[Peace-discuss] Afghanistan

[David Green]

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An Afghan's Lament
America Didn't Give a Damn
By Mustafa Bakhtary
I could tell you why I am the way the I am. 
But I don't want to and  You don't give a damn. 
-Langston Hughes. 
I am an enraged Afghan. I have become distraught and ostracized as a result of studying and exposing what your country has done to mine for over 30 years. Your so-called human rights loving president Jimmy Carter and his Hollywood successor Ronald Reagan set off the complete destruction of Afghanistan by pouring arms and money into the arms of well-known terrorists like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. These men had been detested in Afghan society for throwing acid on women's faces, setting off bombs in the country and receiving aid from Pakistan's ISI. But with the blessing of US arms and money they gained the monopoly over the resistance to the Soviet occupation and became the leaders of Afghans who in other circumstances would never pay heed to such men. The US handpicked these men (rather than more moderate leaders) for their zeal and desire to shed blood no matter what the cost would be to Afghanistan and it's civilian life. They were in
 Reagan's words "the moral equivalents of America's founding fathers."
When Afghans weren't zealous enough, you actively encouraged foreigners like Al-Qaeda to serve under these so-called "founding fathers." You even allowed Osama Bin Laden's predecessor, Abdullah Azzam, to come to the United States and recruit soldiers from several states. The US didn't do this absent mindedly. They appreciated these men's violent ideology and had the University of Nebraska Omaha publish textbooks for little Afghan children in Pakistani madrassahs to acquire this ideology. Instead of having them count apples and oranges, this despicable university made them count grenades and tanks, encouraged them to do (US allied) jihad and gave them word problems that asked how many atheists (i.e. Soviets) they could kill in a given situation. In other words, you really only gave us money and education to kill Soviets and other Afghans. The little money given to Pakistan for Afghan refugees was swiftly pocketed by its corrupt regime.
Once the Soviets evacuated, all your support ended. We were only good for fighting a war you weren't willing to fight yourself. We were only good for killing Soviets and each other; our country was only good for being reduced to rubble. We got no help during the horrific civil war that followed. People were executed left and right, women were raped, villages were massacred, banditry spread everywhere and you didn't give a damn.
You only remembered us when a German terrorist cell of Saudi citizens attacked America. You bought your government's idea that it was planned in Afghanistan by bin Laden who was on house arrest and lacked electricity at the time. You replaced the Taliban with the corrupt murderous warlords from the civil war and even some 'former' Taliban. Even the US didn't put much faith into this democracy that they air dropped into Afghanistan. They only gave 17% of foreign aid to the government and handed the rest to corrupt NGOs. At least 40% of the money given to them has found its way back to their home countries. These NGOs give themselves lavish salaries and luxurious housing arrangements leaving little money for the projects they were supposed to undertake and pay off Afghan officials to keep quiet when the projects aren't even attempted. Many of these reshwatkhour (bribe loving) politicians are Afghan expatriates from the US who came in the name of helping
 Afghanistan, but have only accepted positions that are more prestigious and well paying than their failing business and real-estate ventures in America. Now that the security is falling apart, these cowards are getting ready to run from the country, flying into Dubai with briefcases filled with millions.
And you would like to praise yourself for the half-ass job in rebuilding what you helped destroy, while demonizing anyone who dares to fight against it. You've labeled all insurgents as Taliban although many aren't like the extremists you employed to fight the Soviets. Some fight in response to the hypocrisy of a government that destroys their poppy fields while allowing members in the government (such as Karzai's now deceased brother) to maintain their fields and have the value of their poppies exponentially grow with the destruction of their competitors. Others have sought revenge for the reckless killings by NATO soldiers, many committed during night raids where they shot unarmed people who could not understand orders being given in a foreign language. Additionally, some have joined the resistance out of a lack of employment elsewhere, and get paid more (ironically thanks to the money of Saudis and other Gulf allies of yours) as a rebel than as a
 government or NGO employee.
You never present the war to yourselves the way we see it. You don't see this history of destruction and corruption that continues. You don't see and accept the barbarity and savagery of the troops you've brought over here. You turn your attention away when your troops kill children, put guns in the mouths of little girls, when they chop off body parts of people and put them in jars, urinate on corpses, torture people to death, and violently haze foreign workers in their own service. Incidents don't occur at this rate because of a few bad apples. A fourteen-year-old girl in Iraq gets raped, murdered and burned with the rest of her family and you don't have a clue who she was. But a blue-eyed blonde female soldier is a hero simply for being captured, while occupying another people's country. You've lowered yourself to the point where a person in his or her own country is worthless, while an invading soldier is precious. And you now have the nerve to ask
 for immunity for your soldiers in our land just before you pack up and leave. Your puppet president spewed hot air to you on Martin Luther King Day while he infringes on your rights and bombs civilians beyond the clouds that hang over your minds. If you consider your country to be truly a democracy you will take responsibility for what your government and military has done and continues to do. CP
Mustafah Bakhtary is from an Afghan refugee family. He received an MA in History from San Francisco State University where his research focused on the history of Afghanistan in the 20th century. 
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