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Technorati'Nobody Supports The Taliban, but People Hate The Government'
As he leaves Afghanistan, The Independent's Middle East correspondent reflects on a failed state cursed by brutal fundamentalism and rampant corruption
The collapse of Afghanistan is closer than the world believes. Kandahar is in Taliban hands - all but a square mile at the centre of the city - and the first Taliban checkpoints are scarcely 15 miles from Kabul. Hamid Karzai's deeply corrupted government is almost as powerless as the Iraqi cabinet in Baghdad's "Green Zone"; lorry drivers in the country now carry business permits issued by the Taliban which operate their own courts in remote areas of the country.
![[Taliban fighters in Maydan Shahr, west of Kabul. This is not the democratic, peaceful, resurgent, "gender-sensitive" Afghanistan that the world promised to create after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. Outside the capital and the far north of the country, almost every woman wears the all-enshrouding burkha, while fighters are now joining the Taliban's ranks from Kashmir, Uzbekistan, Chechnya and even Turkey.(AFP/Getty)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/afghan1127.jpg "afghan1127.jpg")
The Red Cross has already warned that humanitarian operations are being drastically curtailed in ever larger areas of Afghanistan; more than 4,000 people, at least a third of them civilians, have been killed in the past 11 months, along with scores of Nato troops and about 30 aid workers. Both the Taliban and Mr Karzai's government are executing their prisoners in ever greater numbers. The Afghan authorities hanged five men this month for murder, kidnap or rape - one prisoner, a distant relative of Mr Karzai, predictably had his sentence commuted - and more than 100 others are now on Kabul's death row.
This is not the democratic, peaceful, resurgent, "gender-sensitive" Afghanistan that the world promised to create after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. Outside the capital and the far north of the country, almost every woman wears the all-enshrouding burkha, while fighters are now joining the Taliban's ranks from Kashmir, Uzbekistan, Chechnya and even Turkey. More than 300 Turkish fighters are now believed to be in Afghanistan, many of them holding European passports.
"Nobody I know wants to see the Taliban back in power," a Kabul business executive says - anonymity is now as much demanded as it was before 2001 - "but people hate the government and the parliament which doesn't care about their security. The government is useless. With so many internally displaced refugees pouring into Kabul from the countryside, there's mass unemployment - but of course, there are no statistics.
"The 'open market' led many of us into financial disaster. Afghanistan is just a battlefield of ideology, opium and political corruption. Now you've got all these commercial outfits receiving contracts from people like USAID. First they skim off 30 to 50 per cent for their own profits - then they contract out and sub-contract to other companies and there's only 10 per cent of the original amount left for the Afghans themselves."
Afghans working for charitable organisations and for the UN are telling their employers that they are coming under increasing pressure to give information to the Taliban and provide them with safe houses. In the countryside, farmers live in fear of both sides in the war. A very senior NGO official in Kabul - again, anonymity was requested - says both the Taliban and the police regularly threaten villagers. "A Taliban group will arrive at a village headman's door at night - maybe 15 or 16 of them - and say they need food and shelter. And the headman tells the villagers to give them food and let them stay at the mosque. Then the police or army arrive in the day and accuse the villagers of colluding with the Taliban, detain innocent men and threaten to withhold humanitarian aid. Then there's the danger the village will be air-raided by the Americans."
In the city of Ghazni, the Taliban ordered all mobile phones to be switched off from 5pm until 6am for fear that spies would use them to give away guerrilla locations. The mobile phone war may be one conflict the government is winning. With American help the Interior Ministry police can now track and triangulate calls. Once more, the Americans are talking about forming "tribal militias" to combat the Taliban, much as they did in Iraq and as the Pakistani authorities have tried to do on the North West Frontier. But the tribal lashkars of the Eighties were corrupted by the Russians and when the system was first tried out two years ago - it was called the Auxiliary Police Force - it was a fiasco. The newly-formed constabulary stopped showing up for work, stole weapons and turned themselves into private militias.
