Why did the US attack Afghanistan?!?

A recent report by the ICOS (International Council on Security and Development) indicated that 92% of the 1,000 Afghan men surveyed in Helmand and Kandahar provinces know nothing about the 9/11 attacks on the US. Click here to read the article.

Many are shocked to hear this finding…interestingly enough, I am shocked to hear that they are shocked!

Why would you expect those people to know anything about it at all?!? How many of the hijackers were Afghans? How many of them were born or raised or even trained in Afghanistan? Did Afghans finance them at least? Do Afghans know them at least? If the answer to these questions point to no such links between Afghans and the hijackers, why did the US attack Afghanistan after the events of 9/11? Here is another shocking piece of information that I can foretell. I bet that not many Americans would be able to answer this question correctly if you were to take a random sample of ordinary Americans off the street.

If you were to conduct such a survey, I am confident that the closest they would probably get to would be something along the lines of “Well, they attacked us first in 2001!” Incorrect! Many around the world do not know that it was not they (the Afghans) who attacked the US in 2001. They were not even friends or relatives of Afghans. Their leader was a Saudi-exile who happened to be sheltered by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Or as this Reuters articles correctly states the reason for the attack was the Taliban government’s “sheltering al Qaeda leaders who plotted the 9/11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people.”

What IS really shocking is that even this statement, the most correct response you can ever get, will have a hard time justifying the attack and the common negative perceptions of Afghans around the world.

Firstly, this statement assumes that Al-Qaeda leaders “plotted” this attack, which is being increasingly questioned by many and has not been proven. In fact, the Taliban agreed to handing over Osama Bin Laden if they were provided with a proof and they were willing to having him tried in a third party neutral state (the ICC obviously did not exist then), which was refused by the then US president George W. Bush.

Secondly, even if this link was established more firmly, the attack was not grounded in international norms, but a policy by George W. Bush that he would not distinguish between a terrorist organization and nations harboring them. By the logic of this policy, the US could legitimately attack any country that harbored terrorists. Without mentioning any country names, one can think of multiple cases where the US is and will always be unwilling to act upon such policy.

Lastly (perhaps a lot less controversial to many than my first two points), linking the people of Afghanistan with the policies of the Taliban assumes that the Taliban were democratically elected. What many people forget is that the people of Afghanistan were more the victims in all these years than anyone else. And all they get from every single actor is more victimization, more killing, more mines, more tanks, more 3K pound bombs, and the like. There is obviously some charity too (perhaps a small fraction of the military industrial complex), but even that fails to reach the people it is supposed to.

Now you tell me who is the victim and who is the villain? Are you still shocked by the finding that the big majority of Afghans have never heard of the 9/11 or the twin towers?

Want to change something? Call your local representative to reduce the bombs and increase the food, or even better to increase unskilled jobs (Visit and support www.jobsforafghans.org).

Where do the aid $$ go?

Nothing new to many, but here is a recent piece on where the millions, rather billions, of aid dollars go. And this is supposedly the "good" money being used in good projects by the USAID.

Here is my favorite quote: "at least 92 percent was going to security and salaries for expats."

Read more here the NPR story.

Where are the taxpayers???

We are nine years in the war in Afghanistan and nobody still has a clue where the billions of dollars, literally coming out of the pockets of good American taxpayers, are spent. After all America is a model democracy and the mismanagement of billions going unaccounted for here leaves no hope of accountability and transparency anywhere else...pretty grim...one of those sad but true realities of life.

According to the website of SIGA (The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction), this organization was set up six or seven years after the war "to provide independent and objective oversight of these funds" being used in Afghanistan. The first question is why so late. The second question is why it took SIGA two years to find out that nobody knows where the money is spent. The third question, perhaps the most important one, is what is going to happen as a result of this finding. Although it is pretty late, it is till not "too late" to get our acts together, follow the money, coordinate our efforts (not just those coming from within the US but internationally) and give Afghans and the taxpayers the biggest bang for their buck. It doesn't seem like too much to ask, but without the united voice of the taxpayers, who are the only ones who have a true claim to these billions, there is little hope for change.

Read the NPR article for more details...click here.

