[ad_1]
In the past few weeks, much has been said about the Taliban’s sudden takeover of Afghanistan. Although the United States has spent so much money and shed blood, in the end, the corrupt government received so little support that it collapsed without a word.
Western “expert analysis” seems to have overlooked the core reason for his failure. But Sanad al-Kazimi, a client of mine in Guantanamo, easily recognized it in a recent conversation with me. No one regrets the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 more than he, because he suffered 16 years without being charged or tried.
He said he thought President Joe Biden was smart in defending the decision to end the longest war in American history. He reminded me that the Arabs also have a proverb: “It’s better to be late than never.” But Sanad went on to say that he was more willing to take the adage one step further: “It’s never better.” It’s better not to be one. Invaded Afghanistan from the beginning.
Another cliché tells us that the first thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. What the British called the first Anglo-Afghani war (1839-1842) was later called “Afghanistan’s disaster.” The Second Anglo-Arab War (1878-1880), the Third Anglo-Arab War (1919) and the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) all have one thing in common: they all ended in tears, only chaos reached. There is no reason to believe that the US Afghanistan War (2001-2021) will have different results.
Just before the pandemic, I was in Kabul to fight for the support of Asadullah Haroon, an Afghan who has been suffering in Guantanamo for the past 14 years. I talk to people from all sides of the chaotic political arena. If there is one thing everyone agrees to, it is that no one wants the intruder to stay. In fact, they didn’t want them in the first place.
However, the American invasion occurred in 2001. It is always difficult to turn the killing fields into anything outside the cemetery. There are very few cases in history where an army invaded a country (marked as an “enemy”) and then turned it into a respected friend.
A rare example may be the reaction of the Allied forces at the end of World War II. The Germans committed the most terrible crimes imaginable (the Taliban will never be able to match them, even in the wildest dreams of Western neoconservatives), the United States gave a fair trial to a small group of Nazis and declared some of them Not guilty. Then, through the Marshall Plan, the United States provided huge sums of money—today’s funds exceed 100 billion U.S. dollars—to help rebuild Europe and extend this spirit of generosity to West Germany.
The establishment of a political structure in Afghanistan could have escaped the taste imposed by foreign countries and survived the withdrawal of US troops. This required extraordinary efforts. It will take a truly humane attitude. This is what we have never shown.
First, we tortured al-Qaeda’s atrocities and sent others to Guantanamo from the other side of the earth. Then we spend much more money on bombs than to rebuild the damage caused by them. Third, we have never even pretended to treat Afghans as equal partners.
In Kabul, I ate dinner at Hajji Din Mohammed’s house. He is an old man who has held various positions in the government. He has fought against Russians and Americans. I asked him to compare the two. Regarding the Russians, he showed me where they shot him and described their amazing cruelty.
But he said that he respected them in two respects: First, they were very loyal to their comrades, and would rush to help them no matter what difficulties they encountered. Second, when they were finally expelled from Afghanistan, the Russians were loyal to those who helped them and welcomed them to Moscow. In fact, he pointed out another person at our dinner, and all his education was paid for in Russia.
I asked him about my fellow Americans. It is understandable that he is unwilling to be rude, but I solicited his true opinion.
“Americans have never even been loyal to themselves,” he said. “If their soldiers are suppressed by the Taliban, they must get some decree from Washington before anyone can help them.”
But then he went on to describe how Americans treat Afghans. Ironically, no Afghan citizen is allowed to book a room in the heavily guarded hotel I stayed in. Although I can enter without being searched, my host cannot. But more importantly, he said, based on his flowing beard and battle marks, Americans thought he was a mentally deranged “jihadist.” “In the past 18 years, no American has shook hands with me as a friend,” he concluded.
I have decided to like and respect this person, and I was frightened when I heard what he said. I immediately asked me (as an American) if I could shake hands with him as a friend. He burst into tears and said that I was a real brother. I am honored to be Hajji Din Mohammed’s brother. All Americans should do the same. Unfortunately we did not resolve it.
On the contrary, although we did at least uphold the rights of women, we introduced a feeling of imperial racism, which is reminiscent of the first Anglo-Arab war. We made life very expensive without increasing the wealth of the people (when I wanted to build our NGO branch, the cost in Kabul was four times that in Islamabad). We have established a legendary government of greed and corruption, so much so that the U.S. military calls it VICE-“Vertical Integrated Criminal Entities.”
Is it surprising that Afghans do not want to indulge in another civil war to keep what we offer them?
My father is a rampant chauvinist and homosexual; we did not hate him for it; with continuous success, we tried to change his mind. I have tried many death penalty cases in the United States. In order to qualify for service, all 12 jurors must promise that they are willing to sentence them to death. We can argue with them and tell them they are wrong, or we can remind them of the Bible’s teaching in their words: “Blessed are those who show mercy, because they will receive mercy.” I found the second lesson more effective.
When we first visited conservative Muslim clients in Guantanamo, we had the same choice: We could punish the chauvinism they learned in rural Afghanistan and label them “terrorists.” Or we can look for the best among them. Today, I count Guantanamo’s customers as my best friends on the planet. One of them, Asadullah Haroon, just wants his 14-year-old daughter Maryam to benefit from a complete education.
We have the same choice for the new Afghan government. The American media has begun to discredit them. For example, as the New York Times reported, Gholam Rulani “was detained in Afghanistan in 2001 with his brother-in-law, Deputy Intelligence Minister Abdul Haq Wasiq, when he accompanied Mr. Wasiq to a negotiating meeting with US officials. He was taken to Guantanamo on the day the prison opened on January 11, 2002, and was deported in December 2007.”
Now, we are told that Mr. Rulani, who led a group of Taliban into the presidential palace on August 15th, said to one of his guards who abused Guantanamo: “We will let you go outside.” It’s not surprising that someone who was ridiculously abused may (or may not) blurt out such words to the abuser 15 years ago. What I can say is that I have a good relationship with my former clients, and they are happy to deal with Americans like me who defend their rights in Guantanamo.
Rather than calling them barbarians from a distance, it is better to sit down and help them rebuild their country while strongly supporting Assad because he encourages Mariam to dream of becoming a doctor.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
[ad_2]
Source link