"Now every time a new Western ambassador arrives in Kabul, they dredge it all up again," another NGO official says in near despair. "'Oh,' they proclaim, 'let's have local militias - what a bright idea.' But that will not solve the problem. The country is subject to brigandage as well as the cruelty of the Taliban and the air raids which Afghans find so outrageous. The international community has got to stop spinning and do some fundamental thinking which should have been done four or five years ago."
What this means to those Westerners who have spent years in Kabul is simple. Is it really the overriding ambition of Afghans to have "democracy"? Is a strong federal state possible in Afghanistan? Is the international community ready to take on the warlords and drug barons who are within Mr Karzai's own government? And - most important of all - is development really about "securing the country"? The tired old American adage that "where the Tarmac ends, the Taliban begins" is untrue. The Taliban are mounting checkpoints on those very same newly-built roads.
The Afghan Minister of Defence has 65,000 troops under his dubious command but says he needs 500,000 to control Afghanistan. The Soviets failed to contain the country even when they had 100,000 troops here with 150,000 Afghan soldiers in support. And as Barack Obama prepares to send another 7,000 US soldiers into the pit of Afghanistan, the Spanish and Italians are talking of leaving while the Norwegians may pull their 500 troops out of the area north of Heart. Repeatedly, Western leaders talk of the "key" - of training more and more Afghans to fight in the army. But that was the same "key" which the Russians tried - and it did not fit the lock.
"We" are not winning in Afghanistan. Talk of crushing the Taliban seems as bleakly unrealistic as it has ever been. Indeed, when the President of Afghanistan tries to talk to Mullah Omar - one of America's principal targets in this wretched war - you know the writing is on the wall. And even Mullah Omar didn't want to talk to Mr Karzai.
Partition is the one option that no one will discuss - giving the southern part of Afghanistan to the Taliban and keeping the rest - but that will only open another crisis with Pakistan because the Pashtuns, who form most of the Taliban, would want all of what they regard as "Pashtunistan"; and that would have to include much of Pakistan's own tribal territories. It will also be a return to the "Great Game" and the redrawing of borders in south-west Asia, something which - history shows - has always been accompanied by great bloodshed.
52 Comments so far
Show AllA day later...
Anyone. Fisk? Carla Waters? Hello?
Denial aint just a river in gyptian...
-30-
Carla Waters at this and another blog concerning Muslims has told us that:
* She became an atheist because she had been "abused" by Christians. I would suggest that the "abuse" included SEXUAL abuse which she has repressed.
* She tells us that she is married to a COP. Further suggests sexual abuse.
* She took Karate lessons so she could become a vigilante (slight oversimplifcation but basically correct). Further suggests ongoing personal insecurity unresolved by the above marriage.
* Instead of extolling the high values of all religions (and the scholars of all of them do communicate ecumenically as it were), she goes after the least of these, esp. in the case of the Muslims, who are as diverse within that religion as is any other "organized" religion.
* If she was "abused" by Christians, why has she inverted her antipathy onto Islamofascism instead of critiquing Christo-fascism? What has any Muslim ever done to hurt her the way Christians evidently have? In her world view is there such a thing as a "good Muslim"?
It seems evident from her constant rants here that she brooks NO DISAGREEMENT with her views on "Islamofascism," that she has built a shell of intolerance around her cherry-picked history, and that nobody at this site will ever be allowed to win except her. I would suggest that she has some deep unresolved personal sexual conflicts and is using this site as a substitute for the psychotherapy she really needs. Perhaps she is a closet Lesbian who cannot admit it and her husband is a substitute "authority figure" for the person(s) who (sexually) abused her at too tender an age to grasp the implications. It would not surprise me at all if her sexual relationship with her COP husband is unsatisfactory to him (and likely also to her) and he is getting some on the side and she suspects it and lacks any coping mechanism for it and thus uses CD to spew her hostilities mostly on a subject about which she is obsessively ignorant because to admit that NONE OF HER RANTS on Islamofascism is relevant to her personal pain would be to admit to her diverting her attention from what is really important to her SUBCONSCIOUS. She is not introspective (like Sarah Palin babbling on and on as turkeys are being slaughtered behind her...) while COPS are notoriously not introspective (I have personally known just 3 exceptions and I am a former police and city hall reporter in 3 states) and instead rationalize murder by taser and other means. If Carla had The Bomb she would destroy Muslim countries at will regardless of how many people of other religions she murdered in the process. (Which goes directly to the alleged fear by Israel that if Iran had The Bomb it would use it on Israel even knowing that it would have to wipe out the Palestinians and Libya as "collateral damage." The psychology of inversion here is nearly identical: The Israelis are substituting Muslims for Hitler.) Carla Waters needs to confront her own Hitler, not the Muslims.
This person needs help and this is an unlikely place to find it. Ultimately her rants are a diversion.
-30-
Gyptian and I are not the same person. However, we both have expertise in South Asia and agree on some things and disagree on others. Gyptian in South Asian and I am not. He is also a man and I am a woman. You and Jason though are clearly one person since you are tag-teaming each other.
I ought to turn you in for libel and hate talk but I'm nice enough so I won't. There are things I don't agree with Carla on if you even read my posts which you obviously didn't. Grouping us as team-taggers shows that you aren't paying attention but showing your barbaric behavior. I don't see you any better than those you accuse of hate talk. Please learn some manners and civility or don't expect others to take you seriously. Thank you.
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
"Gyptian and I are not the same person."
Yes you are. Don't even lie about it. I've seen your posts all through the year. You two are the same clones and you know it.
"However, we both have expertise in South Asia and agree on some things and disagree on others."
So do I but since you only count on gyptian, you and him are the same.
"You and Jason though are clearly one person since you are tag-teaming each other."
No. You didn't even read the posts. Jason and I don't tag-team each other. I may have replied to some of his posts but that's not called tag-teaming. You need to cool your pee brain of yours and get plenty of mental counseling.
You are the one that's mental we are not the same person.
You accuse others of being the same person just because they may not share your view point and yet you and gyptian don't sound much different. I saw your insults to Thomas More or at least your support of those vile comments directed at him. Just what is it that you disagree with gyptian on that makes you and him/her two different people. Either prove it or move on but stop your hate talk which you accuse others of.
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
And what does this have to do with discussing Afghanistan? Can we please stick to the topic and stop this petty minded fighting already?
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Why should the US even be involved in Afghanistan? The civilians would be better off if the US and NATO would just butt out and quit funding the Taliban and the war lords. Carla Waters is correct that the people in Afghanistan need to stand up to the Taliban and quit complaining although I strongly disagree with the idea of bombing the nation if they don't. I would add that this will be very difficult to accomplish as long as the US and NATO stay in Afghanistan. As a strong opponent of Big Government, I abhor the US and European governments imposing control on Afghanistan. And in case nobody noticed, Afghans were happy to look at the Hindu films and try their products from India and yet the US, Europe, and Pakistan have been joining forces to thwart the will of the people in Afghanistan and block trade between India and Afghanistan. Why are the lefties joining the righties like this? GOVERNMENT THAT GOVERNS THE LEAST GOVERNS THE BEST !
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
DCBeltway1 November 8th, 2008 9:34 am
Pakistan is the one behind the Taliban and this has been the case from the beggining. Pakistan's ISI bankrolled and funded them along with the Saudis. Afghans have been screaming this information at the top of their lungs for the past 12 years! I married into the community and I should know. Why the hell is no one listening to them? Afghanistan will never be secure until Pakistan is held accountable for thier terror war inside Afghanistan and thier terror was in Kashmir against India. Instead this administration kept funding Pakistan to the tune of billions while Pakistan's ISI sent the Taliban across the border in Waziristan to Ghost province in Afghanistan to kill the American coalition forces. Obama is right to go after Pakistan. Do you people realize that Pakistan has loose nukes through the AQ Khan network and do you want the Taliban to get hold of these and use them on Kabul or Delhi or us? Hell no. The AQ Khan network gave Libya its nukes until we managed to disarm Libya. Pakistan is not our friend and ally they are a FAILED state and a danger!