Meet the terrorists of tomorrow

Afghanistan has been a battleground for self-serving interests at least since I was born. In fact, even before I was born, it was the buffer zone between British India in the South and the Soviet Union in the North, resulting in three major Anglo-Afghan wars. Then there was the Soviet invasion in 1979, then the Mujahideen in 1992, then the Taliban in 1994-5 and now the whole world is fighting their wars on this war-ridden land.

In all these events, some Afghans have always exhibited loyalty, sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly, to one group or another, but I would rather call them being "used" by foreign interests. Their being used repeatedly, however, is not that surprising to me. At the end of the way, they are getting something out of it too even though it may cost them their lives in this world and for those who believe in the hereafter, severe punishments there. They are not likely to succeed in anything else anyway, so fighting is their only profession for which they get paid.

What really is surprising to me is the behavior of those who attempt to use them. Have they never heard the saying 'what goes around comes around?' Are they too naïve to realize this or do they suffer from some sort of amnesia or is there some cost benefit analysis that I am entirely missing out on? Do they think that the world is too brainless to believe that they are truly fighting terror and too blind to see their active role in creating terrorists in an endless cycle of defeating one by the other?!? The freedom fighters of today are the terrorists of tomorrow and this trend will go on without some sort of awakening of the public or a moral rebirth among the “enlightened” few.

Meet the terrorists of tomorrow. Click here to get "enlightened"

Here is my favorite quote on enlightenment from this article:

"The Defence chief admitted that when Australian troops arrived in Oruzgan they did not understand the complex ''tribal dynamics'' but now had a more ''enlightened'' view."

The formation of a political oligarchy

It took the NYT almost a decade to find out what Karzais are doing in Afghanistan - forming a political oligarchy. It wouldn't have made news in Afghanistan even right after his formation of the interim governance; it is certainly not surprising for Afghans now. This common practice is called "filling his pockets" in the country. In fact, for many of the people who did vote for Karzai during the presidential elections, their main reason was something to the effect of "his pockets are already half full...if a new president takes over, he will start over from scratch, and that is always a worse alternative."

Read full text article here: "Karzai’s Kin Use Ties to Gain Power in Afghanistan"

"Afghanistan Money Probe Hits Close to the President"

The corruption in Afghanistan is mind boggling! My only hope is that the current investigators don't get pulled into corruption as well - which is not unlikely... you never know who might give them a call and call the shots to sweep the whole operation under the carpet!!! Keeping my fingers crossed.

Read here the full WSJ article.

"1 Soldier or 20 Schools?"

A recent NY Times op-ed by Nicholas Kristof shows that 20 schools could be built in Afghanistan for the cost of each American soldier on the ground.

What is more, Mr. Mortenson of three cups of tea argues that for a quarter of 1% of US military spending in a year, "America could pay for a higher education plan for all Afghanistan."

If you are still wondering why this extremely costly war is neither helping Afghans nor making the world a safer place, read the complete article here.

Military seeing the light?!?

Believe it or not, the US military seems to see the light too - thanks to their bookish wives who happened to read Mortenson's "Three Cups of Tea" and made their husbands read it as well. Read this NY times article for details.

Where does the Afghan aid money go?

Well, here is part of the story...it goes in the pockets of well connected individuals who invest it in villas in Dubai! Read more.

And here is another piece of the puzzle...Afghan government claims it's the foreign private contractors to blame for the loss of aid dollars. Read here for more details.

Who is right? I say BOTH and there is more!

Karzai's total wealth is less than $40K!!!

What a story!

The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, who has been in office for almost a decade now and has worked most of his 52 years of life in well paying jobs claims to have a total wealth, including his wife's jewellery and other valuables, of less than US$40,000. How is this even possible?!? And the anti-corruption committee buys this story!

Any sane person would call this nothing but mere nonsense!

Read here for more details.

backbone or bone of contention?

Many hope that the discovery of almost $1 trillion worth of minerals (iron, copper, lithium, etc.) in Afghanistan could provide the “backbone” of the future development of Afghan economy. Unfortunately, I am less convinced. We are all familiar with the “resource curse” literature that claims more of than not such discoveries of vast reserves of resources could prove to be a curse rather than a blessing for most developing economies. Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Russia, and countries involved in the “blood diamond” are but few examples.

The current situation of Afghanistan, often referred to as “the pot without a lid” (dig-e-bey-sarposh) by many Afghans, makes it even more vulnerable to such predictions. While many focus on this discovery becoming a bone of contention among domestic players, warlords, Taliban and the Mujahideen, I am equally, if not more, concerned about international players, such as neighboring Pakistan, China, American and other special interest groups, private companies and MNCs, each of which would want a piece of the pie.

