The Need To Change US Policy Toward Afghanistan
October 22, 2012
By:
Prof. Noorzoy
President Barack Obama and his opponent from
the Republican party Governor Mitt Romney, both candidates for President in the
November 2012 election largely had ignored the longest war the US has been
fighting against Afghanistan going on for twelve years during most of their
campaigns for election. Both the
majority of the Afghan people and the American people, victimized by this
illegal war, have repeatedly demanded an end to the war and end of occupation
of Afghanistan.
The Presidential candidates were obliged to answer the direct questions on the
war in Afghanistan
asked by the moderator of the third debate on October 2012. Realizing that
ending the war was on the minds of the voters, both candidates stated that the US troop
withdrawal will be completed by 2014,
with Mitt Romney saying “we are going to be finished by 2014….” and the
discussion was on how the Afghan security forces would be responsible to keep
security in Afghanistan with President Obama declaring ‘ we are in a position
where we can transition out’ and that
‘Afghans will be responsible for their own security’. The moderator should have
asked the obvious important question on peace: “ is the US leaving behind a process of peace and
reconciliation in Afghanistan?”
and the equally important question
should have been to asked “why not end the war now and work for establishing
peace and offer recommitment for reconstruction to the Afghan people?” Mitt
Romney repeatedly mentioned peace as a goal for his foreign policy. But, the
moderator failed to pursue this line and ask him “why not begin with a peace
process in Afghanistan?”
The illegal war against Afghanistan has turned in to an illegal longest
occupation of the country and what is worse is that all the policies that have
gone wrong will be continued based on the agreement of May 1, 2012 (Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement)
promising more of the same until 2024 and beyond. The people of Afghanistan have already rejected this policy
otherwise the combined forces of the US and NATO along with the combined
expenditures of ¾ of a trillion dollars would have brought more success than
the Russians had in their war of aggression and occupation during 1979-1989.
Oddly enough Vladimir Putin advocates for NATO to stay in Afghanistan as reported by Reuters
August,1 2012 telling it to “finish the job”. Warmongering is nothing new
against Islam and in particular against Afghanistan. In their search for
building an empire the British did much warmongering against Afghanistan even
after losing the first Anglo-Afghan War which lead to the Second Anglo-Afghan
War with the same kind of devastating experience for the British.
Unfortunately,
successful wars in favor of the Afghan people have been followed by failures in
peace making at every turn, both in the war against the British and the
Russians, and it seems that the present war the longest that Afghanistan has
fought for its sovereignty will end up the same way, viz., failure to establish
comprehensive peace. From the present US-cum-NATO policy toward Afghanistan it
is clear that the choices left behind are up to the Afghan people to continue
on the path of war that the US and NATO have prepared for the country by
repeatedly stating that the Afghan security forces, paid and trained by the US
and other foreign occupation forces, are ready to carry on the war and the US
and NATO countries made sure that the sum of $4.1 billion annually would be provided
to the Afghan security forces for this purpose for ten years beyond 2014
according to the Chicago summit declaration on May 20, 2012.
Alternatively,
the Afghan people can take the road to peace and in fact out wit the foxes of
war aimed at the continued destruction of life and property in Afghanistan
by taking the peace initiative and the lead for peace we have outlined in our
peace plan first formulated in May, 2008 and posted on www.Afghanrsearchsociety.org.
and then revised and posted in April, 2010 on www.Afghanprm.org. US and NATO
representatives are part of the Peace Commission of 33 individuals we have
proposed, along with members from the UN and OIC. But, the majority will be
Afghans comprising 27 members of the Peace Commission.
The
deception that the Afghan people were some how responsible for the tragedy of
9/11 has gone long enough. Despite more than 11 years of war and tens of
thousands of night time raids by US Special Forces in to tens of thousands of
homes no evidence implicating the Afghan people has been found and neither will
they find because the Afghan people were not involved in the terrorist attacks
of 9/11. These illegal night raids which have killed many and imprisoned others
numbering several thousands, but, have not turned up any foreign fighters among
the people, or as they like to call them members of Al Qaeda. The more than 3,000 prisoners at the Parwan
prison housed the victims of these night raids where they have been abused by
criminal members of the regime. Individuals who argue for continued war against
Afghanistan and create fear among their own people from the people of
Afghanistan should read the investigative
and scientific reports on dozens of web
sites created by Americans from across many professions ( as part of the 9/11 Truth Movement) arguing for a new investigation of the tragedy
of 9/11 by Congress with subpoena powers. The terrorist attacks did not only
kill 3,000 innocent individuals in the US, but, the tragedy has victimized the
Afghan people, the people of Iraq and Pakistan and in many others lands, and in
fact, also victimized the American people as a whole by having been involved in
the longest war in their history. The Eisenhower Project at the Brown and Boston universities estimated that by June, 2011 225,000
persons have been killed due to the wars launched by the US. And the illegal Drone attacks
on the tribal areas continue apace, while the British announce that they are
going to double the size of their Drones aimed at the war in Afghanistan. All those who
supported the invasion of Afghanistan
must look in their own conscious and ask what did they support, killing of
innocent people in the name of what?