DCBeltway1 November 8th, 2008 9:38 am
Here is the evidence:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB227/index.htm
PBS and Wide Angle also did a good film on this in 1996 if you check out their website.
Stop quoting me Carla without my permission.
What is wrong with people quoting one another? She's free to quote whoever she wants to. Besides, why are you showing your anger on Carla for agreeing with you? You lefties need to quit fighting amongst yourselves or you'll never overcome the rightwing.
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
I'm an independent who leans liberterian and I don't like labels.
And yet you depend on Big Government for everything. If you don't like labels, then stop labelling others who disagree with you as "trolls". In any case, you didn't answer Jason's question. If you don't want to be quoted, then DON'T POST.
She's just mad about nothing. I pointed out her hypocrisy and now she overreacts. It's typical of her. When Joe Hope said about the need to send more troops to Afghanistan, she posted that she agreed but if I were to say the same, I wouldn't be surprised to see her posting a hate reply. I really don't give a damn at this point.
Ya know, the Amerindians were also tribal and they put up a helluva fight for a few centuries before ACTUAL "occupation" finally wore them down by the "fencing of the Commons" as Bertrand Russell may have said. Europeans used to be tribal also, but then got Statist after a long period of feudalism thence The Enlightenment from which we and they are now regressing.
We need to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, sell back our 700 overseas military bases, cut our military budget at least by half, retool our "defense" industries and the domestic auto industry into solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal energy production, and shame both the corrupt Congress and the banks into resignation.
Oh, and universal single-payer health care NOW. And one more thing; heroin and opium are far better drugs than most of the proprietary shit being produced by Big Pharma, and cheaper, with far fewer "side effects." Prozac Nation...can't get an erection without Old Senator Bob Dole extolling the benefits of a hard-on drug.
And, yeah, you can call me a Fundamentalist Empiricist sick of the bullshit.
-30-
"The Afghan Minister of Defense has 65,000 troops under his dubious command but says he needs 500,000 to control Afghanistan. "
This is an increasingly dangerous situation that must be contained. If 500,000 troops are needed, so be it. Unfortunately, Obama has so far only pledged a fraction of that amount. And yet, the Left has already built effigies of him, ready to burn on the eve of the deployment of any US forces sent to Afghanistan. This type of infighting breaks my heart. We must support Obama through his most difficult decisions. Anyone who thinks that Obama can undo all the damage Bush has done overnight, is kidding themselves. It's going to take a lot of effort (and blood and capital) to fix that region. If anyone has any doubts as to why it is so crucial to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan, all you have to do is look to what just happened in Mumbai for you answer. We cannot allow another 911.
Why should we keep the troops in Afghanistan? I'd rather we take them out of Iraq and Afghanistan and bring them home. Besides, isn't the US funding Pakistan with our taxpayer money? If so, can't we just quit funding them and avoid another war altogether? I don't see how you can stabilize a region by sending in more troops. Iraq should have taught us a lesson about region stability.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
I didn't know 911 was allowed? Who allowed it?
Agreed.
So you agree with the idea of sending more troops to occupy Afghanistan? You don't trust the Afghan people, do you? Are you sure you're an independent libertarian because you sound more like a liberal? I don't mind you being a liberal but at least you could be a little honest here.
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
I say the same thing and you call it "genocide". You really do need to improve your reading and comprehension skills, ma'am.