Absent a strong and accountable national government, this news further delays at least my hopes of a prosperous, stable and peaceful Afghanistan by a at least a few more decades.

Where do the Taliban get their funding from???

Here is one article, backed up by a report by a Harvard Research fellow, Matt Waldman and former Head of Advocacy for Oxfam International, which argues it is Pakistani ISI...I would also add to it that Pakistan won't spend all this money from their own pockets alone, but a big chunk of their funding is channeled through Pakistan for sure. This makes me think of the funding sources for the Mujahideen who fought against the Soviets in the 80's, which was a puzzle at that time, but is almost as clear as "the sun in the sky" today...skeptics may be convinced of the links to Taliban also in a decade or so!

Read here the BBC article and find here the original report.

A former Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan and later UN envoy, Christopher Alexander, recently made a similarly bold comment...read here for more details.

Major accomplishment for JobsforAfghans.org

It was almost hard to believe when I opened and e-mail from a colleague at JobsforAfghans this morning forwarding me an article titled "US Afghan strategy uses economic aid to battle Taliban"...and my reaction was "they are finally seeing the light!"

We consider this a major accomplishment for JobsforAfghans, whose members have been working tirelessly to convince the US Congress to give non-military solutions a chance (of at least greater than 10% of military expenditure), by implementing large-scale, labor intensive public works projects that would keep the 40% unemployed men and women at work by paying them at least $10 a day, which is roughly near what the Taliban pay their low ranking fighters. This will not only promote (short term) economic growth and put cash directly on the poor and unskilled workers' hands, but also (hopefully) lure some of the non-ideologically driven Taliban to dignified, civilian work for relatively reasonable pay.

I understand that as the article alludes to it, this may seem like an unsustainable practice with horrible consequences…but we are knowingly pushing for such a strategy as a short-term solution only and if you compare these figures to more than $30 billion a year spent on military alone, it won’t look so unsustainable anymore…with only 10% of current military expenditure set aside to such interventions, millions could be hired, several millions would be fed and clothed, tons of visible improvements in irrigation, sanitation and infrastructure will be accomplished, local support to insurgency will be weakened and hopefully the country will be placed on a trajectory of safety and stability so that more long term development strategies may be designed and implemented.

Send me your feedback and reactions by e-mail to najimdost@gmail.com or as comments on this posting. Thanks!

Afghanistan wouldn't look like a 13th century barbaric nation if...

...it weren't (at least partly) for greedy foreign interventions...Read this piece to see what I mean. Reading the article, please note that while this may not represent an accurate illustration of life all over Afghanistan, except in few urban areas, it is still a clear indication that Afghanistan has regressed terribly and it will take us at least a few generations to get back to where we were only a few decades back.

A brief look at the history of the country would reveal that these "extremist" and "barbaric" groups are not innately born so, but actually "created"...there is nothing intrinsically "violent" about a certain people, but rather what we let them become or more importantly what we "make" them become. Charlie Wilson may be a hero to many, but if one is really concerned about the state of the security in Afghanistan, the region and by extension the world, one can't help but to ponder on the role that he and the establishment that backed his efforts played in shaping the world we live in today.

Afghansitan is not all about war...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/oliverbrett/2010/04/crickets_most_heartwarming_sto.html

Here is one story that focuses on another aspect of Afghanistan...their talent in sports...a country that still does not have a Cricket ground and a country where the cricket was unheard of until a decade ago is joining the league of some of the best players in the history around the world.

This is but one example that if given the opportunity, Afghans can change themselves for the better.

Watch this 24min documentary film and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMLSjFZNJtM&feature=player_embedded

Proud to be an Afghan

yes, they can!

A truly historic moment, 2nd after Obama's victory in the presidential elections, was last night's passing of the health reform bill. Even if it does not heal all the wounds of the US health care, as Obama said, it is a decisive move to the right direction. Congratulations to all those who were behind this momentous victory...that is indicative of a government of the people, by the people, is working for the people!

Short n Sweet

A beautifully crafted and crisp description of the tragedies in Afghanistan and what could be done about it...an op-ed by my colleague, Ralph Lopez, the co-founder of Jobs for Afghans.

