietnamese would have won
against the North, and the PLO (which had huge amounts of Soviet money
and weapons at one time) would have not run away from the Israelis.
(Pakistani generals have also made frivolous claims, as if they fought
the Jihad. Any detailed look at the war would show that the Afghans
fought, sacrificed and won.)
STAGE TWO: The Destruction of Hikmatyar's Power: Hikmatyar was a
brave Afghan leader but unaware of what his own friends would do to
him. Once the Soviets withdrew, he was given glimpses of American support and
urged to wage conventional war against Jalalabad, leading to heavy losses in his
ranks.
Then he was pitted against the Jamiate Islami which had captured
Kabul. He kept on trying to take Kabul by force which he could have
shared peacefully.
The Hikmatyar-Rabbani conflict depleted both sides and created a
power vacuum in the country. The U.S. policy in this stage was not to
allow any Islamic government to stabilize itself in Kabul. It was a policy
of masterful attrition.
The power vacuum led to the breakdown of law and order in the whole
country and the emergence local thugs and petty warlords.
THE RISE OF THE TALIBAN:
These were students from Afghanistan who studied in Islamic schools
in Pakistan. They seem to have been funded and armed by Pakistan (with
American overt and covert support). The American government seemed to
be quite satisfied when the Taliban easily filled the power vacuum and
easily took over most cities and finally Kabul. They were against all existing
mujahideen groups, be they of Hikmatyar or Rabbani. Hence they were
seen as favorable by the U.S., Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and unfavorably by
Iran.
YOU CAN'T KEEP AN AFGHAN DOWN: Once the Taliban were in power, they
showed their "patrons" that trying keep an Afghan as "puppet" is like
riding a tiger. The Taliban became an independent power and decided to crack
down on western influences including liquor and the activities of missionaries.
In their zeal the Afghans were extra strict with women, especially
in Kabul. I see this as follows:
KABUL was always a citadel of anti-Islamic forces. The Russians and
the Afghan Communists (who claimed that Islam is reactionary and outdated)
had paraded women in the streets, giving them skirts to wear. Look at
some of these Afghan women now living in the U.S. They look parisian rather
than Afghan. Thus the Communists created this paradox: While their military
occupied a Muslim land and their agents walked on the Qur'an, they
claimed they were freeing women by putting them in western dresses.
THE JIHAD WAS ABOUT SELF-DETERMINATION: The right of a nation to live by
its best light. None of us have the right to tell Afghans how to live.
They have given a million lives to live like Muslims.
So women in Kabul were punished by the Taliban by being forced to wear
large outergarments and being denied lipstick and high heeled shoes.
Unfortunately the Taliban insisted that women could not even go to
hospital or school if they refused to wear Islamic dress according to the
Taliban interpretation.
KABUL IS A CONQUERED CITY. What have other conquerors done? The
Russians, British and Americans raped German women en masse when they
occupied Germany. German families starved by the millions, so much so
that in Nuremburg (where the show trial was held to fix German guilt), many
a German woman sold herself for no more than a chocolate from a GI.
Let alone conquest: Look at what the Americans did in a foreign city
friendly to them: Saigon. It became a vast brothel.
By contrast the Taliban have been extremely decent.
(Ironically propaganda against the Taliban comes from western women
who visited Afghanistan alone and received all due hospitality.)
In most of Afghanistan, women go about their business as before. The
Taliban do not have a police force to enforce their intrepretations in
every village.
THE CASE OF OSAMA BIN LADEN: Soon after Bin Laden took refuge in
Afghanistan,and the Afghans refused to give him up, the U.S. and the
media here started to heat up the propaganda against Afghanistan. Till that time
the U.S. had not realized that Afghan women's movements were being
restricted. By a strange coincidence, Afghanistan's refusal to hand over Bin Laden was
FOLLOWED by Hillary Clinton's expression of great sorrow for the
suffering of Afghan women.
WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR AFGHANISTAN? : Pakistanis, the Muslim world,
Eastern Europe and all those who were opposed to Soviet "Socialist"
Imperialism owe a debt to the Afghans.
The only decent thing to do is to help Afghanistan rebuild. The
sanctions should be removed. Village by village and town by town, the
Afghans should be given the resources to build homes, provide electricity and
running water, pave roads, construct schools and hospitals.
The worldwide funding should be without strings. The Afghans have
earned their independence. Don't insult them by sending in missionaries
in the guise of charitable organizations.
THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION has earned infamy for itself among Islamic
nations by clamping sanctions on an entire poverty-stricken, war-battered
country just because one man has taken refuge there.
Clinton has gone against the American tradition. Hasn't this country
(at least after slavery) been a haven for those whom others saw as
seditionists and revolutionaries? How many Israelis live here who have
committed atrocities against Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and Africans?
Once a person has taken refuge, it's common sense to leave him alone.
During the Monica Lewisnsky "crisis" Clinton's men fired missiles not
only into Sudan but into a MOSQUE in southern Afghanistan. Dozens of
worshippers were killed. Surely the world knows who fired those
missiles.
The Afghans say: Osama bin Laden cannot be tried by the media or by the
CIA. If the U.S. has any evidence against Bin Laden, the Afghans want
to see it.
Don't we say in America that a person is innocent until proven guilty
BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.
2000-05-18 Thu 23:17ct