I feel bad for the povertized in Afghanistan but I don't think they're going anywhere even if the Taliban and even the corrupt Karzai government are taken out. It'll end up like Iraq if not worse. At this point, however, Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan can keep hemming and hawing about their bullies who are Taliban, Jihadists, Al Quaida, or whatever giving them no room but they're just sitting like spectators and are doing nothing to fight against them or even the corruption from the west. On this issue of bombing Pakistan and Afghanistan, I say let it happen. The innocent ones are already lifeless for the most part and we would do them a double favor by pulling them off the tubes and wiping out the disease.
You get an A+, Carla, for having well assimilated the ideology of USian imperialism.
The Final solution, eh? You are completely
bloody minded.
Did you ever think, though, that we have no
right to be there at all. We are the disease.
"The Final solution, eh? You are completely bloody minded."
Call me bloody minded but Islamofascism is just as disgusting as Christofascism. The residents of Afghanistan are doing NOTHING to stand up to the Taliban. Yes, it'll hurt but had they stood up to the oppressive Taliban and not acted like a bunch of cowardly abused spouses, the US and NATO would have found it harder to justify going to Afghanistan.
"Did you ever think, though, that we have no right to be there at all. We are the disease."
So let me get this straight. When Muslims purge and murder Hindus, Christians, and other religions, and even non-religious people, you call that their "right to exist", right?
Let me get this straight, Carla, when will people such as yourself ever stop meddling in the affairs of other nations? What's your darn problem? Do you live in Afghanistan or Pakistan? You are indeed a pathogenic soul.
Actually, I have visited those two countries enough to know why people are stuck in poverty. I don't like to see the USA meddle in those countries but when they become a menace and when the residents refuse to stand up to their corrupt and militaristic leaders, then the country needs to be disciplined from the outside. If you want to support Islamofascism, be my guest but you're no better than those bible thumping evangelical Christian fundies then.
The Taliban, like all revolutionaries, put on a very hard face that will only soften with time AFTER the bombs stop falling on them.
In time they will even overcome the Biblical injunctions against women.
As for the Uzbeks and possibly some others in Afghanistan that NateW referred to, the northern alliance "Afghans", which the Uzbeks aren't, that is, they're not Afghans, for they're Uzbeks; well, the northern alliance is the alliance of drug and war lords! They're the big pushers of heroin and the western establishment elites like this stuff, for it's big money and all tax exempt, while also costing them little to obtain to begin with.
The Taliban worked highly proficiently with the U.N. in eradicating most poppy cultivation and therefore curbing international trafficking of heroin. The Taliban also have demonstrated other willingness to work, honestly, not hypocritically like the customary way of the West, with the U.N. Because of this, I have faith that they could come to understand that no one should oppress women's rights.
Other sources of articles on the situation in Afghanistan and about much of what I've now posted in this page are, www.globalresearch.ca and www.uruknet.info . There are probably other sources, but these are the two I use most.
Fisk is right about the Taliban having gained much control of Afghan territory and the puppet Afghan govt of the U.S. being highly corrupt, two topics readers can learn more about in the above two websites, f.e. But to take his word alone on or about the Taliban is definitely not something I'd ever do. John Pilger and others are better sources on the Taliban, imo.
The Taliban apparently or purportedly have been accused of harsh acts that weren't committed by them. They commit some, sure, but there are also the many and violent bandits the Taliban can't control, except when getting ahold of them. The Taliban cannot be expected to control every square inch of Afghan territory.
The U.S. provides no justice in the USA, except for the "special" whites and the coloured Americans who work for the white elites ruling the U.S. govt and corporations, "of course".
As for the Taliban not really being in their country when in Afghanistan, I recently enough read an article about the Taliban and it said that they're not all of Pakistan territory, but that the original ones were of Afghanistan.