Richest people in the world

Following the US, it is China and India that tops the list of the largest number of billionaires in the world...at a time when they (China and India) are also home to some of the world's largest masses of poor.

Democracy at work?

It is interesting to see that until a couple of years the simple story of 9/11 was accepted by almost all as the "truth" (with few exceptions of course, who at that time would be labeled 'crazy' at best or 'pro-terrorists' at worst)...About nine years later, Washington Post publishes this article questioning the accepted truth of that time. And skimming through the 100+ comments following the article, the majority seems to be sympathetic with the critics. What was is that made the story more believable then as opposed to now? Why do intelligent people fail to be critical and get swayed by the status quo? Maybe it is the risk of sticking one's neck out by being the first to break apart from the conventional norms.

Let's see if this effort succeeds in exposing more truth or gets tabled...

Afghanistan the site of another Co War?

I call it a Co War, as it's not quite the cold war that we traditionally know it, but there are enough resemblances to remind us of one. In the traditional sense of the term, Cold War referred to the war between global superpower fought not on each others' soil, but some other third party such as Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea, Nicaragua, Angola, etc.

The pattern that is emerging in Afghanistan in the last one and a half years differs for two reasons, a) it is not between superpowers, but it is between two nuclear armed states and apparently stern enemies and b) it is not quite two-sided yet, no am I looking forward to it becoming so.

The Indian Embassy in Kabul was first targeted in July 2008. Right about four months later, they decided to strike again in October 2009...exactly four months later, Indian officials were the prime target again today (Friday morning) in Kabul city. The collateral damage in each attack obviously goes much beyond the target groups, with Afghan civilians making the greatest and easiest victims. Today's attack, based on the current reports, apparently took the lives of at least nine Indians, one French, one Italian and five Afghans, with about 30 people injured.

The question that always comes to my mind is whether we will ever learn, come to our senses and stop the violence.

hegemony

The best definition of hegemony I have ran into so far:

"Hegemony is like a pillow: it absorbs blows and sooner or later the would-be assailant would find it comfortable to rest upon." (Gramsci in Cox, 1996)

:)

Evaluating Impact

What is the impact of scientific developments on human life? Consider the example of telephones, or more current modes of communication, skype, e-chat, etc.

There have been many advances in the empirical methodology of impact assessment over the course of history, especially in the last few decades with the rise of more sophisticated statistical modeling and methods of program evaluation.

Some observers problematise such advancements by highlighting their inability to take into account broader consequences, not just immediate, of each intervention. One example would be to ask what the new intervention has replaced and are we suffering some loss of value by switching to the new...consider the rise of formal insurance and the fall of societal networks of support...or the rise of e-interaction replacing more human and face to face interactions. Others discuss the inability of these methods to account for more long term effects...cell phones make life a lot easier, but do we know if it has any negative long term consequences for things that we value, such as quality of our lives?

We can go on and on with more examples and critics, but what I learned new and found worth sharing is what Sigmund Freud calls "cheap enjoyment" in his famous book "Civilization and its Discontents" which he describes as in an anecdote as "the enjoyment obtained by putting a bare leg from under the bedclothes on a cold winter night and drawing it in again."

How does this complicate the impact assessment thesis? Well, pulling the bedclothes over you has no value if you take into account removing it yourself in the first place! Maybe it is just me that finds this exciting as it was totally new perspective for me.

Charlie Wilson: hero or villain?

Charlie Wilson, the US Congressman who played a key role in supporting the Mujahideen, now known as a threat to international security, died today in his hometown Texas.

He has repeatedly expressed his sadness over the US dropping the ball in Afghanistan after the fall of the Soviet in a war that ordinary Afghans paid the price for and are still suffering as a result. But what does this concern mean? I wonder if he would have extended his support to the same people he supported about 20 years back...now that their enemy is not the enemy of the US!

It is amazing what gets recorded in history...and you might rightly ask whose history. It was millions of Afghans who lost their lives fighting the Soviet invasion, yet the documentary, Charlie Wilson's war, ends with answer to the question "Who defeated the Soviets?" with "Charlie did!"

Guest bloggers

As part of our efforts to promote a peaceful non-military solution to the war in Afghanistan, I was screening our documentary, Afghan Exist Strategy, to a group of middle school students in Denver. The following is their reactions after seeing the film and my brief presentation on Afghanistan.

