Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

A new blogger friend, Roshmi Sinha and I are having a discussion (in the comments section of a movie review post) that I think deserves attention.

We were talking about the state of current affairs in South Asia and it's development today. But let me backtrack so I can give you a little bit of history about the current topic.

The term Mujaheddin essentially means freedom fighter in Arabic. The most popular usage of the term came to light with several tribal leaders and opposition groups forming a coalition against the pro-Soviet Afghani government that came to power after overthrowing King Mohammed Zahir Shah in 1973. Now, the Soviets have had interests in Afghanistan strategically since the days of the Romanov Russian Empire with billions of dollars of aide flowing in to Afghanistan to secure alliances. This interest obviously carried over in to the days of the Cold War.

"In June 1975, militants from the Jamiat Islami party attempted to overthrow the government. They started their rebellion in the Panjshir valley, some 100 kilometers north of Kabul, and in a number of other provinces of the country. However, government forces easily defeated the insurgency and a sizable portion of the insurgents sought refuge in Pakistan where they enjoyed the support of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government, which had been alarmed by Daoud's revival of the Pashtunistan issue."

Now, the unpopular Afghan government started calling upon the Soviet Union to send reinforcements to fight the resurgent and hugely popular Mujaheddin rebels. The USSR, seeing this as a great opportunity sent regiments of Soviet regular troops into Afghanistan under the guise of protecting the elected government.


This prompted the Mujaheddin to reach out to the enemies of the Soviets, the Americans, for help. In 1979, Jimmy Carter authorized the funding of anti-Communist guerrillas in Afghanistan and Operation Cyclone, a covert CIA plan to arm the Mujaheddin was born.


Now, if you watch Charlie Wilson's War and other movies detailing that era, you have a good idea of how much money and training went in to upgrading the Mujaheddin from a ragtag group of revolutionaries to a battle-hardened fighting force capable of beating the mighty Soviets. It is also open knowledge that in order to be discreet about the funding and aid, the US used Pakistan's ISI to train the rebels instead.

After almost a decade of Cold War hostilities from both sides being fought on the Afghan battlefield, billions of dollars went to the Mujaheddin from their prime benefactors, the Americans and the Saudis. This decade also saw the Mujaheddin become one of the most formidable fighting forces in the world and the only one to defeat the Russian Army.

The Soviet Union, after a severe beating, withdrew from Afghanistan on Feb 15, 1989.


Post-Soviet Withdrawal

The war in Afghanistan took an incalculable toll on the people and the nation.


"Over 1 million Afghans were killed. 5 million Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran, 1/3 of the prewar population of the country. Another 2 million Afghans were displaced within the country. In the 1980s, one out of two refugees in the world was an Afghan.Along with fatalities were 1.2 million Afghans disabled (mujaheddin, government soldiers and noncombatants) and 3 million maimed or wounded (primarily noncombatants)."

Afghanistan, as a country, was completely and utterly destroyed as was any and all infrastructure the country once had. Also, three years after the withdrawal, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed to the mujaheddin resistance.


Then, the expected happened with the Mujaheddin turning in on itself and broke off in to several warring factions until finally, the Taliban rose to deal with the corruption that had infiltrated all ranks of the Mujaheddin. The Taliban initially enjoyed enormous good will from Afghans weary of the corruption, brutality, and the incessant fighting of Mujaheddin warlords. The Taliban was also overtly funded by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates who felt that the Islamic radicals and fundamentalists who made the rank and file of the Taliban would be easier to control. They held power from 1996 till late 2001 when they were removed from power by the invading US and allied forces.

Bin Laden & Al-Qaeda

Now, from amongst this chaos rose one very prominent individual with the money to back his own brand of radical Islam.  

"Bin Laden believes that the restoration of Sharia law will set things right in the Muslim world, and that all other ideologies—"pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, democracy"—must be opposed. He believes Afghanistan under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world. Bin Laden has consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believes are injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states, the need to eliminate the state of Israel, and the necessity of forcing the US to withdraw from the Middle East. He has also called on Americans to "reject the immoral acts of fornication (and) homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury," in an October 2002 letter."

After leaving college in 1979 bin Laden joined Abdullah Azzam to fight the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and lived for a time in Peshawar. Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia in 1990 as a hero of jihad, who along with his Arab legion, "had brought down the mighty superpower" of the Soviet Union. However, during this time Iraq invaded Kuwait and Laden met with Sultan, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and told him not to depend on non-Muslim troops and offered to help defend Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden's offer was rebuffed and after the American offer to help was accepted he publicly denounced Saudi Arabia's dependence on the US military. Bin Laden's criticism of the Saudi monarchy led that government to attempt to silence him.

This caused the birth of Al-Qaeda which went on to become the threat that it is to the world today. 