Fisk couldn't be wholly trusted on Hizbollah in 2006, for I immediately saw that he seems to have a sort of bigoted bias against them; as he also seems to have about the Taliban, although Hizbollah doesn't oppress women's rights like under Taliban rule. I guess they're not wholly analogous, for the latter reason, but Fisk nonetheless spewed out bigotted, heinous, ... bs against Hizbollah, which is a certainly un-Christian thing to do. The true Christian has the duty to be far more [understanding]; we have to be very, very careful in our judgements of others. Fisk seems to be a son of Euro-imperialist, ... sort of Christianity, that is, sometimes.
There's a relatively recent article at Uruknet.info and I forget what it's wholly about, but it did state that the Taliban are easing up on women's rights, which is definitely good news to be welcomed, if it's true.
Don't count on Western "news" media for the whole truth, and this includes The Independent, UK, which is not always right and sometimes does beat war drums, or certainly seems to do that, now and then, anyway.
John Pilger is a source to consider reading on the Taliban. He might not have much on this topic, but has some and of what I've read of it, it's to be read.
Where to begin?
First off, Afghanistan, as well as afghans, are an artificial creation (much like Iraq and the former Yugoslavia), so the contention that native Uzbeks whom have lived in Northern Afghanistan for generations are not "afghans" is an absurd proposition. None of them are afghans in any respect except for where they happen to live, and the rest of the world calls them afghans as a result.
Second, the Taliban went after poppy production in a bid for PR that drew attention away from their other misdeeds, including their destruction of a world heritage site, the Buddhas of Bamyan. As for the fairly ludicrous apologizing for Taliban depredations, if your current employment is not working out, I suggest you apply to them to be a public relations officer, you've got the talking points down. If you actually believe "I have faith that they could come to understand that no one should oppress women's rights," then you are gravely mistaken about the worldview that Puktanwali ascribes to. Here's a hint: it rivals the Purdah restrictions imposed upon women in Saudi Arabia, and in some areas, exceeds it.
Thirdly, Afghanistan has always been a crossroads sort of place where various peoples mix uncomfortably (Alexander the Great found the place that way when he conquered it), so the idea that only the Pashtun's have the right of original ownership is farcical.
Fourth, the Taliban's original appeal was that of law and order after many years of war. That is still part of their propaganda, that they will impose Islamic order upon Afghanistan in line with Sharia and Puktanwali. Now you fob off some of their violence on rogue elements within their organization is very Dana Perino.
Fifth, uruknet.info is one of those sites where the precaution "consider the source" applies. There are some doozies on there that claim that Saddam Hussein did not use chemical warfare on the Kurds in Halabja.
www.wunderman-comics.com
"DCBeltway1 November 27th, 2008 11:50 am
Fisk is correct. The Karzai regime is horribly corrupt. Wali Karzai is a drug runner and they are not good people. The Taliban and drug lords are equally evil. The poor Afghan people cannot catch a break 30 years of war is enough!!!"
BS. It's not that the Taliban are evil; they're only problem being the fundamentally incorrect belief that women don't have equal status to men, which is a belief to be addressed with [talks], education, diplomatically and without any hypocrisy, which the Taliban correctly reject, while the West imposes it all over this planet's peoples.
Anyone who thinks the Taliban are evil should take the logs out of their own eyes. Take the article and information resources referred to in my following post for [strong] example of what I mean. The West is full of ignorants and hypocrites who all pretend to be respectably knowledgeable, instead of a bunch of bigots, which is what the West too much consists of.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/27-1#comment-1083813
The Taliban have oppressed women's rights, but provided greater security in their society, under their rule, than the U.S. govt rather ever has provided in the U.S. and anywhere else. Consider the story of the MOVE Community in Philadelphia and the long history of extreme crimes against Black and other non-white "Americans". Consider the U.S.A.'s real, but awfully underreported and underinvestigated crimes against many millions of innocent and usually defenceless (certainly defenceless in relative terms) peoples all across this planet, well, besides in Europe, but then there were the U.S. covert Operation Gladio events there, too. Consider what John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" has exposed. Consider ..., ..., ETCETERA(S)!
As for oppressing women's rights, what's new about this? The Christian churches, certainly RCC anyway, did this for many, many, many centuries and until recently; although still hasn't completely stopped.
Under the Taliban, women's rights were educationally and politically oppressed, and then there's the marriage matter, but women could walk around society in safety; if anyone committed a violent crime against the women in Taliban society, then the criminals were given the Taliban sort of treatment.
Sure they're not perfect, but the West has no fingers to be pointing at them; certainly not without being extremely hypocritcal, hegemonic, and damn ignorant.
And when we compare them to the Israeli govt and military against Palestinians, Lebanese, and so on, then the Taliban certainly don't seem anywhere as bad as the hypocrites and ignorants of the West always like to pretend about the Taliban.
Also, the Taliban, or maybe Al Qaeda anyway, was formed more by the U.S. than by the ISI, which was the midwife, for the U.S. to "bear" its Al Qaeda, aka CIA-eda or something like that.
Remember Operation Salvador, Operation Gladio, operation destroy Iraq and massacre as many Iraqis as you can, this major genocide by the U.S. and which has been going on for over 15 years now, and then operation genocide against the North Vietnamese, Phillipines, and on and on and on and on ....
Similarly in South America, and certainly, since Feb. 2004, but really much longer, Haiti. ETCETERA!
Strongly suggested is reading the sources referred to in my post linked at the start of this post.
My husband is an Afghan minority and yes most Afghan minorities hate the Taliban and believe they are evil. I agree. They wish to impose thier belief system on all the Afghan minorities and persecute the minorities that stand up to thier hateful idealogy. Just ask the Hazara's who the Taliban tried to wipe out via genocide. Ask them what happened to their Buddha statues. Ask about Tajik minority Ahmed Shah Masoud who was murdered by them and the Taliban two days before 911.
If you people on the left would quit depending on BIG GOVERNMENT all the time, you wouldn't be in this mess. The same with Afghans in Afghanistan. GOVERNMENT THAT GOVERNS THE LEAST GOVERNS THE BEST !
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
They may hate the Taliban but what, if anything, are they doing to stand up to the Taliban? Hemming and hawing but not showing some spine is not a solution. If they don't like the Taliban, they had better be bravehearts and give it their best efforts to stop the Taliban from controlling them or they are going to suffer from either the Taliban or those who try to stop the Taliban as is the case these days.
It is not surprising that a British news source supplies this article that mentions the "Great Game" and accurately references the Taliban as a Pashtun organization who's goal is the establishment of a Pashtun nation (the Pashtuns share the same fate as the Kurds, a large ethnic group of millions who do not have their own country) combining Puktanwali and fundamentalist Islam as governing principles. Likewise, the government of Hamid Karzai is now a lost cause, as is foreign troops being effective (that window closed when Dubya, Cheney, & Co. went with the Iraq fiasco). The best that the West can do to prevent from a repeat of Afghanistan under the Taliban is aid and arm the other ethnicities; Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, & Kirgiz, so that they can effectively dissuade the Taliban from trying to conquer their areas again. As for the other scenario where the Taliban make a play to unite all Pashtun lands (including those in Pakistan), so be it. The ISI (Pakistan's intelligence agency) midwifed the Taliban, it well past time that they suffer the unintended consequences of playing with ethnic and religious fire.
www.wunderman-comics.com
Fisk is correct. The Karzai regime is horribly corrupt. Wali Karzai is a drug runner and they are not good people. The Taliban and drug lords are equally evil. The poor Afghan people cannot catch a break 30 years of war is enough!!!
Did you know that Karzai worked for the same CIA that sponsored the Taliban in the first place? And yes, the CIA empowered Osama bin laden too. As for the poor, well, they're already lifeless and there's really no hope of pulling them out of their misery other than to let them expire. I say wipe out Afghanistan and let the country start with a clean slate. The same thing in Pakistan needs to happen. Better yet, give those two countries back to India since population density in that country's a major problem these days.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????
