Afghan Woman Knows Why US Policy is Failing

OSLO -- The debate about the Obama
administration's plan to surge more than 20,000 additional troops
into Afghanistan has been so vapid that you will still hear
suggestions that this approach is necessary to protect the people
-- particularly the women -- of Afghanistan from oppression.

Those who argue this brief would be well to consult Malalai Joya.
Selected to serve in Afghanistan's Constitutional Loya Jirga in
2003 and then elected to the Wolesi Jirga (parliament) in 2005 as
one of the top vote-getters in the western province of Farah, she
is widely seen as the most courageous political figure in the
country. This is because, from the start, she has dared to object
to the crude political calculus -- imposed and supported by the
U.S. -- which grants amnesty to warlords who have been linked to
well-documented war crimes and ongoing corruption.

Joya has also sought -- sadly, without success -- to block the
restoration by the U.S.-backed Afghan government of laws
restricting the legal rights of women. And she has complained,
loudly and consistently, about U.S. bombing raids that are
responsible for horrifying death tolls among civilians.

For her dissents, the youngest member of the parliament has been
banned from the Jirga, threatened with rape by fellow legislators,
and hounded by violent groups and individuals closely tied to the
ruling establishment. She must move from house to house in Kabul
and requires constant protection. Even when she travels abroad, she
is in danger.

Yet Joya continues to speak out, as she did last Wednesday at the
opening ceremony of the Global Forum on Freedom of Expression,
where we were both among the speakers.

Despite six years of U.S. presence, Joya says, "In Afghanistan,
religious extremism controls the society ... human rights and
democracy are omitted."

Joya's message is blunt and uncompromising.

"Billions of dollars spent in our country only make the warlords
and the abusers of human rights more powerful," she says.

Joya is withering in her criticism of Afghan President Hamid
Karzai, who she dismissed as "the choice of the White House" and
"another puppet" who fails to seriously challenge violent warlords
at home or the failed policies of foreign countries that provide
military and political support to some of the worst players in the
country.

As a result, she says, "There are no human rights or democracy in
Afghanistan because (the government) is infected with
fundamentalism."

This remarkable woman, who pleads the cause of liberal democracy,
pluralism and women's rights in her homeland with a passion that is
as inspiring as it is well-reasoned, has received support and
encouragement from six women Nobel Peace laureates. Shirin Ebadi,
Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchum, Betty Williams, Jody Williams
and Wangari Maathai -- who joined us at the Oslo conference -- have
issued a joint appeal for Joya's reinstatement in the
parliament.

The Global Forum on Freedom of Expression was sponsored by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), the foreign ministries of Norway and Finland and the Open
Society Institute, among others, and a wide range of international
human rights and free speech groupings. The conference highlighted
dissident voices that should be heard.

In truth, Joya is heard in much of the world.

But she is not heard enough in the United States, and that is a
dangerous disconnect.

It is true that the mess of U.S. policy in Afghanistan was stirred
up by George Bush and Dick Cheney, in collaboration, it should be
noted, with many Democrats who adopted the fantasy that the Afghan
conflict was America's "good war" -- in contrast to the "bad war"
in Iraq. The ethical and logical compromises of the Bush/Cheney era
created a situation where, Joya explains, "In our country, to
express your point of view is to risk violence and death."

But President Barack Obama's expansion of a misguided occupation
will ultimately give him ownership of the mess.

Obama's instincts may be noble. But to surge more troops into
Afghanistan without a plan, and without taking serious steps to
address the failures of the occupation up to this point, is
folly.

There is no question that the United States has profound
responsibilities to the people of Afghanistan. But those
responsibilities are not met by maintaining flawed policies of
empowering extreme fundamentalists, supporting corrupt warlords and
inept politicians, and encouraging a circumstance where one of the
most worldly members of the country's parliament says that "there
are no human rights or democracy in Afghanistan."

Obama and his advisers should listen to Malalai Joya before they
presume that expanding the occupation along the lines established
by the Bush administration -- or, frankly, along any lines -- is
going to help the great mass of people in Afghanistan.

The same goes for members of Congress -- especially those who say
they are concerned about the women of Afghanistan -- who, for the
most part, have gone along with the Bush and Obama administrations
rather than asking the right questions or mounting the necessary
dissents.

There is much that can be done to help Afghanistan repair itself.
There are smart aid and development initiatives -- many of them
grass-roots based -- that can expand access to education for women
and girls and that can build respect for human rights and
democracy. But an occupation that serves the interests of the
occupiers rather than the people of Afghanistan has created what
Malalai Joya refers to as "a mafia state."