Guest blogger 1:

The cost to build a modernized school in a developing foreign country would be about $10,000. Last year alone, Americans spent:
- $10,000 on make up
- $100,000 on gold
- $200,000 on cigarettes

So it is totally possible to end poverty, through education in a matter of a generation, as long as we change out outlook on life. If we use our education and share it with the world poverty as we know it today can be forever changed for our and future generations.

Guest blogger 2:

When I saw that video I thought of all the people who are affected, and how Americans think of the people of Afghanistan as bad people, and we need to stop judging them. We can’t grasp the concept of what the people are going through over in Afghanistan. We need to help tell our peers what is going on and raise awareness, so that we aren’t so quick to judge, and actually try to help.

Guest blogger 3:

Suicide is an action that is frowned upon in almost every society. There are only two cultures that actually accept it as a way of life: the samurai and the Taliban. For some reason, they see taking your own life as honorable. The Taliban actually recruits young boys and men to train and attack positions with bombs and explosives. But why is this lifestyle so appealing? It all has to do with money. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and as time and money are poured into helping the people of this struggling society, things just seem to get worse.

The images that are fed to the masses by the media don’t even scratch the surface of what really goes on. You don’t see the struggles that Afghans power through every day. Today, I have seen and learned information that just blew my mind. I had on idea how hard it was to just to get a days pay in order to support your own family. I am glad to hear that the society in Afghanistan is rebuilding itself but I just wish the news media could report this instead of a sorrowful suicide bombing.

In conclusion, I feel that as soon as the world begins to learn about the true story of the Afghan people, life in this torn country may be able to finally return to normal. It must be known that the only reason a life in the Taliban is so popular is because it is the only way out for many struggling Afghans. The only true solution to this predicament all lies in the creation of jobs in this terror-stricken society.

Why the proposed reconciliation program is flawed?

In recent weeks, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has been vehemently pursuing a reconciliation plan with the Taliban, offering them jobs and housing if they decide to put down their arms and join the civilian life.

While the efforts and intentions are to be applauded, the plan is fundamentally flawed and needs to be much more critically deliberated before being rolled out. I can’t help but lament on at least two critical questions in this regard.

Firstly, what does the Afghan government (and the international community) offer the current masses of impoverished and war-ravaged civilians in Afghanistan to make it an enticing promise for Taliban fighters to lay down their arms for? Do the civilians live a life that is enviable by anyone in the country, the least of whom would be Taliban who not only enjoy much better pay, but also power and even social prestige (perhaps only self-perceived) for bravely defending their land against the “infidels” and foreign invaders? Maybe I am wrong, but I always thought for anyone to voluntarily enter into an agreement, it must at least make them slightly better off than before, otherwise, it is not worth the change in lifestyle.

The brutal fact is that the majority of Afghan civilians live in such poor conditions that their lives are hardly enviable. The luckiest among them have a stable government job, which pays at most about Rs.5000 a month ($100), which is a lot less than an unskilled labor would get by doing odd jobs, and certainly a lot less than Taliban get as fighters, which many believe to be close to at least $300 a month. So why give up $300 a month and the authority that comes having an AK47 on your shoulder for a lifestyle that can barely feed your family and puts you at the bottom of the society?

The second question that comes to mind is, why reward bad behavior? We already know that a lot of the Taliban fighters fight, not for ideological reasons, but for economic reasons. We also saw the emergence of the “occasional” Taliban and then the “weekend” Taliban who may actually be working for the government during the week. Are we sending a signal to those who have not joined yet to do so so that they are eligible for our promise of jobs and housing? Why not focus on those desperate young men and give them jobs and opportunities BEFORE they join the Taliban, with a lot less monetary incentives?

In fact, this last point is exactly what we have been pushing for through our JobsforAfghans initiative. The masses of unemployed Afghans are willing to work for about $5 a day and we are totally ignoring them, until they become a threat and join the Taliban or other forms of illicit earning out of desperation. It is a lot cheaper and easier to convince those on the brink of poverty and on the verge of joining the Taliban to “work for peace” than those who have crossed this line. And if we can show, in practice, that we are able to change the lives of our civilians for the better, we do not need to extend invitations and promises of this and that to the non-ideologically driven Taliban; they will come and “work for peace” themselves…again emphasizing IF we make the lifestyle of those who are already working for peace at least livable, if not enviable.