CARLA GENOCIDE AND MORE KILLING ARE NOT THE ANSWER THEY ARE THE PROBLEM.
Excuse me? Genocide to those civilians are being done by the Taliban and thanks to both the western interferences and their puppets such as the Taliban and Al Quaida, those poor civilians are lifeless as it is. Furthermore, they're not even trying to stand up to the Taliban.
You're not excused you insane troll.
Insane troll? Exactly what is it that qualifies CW as an insane troll? Please explain.
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
Obviously, you can't even read and comprehend, can you? You just showed that you didn't even know the meaning of the phrase "Excuse me?" but instead went off like a mad jerk. You should talk to your Afghan husband and ask him what Afghans are doing to stand up to the Taliban and the drug lords but it seems that you'd much rather be a foam-at-the-mouth loser and let your husband suffer. Call me a "insane troll" all you want but you need to improve your reading, comprehension, and critical thinking skills. You might notice that there are some things we agree on.
Oppressed people like the Afghans are too busy to survive day to day life without running water and electricity. The ones that have been able to have defied the Taliban. Look at all the school girls in Kandahar going to school. The Taliban threw acid in their faces and those same girls proclaimed they are determined to go back to school when they healed. Afghans are standing up just because you don't see it on Fox news doesn't mean they aren't. God you are disgusting.
"Oppressed people like the Afghans are too busy to survive day to day life without running water and electricity. The ones that have been able to have defied the Taliban."
That's interesting. If the ones who survived have been able to defy the Taliban, then why aren't they reaching out to those disaffected ones you mention and why don't they unite?
"Look at all the school girls in Kandahar going to school. The Taliban threw acid in their faces and those same girls proclaimed they are determined to go back to school when they healed."
I don't see how they're going to get healed when they'll be unable to afford treatment in the first place. And don't just limit it to girls. An equal number of boys in Afghanistan have also been hurt by all this although I guess it's easy to kidnap boys and convert them into warmongers, right? But that goes to show that government is not the solution but the problem. Get government off the people's backs, both the US and the Afghan ones, and more Afghans would have the chance to recover.
"Afghans are standing up just because you don't see it on Fox news doesn't mean they aren't. God you are disgusting."
And how are we supposed to know it all? We Americans too are busy trying to survive day to day life. I don't see how you expect others to take you seriously when you shout at them like crazy. Besides, did you read Carla's posts on this site? She too was the victim of religious abuse just like the Afghan girls. I don't agree with her idea of bombing Afghanistan and blaming the civilians for everything but you need to show some civility instead of shouting and name-calling.
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
I do not show civility to those who show civility to none Jason. You and Carla have been trolling this site stirring up trouble.
I could turn you and your best friends in for trolling and stirring up trouble of your own on this site as well as for libel but I don't believe in censorship and fascism so I won't. I don't know what I said that offended you but since you are very fickle-minded, I won't bother. You really need to learn some manners and civility before accusing others of hate talk.
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
Jason shows no civility? If you expect others to take you seriously, you should quit being so exclusive. I notice you preach about the need for people of all religions to come together peacefully and yet I don't see you or Carla doing the same but instead fighting each other like crazy. Grow up.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Trolling this site? You don't even know what you're talking about. Jason was nice to you and you're mean to him in return. You're the one trolling this site. Just because others think differently doesn't mean stirring up trouble. Besides, you never reply to the real rightwing trolls but then again you don't even know who you're dealing with. Based on your posts, you and gyptian sound like you're the same person.
If you don't mind, you too could cool down and quit being a warmonger. This country has suffered 8 years of hellish wars already.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
I'm not a warmonger. I said that Afghanistan and Pakistan have had plenty of chances but at this point they're in a rot that they need to start over. If a patient's going to die in 1 hour, why save 'em ?