[Peace-discuss] Who are we defending in Afghanistan?

[Randall Cotton]

Indeed, things are deteriorating all the way around in Afghanistan these days.
Here's a small window into what's really happening on the ground.

Excerpts from a BBC story (link below):

Captain Leo Docherty was so unhappy with operations in Helmand province he quit
the British Army last month.

The campaign was "a textbook case of how to screw up a counter-insurgency" the
ex-aide de camp to the commander of the UK taskforce told the Sunday Times.

Having a big old fight is pointless and just making things worse," the former
Scots Guardsman was quoted as saying. Now the ground has been lost and all we're
doing in places like Sangin is surviving

He said: "All those people whose homes have been destroyed and sons killed are
going to turn against the British.  "It's a pretty clear equation - if people
are losing homes and poppy fields, they will go and fight. I certainly would."

Capt Docherty described the campaign as "grotesquely clumsy" and said the
British were no different to US forces by bombing and strafing villages.

The British threw away the opportunity to win over locals by failing to carry
out development work because of a lack of support, Capt Docherty added.

"Now the ground has been lost and all we're doing in places like Sangin is
surviving. It's completely barking mad."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5332570.stm

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ricky Baldwin" <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
To: "peace discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 2:48 PM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Who are we defending in Afghanistan?


: Considering the length and the source, I think this is
: pretty damn good.  Sometimse we forget about
: Afghanistan.  We shouldn't.
:
: -Ricky
:
:
: Who Are We Defending in Afghanistan?
: September 8, 2006
:
: In recent months, Canadians have been the recipients
: of a fierce selling-job on our military's role in
: Afghanistan. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has claimed
: our mission is both honourable and just, and I have no
: doubt this echoes the sentiments of our troops.
:
: Prime Minister Harper has said Canada won't "cut and
: run" in Afghanistan, and suggested other "weak-kneed"
: parliamentarians fall in line. Hordes of pundits have
: agreed, and suggested dissenters are damaging our
: troops' morale and Canada's role in the "War on
: Terrorism."
:
: Canadians have seen this movie before. It went
: something like: "you're either with us, or you're with
: the terrorists." Currently, that view of foreign
: policy earns about 36% support of the US electorate.
: Surely Canadians deserve a better explanation about
: why we've committed to our largest military deployment
: in 50 years.
:
: Simply put, Prime Minister, whose interests are we
: defending in Afghanistan?
:
: I am told it is a democratically-elected government
: engaged in a war with "brutal insurgents."
:
: Many human rights groups have begged to differ,
: however, and it is time Canadians got a fuller
: appreciation of this story.
:
: Human Rights Watch authored a chilling report called
: Blood Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and
: Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity. The Senalis Council
: in Britain followed with its own study, Canada in
: Kandahar: No Peace to Keep. Carol Off produced a
: thought-provoking documentary on CBC's The National in
: March 2006 entitled The Warlords Take Office.
:
: All of these studies reveal disturbing information
: most Afghanis know well, and when the lives of
: Canadian soldiers are on the line, it's best not to
: mince words.
:
: At the moment, Canada is sending its troops to support
: a parliament that is already half-dominated by
: drug-trafficking warlords, many of whom have committed
: atrocities against their own people during
: Afghanistan's civil war in the early 1990s.
:
: These warlords - like Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is now
: Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Defence - killed
: thousands of innocent Afghanis, and now drape
: themselves in the language of democracy.
:
: Making matters worse, billions of dollars in
: development funds pledged by nations worldwide have
: gone missing, while palatial homes and posh
: developments are under construction in Kabul, many of
: which are connected to warlords in parliament.
:
: The US military strategy adopted by NATO hasn't
: brought peace, reduced poverty, stopped heroin
: production, or helped reconstruct Afghanistan.
:
: Over 1,600 Afghanis have died in the last four months
: alone. The heroin trade is fielding a bumper crop.
: Afghanis are mired in terrible poverty, while brothels
: have sprung up in abundance to service foreign
: contractors in Kabul.
:
: In these conditions, it is hardly surprising that an
: Afghan resistance movement has emerged. These forces,
: which include Taliban elements, refer to Hamid Karzai
: as "the mayor of Kabul", or "assistant to the American
: ambassador". They are increasingly supported by
: Afghanis grown weary from NATO and Karzai's broken
: promises.
:
: That's right Prime Minister. At the moment, our
: military isn't fighting the forces of corruption,
: violence and the heroin trade. We're supporting them,
: and this is never told to the thousands of Canadian
: soldiers sent to the battlegrounds of Kandahar.
:
: But don't take my word for it. Talk to Malalai Joya,
: the Afghan parliamentarian who has faced death threats
: for daring to spotlight the abuses perpetrated daily
: by warlords in the Karzai regime.
:
: Prime Minster, I fully support our troops, that's why
: I don't want them engaged in a fight that only
: benefits a government chock full of despots and
: heroin-runners. I urge you again to heed the words of
: Malalai Joya, who had this to say about the prospects
: for peace in her country:
:
: "The situation in Afghanistan and conditions for women
: will not change positively until the warlords have
: been disarmed and both the pro-US and anti-US
: terrorists are removed from the political scene in
: Afghanistan. And it is the responsibility of the
: Afghan people to accomplish this goal."
:
: Ken Georgetti is president of the Canadian Labour
: Congress, the largest trade union federation in
: Canada, representing three million workers.
:
: __________________________________________________
: Do You Yahoo!?
: Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
: http://mail.yahoo.com
: _______________________________________________
: Peace-discuss mailing list
: Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
: http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss