Opinion Editorials, June 2013

America in Afghanistan:

Warriors in Search of Peace Talks

By Mahboob A Khawaja

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, June 24, 2013

 “…war is not accessible through the understanding, rationally, intellectually, by watching a film or by reading a book. To "know" war, you have to experience it, live it, feel it in your gut the anxiety, fear, frustration, boredom, hopelessness, despair, anger, rage, etc. In truth, warriors exist in a world totally incomprehensible to those who have never had the misfortune of experiencing the horrors of the battlefield.”  (Professor Camillo "Mac" Bica, School of Visual Arts, New York City and an activist of Peace and Justice (“Atrocity and War”, OpenedNews, 4/28/2010)  

Wars are planned and executed by sadistic and cruel minds - the characters which cultivate fear and hatred by the mankind, certainly not by the rational people exercising human intellect, foresight, dignity and accountability in global affairs. Most could best be described as human beings equipped with monstrous ego and divided consciousness pursuing favorite perversion like the historical Russian Ivan the Terrible, who specialized in torture and killings of innocent people for fun and enjoyment. If you were to ask for the reason why did American invade Afghanistan some 12 years ago?  American moral and intellectually bankruptcy would fail to reason the unreason. George W. Bush posted a 48 hrs ultimatum to the then Taliban led Government of Afghanistan to hand-over Osama bin Laden, the accused master mind of the 9/11 attacks on America. The Taliban led Afghan Government asked for proof of the accusations. America had none except theories and frustrated words. Hurriedly, American troops supported by Britain and other hired nations landed there to occupy the land of the Afghan people. NATO was instantly transformed to take up a new role but ill-defined war against Afghanistan.  

Impartial observers report approximately 2-3 million civilians killed in Iraq by the US led forces; some 20, 000 or so Americans and others troops having been killed in combat operations in Afghanistan; some 30,000 – 40,000 wounded and unknown number of warriors psychologically and mentally crippled by the single act of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, Rumsfeld and so many others- the dreadful and sadistic leaders of the industrialized West nations. Likewise million or so Afghani killed, displaced and countless men, women and innocent children buried in mass graves by the unknown guns and bullets of the perverted minds. How would an aggressor make peace with the victims? Do victims ever love the oppressors or aggressors?  Do oppressed people ever hold peace talks with the aggressors?  This week, America announced to hold peace talks with the Talibans, the group or political entity they fought for 12 years. Who is making joke to whom?  American politicians insist on dismantling the al-Qaeda but according to the former US Commander in Afghanistan General McRystal, it does not exist as a challenge with only under 100 or so activists. Moreover, al-Qaeda was created by the CIA to fight against the former USSR and who else will know better about its operations than the CIA. In the 21^st century informed age, the global community is well informed and knows better than what the American or Afghan politicians think about the current affairs. The human nature does not favor war as cruelty gets transformed into institutionalized insanity. This week, American television networks showing Wounded Warrior Project and asking people for donations to help the war veterans. It is authoritatively reported that 18-25 American war veterans daily commit suicide. No politicians attempt to address this humanitarian tragedy – why it is happening to the American masses. Why do few political monsters overrun other nations for their own interests?  

The facts on the ground clearly speak a different language and prevalent realities. America and its allies killed millions and destroyed human habitats but could not achieve anything else. They agreed to end the military occupation in 2014. They desperately need a strategically convenient and safe passage out of Afghanistan. American leaders and Europeans are not telling the truth that the end-game will be pursued in collaboration with the Talibans, not with Hamad Karazi, the Western installed President of Afghanistan. American leaders are hiding the vital facts of the plan that they urgently needed the physical routes and help of Pakistan and Iran to manage this withdrawal of troops and war machines from Afghanistan. It all appears to be wishful thinking on the part of Americans as they have already digged crumbling holes in relations with Pakistan and Iran. How would the leaders of these two nations come out to embrace American military interests and priorities whereby, the American leaders have continued to undermine their existence with warmongering and drone attacks and moral and intellectual insults to their existence? Are the global relations a one way street?  American policy makers are used to thinking big and jumping high only be hurt later on. In a knowledge-based age, do the Americans ever THINK of the facts of life versus their own policy behaviors and practices in a real world situation?  What America does to others is happening within its own societal compound.

James Howard Kunstler (“America the Horror Show” 12/17/2012-Clusterfuck Nation),   author of “the Long Emergency” ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN:

We live in physical surroundings that are the perfect growth medium for serial killers, mass murderers, psychopaths with no feeling, and sado-masochists preoccupied only with the ritual orchestration of their own shame and guilt in the service of inflicting pain.  Let me remind you that there is a range of thought and feeling evinced in human culture that no longer exists in America. These things were called virtues. They are qualities in thought and action related to goodness and excellence, and they are in very short supply these days in the USA, though we are well-supplied with fakes and approximations of virtue -- such as the moments of sham heroism witnessed yesterday afternoon and evening by men watching televised football. What matters now is that an epochal undertow of events is dragging this enormous nation into an economic convulsion that will inevitably turn political. I don't think that our society can be redeemed in its current form. It has to pass through a tribulation that demands the reemergence of adult male humans who know how to be men in more than one dimension. And you who make it through to the other side will barely comprehend the monsters left behind, or how they made themselves that way. 

While individualism is a political trait, individualistic absolutism is a political sickness and contrary to the principles of liberty and justice. America enjoins a moral and intellectual history of the making of the nation. “These are the times that try men’s soul”, wrote Thomas Paine in the Common Sense (1776), the political vision and reference for the independence of America from Britain as a nation. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and so many others contributed to the making of a democratic America. Not so, what was built during the historical struggle for freedom has been destroyed by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfwaltz and Obama and so many others in coercing and demeaning it. They disturbed the soul of Paine and Jefferson and of countless fine politicians when they waged the bogus War on Terror. These 21^st century authoritarian presidents defied the purpose and meaning of the US Constitution for peace and co-existence. Thomas Paine (Common Sense) made it clear that: “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a Government, which we might expect in a country without Government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.” America and its absolute politics have gone too far in their approach to wage bogus wars of terrorism against the innocent and destitute people in other lands. In the process, it lost its moral, political and superpower capacity to possess any weight and value in global affairs. For over two decades, America was run by paranoid and vengeful politicians striving to restore individualistic political credibility through the logic of power. If that was the case, Hitler and Mussolini and previous European Empires could have been successful in occupying the large parts of the humanity. Not so, they all failed because they undermined the moral and intellectual consciousness of the living mankind which the superior weapons and military power could not conquer.  None seem to have the understanding of the Nature of Things: living on a planet governed by the Laws of God in which evil does not take root and evil-mongering and cruelty is certainly opposed by the mankind and punished by God - The Creator and Lord of all the worlds. Bush, Blair and Obama never fought on a actual war front. So, they have no understanding of the real warfare from their drawing rooms.  Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad had no armies to conquer others but the Divine power of logic and persuasive communications to inspire the hearts and minds of the large segments of human societies. There are interwoven emotions of hatred and fear against America and its allies across Afghanistan and the neighboring Asian region. There is no trust, no mutual sense of respect to figure out how to deal with the future. America and its paid allies went there to kill people and they did the job. Now, they want to come out in peace and want peace talks. Nobody knows who has the peace and who could deliver it to whom.  It is an absurd game of lies and deception to the well informed global mankind. Diplomacy is meant to explore all rational thinkable and unthinkable horizons to enhance peace, not wars. But the warmongers never allowed diplomacy to play its role. If diplomacy was the supreme value, there was no challenge for America to invade and occupy Afghanistan. The real aim was to exploit the abundance of Afghan’s natural resources and destroy all those who will oppose the grand American design. 

President Karzai is increasingly becoming a liability on America as his terms of office will expire in summer 2014. How could Karzai hold peace talks with the Taliban or be a reliable force of futuristic peacemaking? Americans are not capable to hold multiple warfare or to have multiple dialogues with all the factions in this terribly human tragedy. Their military Generals and political leaders never seem to have any clue or intelligent foresight – how to exit from Afghanistan or bring a peaceful closure to a conflict situation.  Their claims and expertise of strategic know-how are often less than being credible.. This week’s revelations by Edward Snowden are a clear reflection of this perpetuated ignorance and obvious arrogance to accept their inherent lies and professional weaknesses. The ruling elite assumes that the masses are ill informed and that American public could be duped into another 9/11 myth and its supposedly spill-over impacts. The security illusions and violations of the American liberties are fast falling apart as Edward Snowden showed courage and determination to expose the secret impulses of overriding the rights and freedom of the American people. Would the Obama administration come out in one piece to restore its integrity?  Paul Craig Roberts (“Washington is Insane.” PaulCraigRoberts.org 6/17/2013), has offered a rational context to the current problem:

In the 21st century the two hundred year-old propaganda that the American people control their government has been completely shattered. Both the Bush and Obama regimes have made it unmistakenly clear that the American people don’t even influence, much less control, the government. As far as Washington is concerned, the people are nothing but chaff in the wind….Washington’s double-speak is now obvious to the world. Not only Assad, but also the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and every US puppet state which includes all of NATO and Japan, are fully aware that Washington is again lying through its teeth. The Russians, Chinese, and Iranians are trying to avoid confrontation with Washington, as war with the modern nuclear weapons would destroy all life on planet earth….

Considering the utterly insane government ruling in Washington, if human life exists in 2020, it will be a miracle 

Medea Benjamin, Code PINK ( “Why I Spoke Out at Obama's Foreign Policy Speech” Information Clearing House: 5/26/2013) is an American political and peace activist well known across the globe for her anti-war and anti drone attacks on the civilian population in Pakistan. She questioned the President but secret service agents hurriedly removed her out of the press conference.

Medea Benjamin explains that: On topics from Guantánamo to drone strikes, I couldn’t let the president act as if he were some helpless official at the mercy of Congress. The bulk of the president’s speech was devoted to justifying drone strikes. I was shocked when the president claimed that his administration did everything it could to capture suspects instead of killing them. That is just not true. “Excuse me, Mr. President,” I said, “but you’re the Commander-in-Chief. You could close Guantánamo tomorrow and release the eighty-six prisoners who have been cleared for release.” We went on to have quite an exchange but was forced to go out. Obama simply could not respond to a rational question.

America and its belligerent allies have caused havoc social, economic and political conditions in Afghanistan. The war and its consequences will not end in 2014 but will leave imprints for generations to come - the innocent men, women and children massacred and human habitats destroyed. Should America and its allies not be held accountable by the Afghan people for all the war damages? After the WW2, America and allied Europeans held the German Nazis and Japanese accountable for their crimes against the humanity. Would the ICC at Hague initiate similar actions to hold the US-British and others responsible for the war damages and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan and Iraq? Who would patch the wounds of torture and cold blood murdered committed at Belgram prison and Guantanmo Bay?  Are the current peace talks a time-killing exercise aimed at face saving or gaining more time and ground to finish the job in Afghanistan and onward to Pakistan?  Americans strategic psyche is desperate to be seen as a winner, not loser in Afghanistan. Would Talibans allow the American plan to take its shape? If Obama’s egoism turns into cancer to consume both gimmicks, where would the wounds and warriors be buried with honor - would it be the bombed graveyards of Afghanistan or the new secret sites in America?  More often wars have ended on their own after exhaustion and unworthy cause with or without political dialogues to make the roadmaps for the future. Would peace talks usher a new era for a different kind of future and co-existence to all concerned? If the mankind was looking towards ethical principles and some rational consideration to be in peace and harmony after the dreadful warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan and drone killings in Pakistan, it is utterly dismayed with the US politicians and policy makers. Time and again, they appear to be devoid of reason and any sense of humanity and accountability for their belligerent acts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Global politics is not a system of moral principles or intellectual and political values but often an absurd game – a cruel drama - a puppet show staged to appease the few bloody draculas - a psychopath puzzle of few insane people who had nothing useful to contribute to the mankind except drudgery, deceit, lies and inborn deceptions - the net outcome of this Thinking was the bogus War on Terrorism.   It is unclear what is in-waiting for the US and its allies in 2014 to quit unilaterally from Afghanistan. “History is a weapon and tyranny is tyranny” noted late historian Howard Zinn. American intransigence in Afghanistan will not be a new exciting story in history books.

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012).

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editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org