[Peace-discuss] Taliban Rising

[David Johnson]

January 1, 2016 

 <http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/01/taliban-rising-2/> Taliban Rising

by  <http://www.counterpunch.org/author/john-wight/> John Wight 

Description: taliban2

The resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where they recently mounted a
major military operation in Helmand province in the south and where
throughout the rest of the country they are increasingly active, is emphatic
evidence that NATO's prolonged military mission there has been a dismal
failure. This failure is not however a measure of the failure to impose a
liberal democracy in the country but in the lives destroyed in the attempt.

As is the case all across the UK in 2015, homeless people are a regular
fixture on the high street close to where I live; to the point where you
can't walk for five minutes in either direction without coming across one
sitting on the pavement begging for change.

One of the regulars - let's call him David - is an ex-soldier. Until
recently I would come across him sitting on the pavement outside the same
mini-supermarket each early evening rush hour, trying to make enough money
to pay for a night at a hostel. In front of him he would have a piece of
cardboard with his army service number written across it, hoping it would
garner a more positive response.

David's story is an all too common one. In his early twenties, with a young
wife and two kids to support, he was made redundant from his job after
serving his apprenticeship as a vehicle mechanic. Unable to find work he
decided to join the army. He signed up for the minimum term of four years
and in that time served four six-month tours of duty in Afghanistan. The
experience left him damaged and unable to cope emotionally and
psychologically with normal life once he came out. His marriage collapsed
and for want of support from the state and not enough help from the various
hard-pressed charities that are set up to help ex-servicemen like him, he
ended up on the street.

Recently he disappeared and I stopped seeing him. I subsequently learned
that he was in prison after selling heroin - heroin that likely originated
in Afghanistan - to a young girl who died from it.

This spiral of despair and tale of wasted young life describes the reality
of Britain's military interventions over recent years. In Afghanistan, as
with Iraq, young men such as David were thrown into a country they had no
business being in to fulfil a military operation that was ill conceived,
planned, and organised, lacking resources, equipment, and anywhere near
enough manpower.

Where Britain is concerned we are talking war on the cheap, which in the
case of Afghanistan was unleashed by Tony Blair after 9/11 to help US
president George W. Bush vent revenge for this terrorist atrocity on one of
the poorest countries in the world. The results, fourteen years later, are
all too predictable.

Make no mistake, the Taliban are destined to be part of Afghanistan's
future. They are Afghans who inarguably enjoy wide support among the
majority Pashtun population in the south of the country and are considered
by the communities in which they operate to be fighting for the country's
liberation and independence. Conseqeuntly, the most grievous indictment of
British and US policy is not the resurgence of the Taliban; it is instead
the recent emergence of ISIS in eastern Afghanistan. It comes as more proof
that instead of making the situation better, the presence of British and
American troops in the Arab and Muslim world has only made it worse.

At its peak the number of British troops and service personnel in
Afghanistan reached 9,500, the bulk of which were deployed to Helmand. The
number killed stands at 456 while over 7000 have been injured or maimed. As
for Afghan deaths, according to a study published by the Watson Institute at
Brown University in the US, 26,000 Afghan civilians were killed between 2001
and January 2015. As for the number injured or maimed, there are no reliable
figures available but you can draw your own conclusions.

The only victors to emerge from this military and foreign policy debacle
have been corruption and the heroin trade. In October the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime published its 2015 Afghanistan Opium Survey. It
reveals that 66% of the country's opium cultivation takes place in the south
- i.e. Helmand. While overall there has been a decrease in overall
poppy-cultivation compared to 2014, the number of poppy-free provinces in
the country also decreased. In other words, Afghanistan and heroin are now
two sides of the same coin.

Apologists for the US/British/NATO role in Afghanistan point to the
achievement in leaving a country behind in which far more people have access
to basic medical care and education than they did under the Taliban. While
this may well be true the cost in wasted lives and corruption surely
undermines it. This is without referencing the inescapable fact that the
Taliban are stronger now, today, than they have been since 2001, prior to
the invasion and occupation. Here Leo Tolstoy's dictum that 'The two most
powerful warriors are patience and time' receives ironclad validation.

Returning to the plight of David, a young man facing a bleak future of
perennial despair, those who sent him and thousands like him over to
Afghanistan to kill and be killed no doubt enjoyed their usual sumptuous
Christmas this year. In a just society they would be the ones in prison and
the Davids of this world would be where they rightly belong at Christmas -
at home with their families looking forward to the future.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160106/a92332f1/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 38551 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160106/a92332f1/attachment-0001.jpg>