While 79%
of the American people according to the latest CNN poll and many members of US
Congress support the full and complete withdrawal of US military from Afghanistan
sooner than 2014 policy makers in the Administration have not caught up with
their demands. Neither has the Congress
stepped up to the demands of millions of American for a new investigation of
the 9/11 tragedy that changed world history and has cost the US up to $4.4 trillion according to the recent
research on the cost of wars launched by the US.
Humanity demands more answers than have been forthcoming from
politicians. Humanity does not need more warmongers, it needs more thoughtful
individuals who want to be leaders.
The US
Congress has authorized $88.4 billion during 2002-2012 for Afghanistan and it
will be $100 billion with President Obama’s request for 2013 in what is called
‘reconstruction’ that include funding the security forces. But, as the April
30, 2012 report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction
(SIGAR) and the latest one in July, 2012
show mismanagement, poor planning and corruption have brought little
results meeting the stated official goals.
War has
lead to crimes and corruption in Afghanistan and the policy to
continue the war seem to be ambivalent to these facts. The present outside
structured governance is too corrupt, fractured, and inept. No amount of
outside money will cure the problems and in fact the reason the problems have
become more severe is precisely due to the free flow of funds mismanaged by
foreign and Afghan entities. The evidence is overwhelming; two among countless
cases are the land grab by the officials of the Kabul regime at Sher Poor in
Kabul and the fraud and scandal at the Kabul Bank where $850 million deposits were
directed to personal use by individuals connected to the regime. On the foreign
side of the problem the USAID mismanagement of the power plant at Tarakhail
costing $350 million and staying idle due to costs of operation per unit of
output of power.
The NATO
summit in Chicago during May 20-21, 2012 promising $ 4.1 billion annually for
security forces in Afghanistan and the Tokyo donors conference during the first
week in July, 2012 promising $4 billion
annually are clear reflections of the mind set that simply wishes things would
get better in Afghanistan,
while the realities on the ground reflect the very opposite. Both the taxpayer
peoples of the international community contributing to these funds totaling to
some 45-50% of the GDP of Afghanistan on an annual basis for the next 4-10
years and the people of Afghanistan are being victimized by the policies of the
politicians in North America and Europe and else where who are supporting the
status quo in Afghanistan. Crimes and corruption at the Dawood Military
Hospital in Kabul described by the media as “Auschwitz like” where patients are
totally neglected, and are operated on without anesthesia and others are seen
with open wounds and still for attending to others patients demands are made
for bribes to attend to them are covered up by a high ranking US military
officer while the Minister of Defense in Kabul is blind to the whole affair.
The 800
page report on the war crimes and discovery of 180 mass graves in Afghanistan
with 13 of them around Mazar-i-Sharif alone in a six year ( 2005-2011) research
effort by a team of 40 individuals from the Human Rights Commission and foreign
forensic experts is prevented from being released to the public due to the
pressure of the same ones named in the report for war crimes holding high
offices in Kabul. Many of these are the same that the US allied with in invading Afghanistan when the records of their crimes
were well known by the US
and UN officials.
The
official claims of having done so much for the Afghan women during the
occupation for the past eleven years become clear when one visits Kabul finding
the streets of Kabul full of women covered with Chaderi begging for help to
survive while in other parts of Kabul some 300,000 Afghan women among the half
a million internally displaced refugees escaping the imposed war against their
home areas in Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and other provinces languish without
humanitarian assistance. Still more than three million Afghan refugees suffer
in Pakistan and Iran
with little hope of returning home to peace and genuine international help to
rebuild their lives.
The time
for establishing full and comprehensive peace, complete withdrawal of all
foreign military and their spy agencies, and the establishment of a new order
for governance free from corruption, not to abuse the promised funds by the tax
payers of the international community is well passed. If the US wishes to lead the international community
for a better future for Afghanistan
policy makers must change their course. Ad hoc changes with continuation of the
status quo in present day Afghanistan,
or its repeat through another fraudulent election in 2014, are unacceptable to
the Afghan people, and probably unacceptable to the taxpayers of the
international community if they knew the full set of facts. This change in
policy has to begin at the White House. Both President Obama and Mitt Romney
his Republican opponent in the forthcoming election in November 2012 agreeing
to the time table already set for withdrawal of US troops by the end of 2014
from Afghanistan and continuation of unknown but large military presence to 2024 and beyond only
repeat the same policies leading to the prevailing conditions seen at the
present with loss of lives and waist of resources without positive end results
that will satisfy the demands of the Afghan and the American people. Learning
from past and from repeated mistakes must be easier by now than has been
observed in Afghanistan.
The need for change in policy toward Afghanistan ending the war and
bringing justice, and economic development for the benefit of all is paramount.
The Afghan people will not accept any thing less.
M.Siddieq Noorzoy
Chairman, Islamic Peace and Reform Movement for Afghanistan
WWW.Afghanprm.org.
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