Bush & The Middle-East Wars


George W. Bush, who I believe to be the biggest mistake ever to happen to world politics, probably worse than Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement of Nazi Germany from 1937-39, used the 9/11 attacks to start his global War on Terror with invasions of Afghanistan, the overthrow of the Taliban regime and of course, the invasion of Iraq based on some fabricated WMDs.


I am of the genuine opinion that Bush never wanted to capture Bin Laden, not because of any collusion between the two but because Bin Laden was Bush's excuse to walk into Asia and then use this as a platform to take out his father's old nemesis, Saddam.

The bruised Taliban, in the meanwhile, gathered their forces and made a massive resurgence not just in Afghanistan but in neighboring Pakistan where they had ties to the JUI party.


"For a period of seven years since their origin, Pakistan's government had been the Taliban's main sponsor. It provided military equipment, recruiting assistance, training and tactical advice that enabled the band of village mullahs and their adherents to take control of Afghanistan.


Officially Pakistan denied it was supporting the Taliban, but its support was substantial—one year's aid (1997/1998) was an estimated US$30 million in wheat, diesel, petroleum and kerosene fuel, and other supplies. The Taliban's influence in its neighbor Pakistan was deep. Its "unprecedented access" among Pakistan's lobbies and interest groups enabled it "to play off one lobby against another and extend their influence in Pakistan even further. At times they would defy" even the powerful ISI."


The formation of a Pakistan Taliban umbrella group called Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was announced in December 2007.


As of now, the Pakistani government and army is in a full-blown war with the Taliban in many provinces with suicide bombings happening in Pakistani cities on almost a daily basis.



As of December 2008, at least 889 persons were killed and 2,072 others injured in 61 suicide attacks in Pakistan, as the total number of suicide bombings in the country since 2002 rose to 140.
The suicide bombings in 2008 surpassed the last year's figures of 56, including the one in which former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose first death anniversary would be observed on December 27, was killed in Rawalpindi.

My view on South Asia and the current crisis

The Taliban is a monster created by the US and Pakistan to counter what was then, the communist USSR. Now, they are a terror force the likes of which has never been seen. Al-Qaeda, using the protection of the Taliban, continues to plan and execute strikes all around the world in any country that seems unsympathetic to the Islamic cause.

I believe the Taliban and terror activities of the Asian Subcontinent can only be contained locally. The US is already in it's own sequel to Vietnam where they've dedicated hundreds of thousands of troops to both Iran and Afghanistan in a completely no-win situation that can only lead to more deaths and definitely no victory. They are invaders or "saviors" in a country that doesn't want to be saved, especially by them.

They should also stop funding Pakistan as it admittedly uses a good portion of aid sanctioned for the War on Terror against India. On September 25, 2009, Indian External Affairs Minister, S.M.Krishna told reporters, "Considering the statement that has been issued by the former president of Pakistan Musharraf himself where he has said that the aid provided to Pakistan by the United States have been used for directing its hostile operations against India."

It is only a matter of time before the discontent within America over the deaths of US soldiers on foreign soil will become vociferous enough that the US will have to withdraw, either voluntarily or because the cost of keeping forces abroad just does not outweigh the losses the forces are incurring in terms of both lives and money.


Roshmi believes (and I agree) that the powerful defense contractor lobby within the United States will not allow the War on Terror to end because of the billions of dollars in funding that these companies get for conducting the wars, both logistically and otherwise.


This doesn't seem an unpopular belief either. If you reference a recent spate of movies and shows, both 24 and State of Play both deal with Private Military Corporations responsible for providing private contractors (mercenaries) to handle certain aspects of the War on Terror. Their claim is that these PMCs are bolstering terrorists' capabilities on the battlefield through illegal arm supplies in order to increase their necessity on the battlefield.


According to a news report dated November 12th, 2009:


US defense contractors are funding insurgents in Afghanistan, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, according to a report in The Nation published Thursday.
 
The report, by veteran investigative correspondent Aram Roston, asserts that US military contractors charged with assisting US forces in Afghanistan are actually funding the groups killing American soldiers. Roston describes a protection racket similar to that of the mafia, in which contractors pay the Taliban "protection money" not to attack them.

"In this grotesque carnival, the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes," Roston writes. "It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. 

"It's a big part of their income," a top Afghan government security official purportedly told told The Nation.


This is exactly the kind of gross mistreatment of War that spawns fears of Defense Contractors' involvement.

This essentially means the US is giving the Taliban money that will eventually be used against it.

My question to you is, how can America not loose? Obama is paying for Bush's gross incompetence and is continuing to pour troops and money in to Afghanistan and Iraq. The money, in some instances, is going directly to the Taliban.

The only way out is for the US to pull out and support these countries through partner states like India, Brazil and China. Any direct influence will, again, be misconstrued as setting up "Puppet Governments" which Karzai's government is already accused of being.