Email Response
From: “XXXXX XXX” <XXXXXXXX@hotmail.com>
>To: xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com
>Subject: Article on Afghanistan.
>Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:54:51 -0700
>
>Knowing as little as I do, I’d LOVE your take on this. And no, it’s not
>just a buncha extremist rhetoric. At least…I don’t think it is…but I
>don’t have the same perspective you do…which is why I’m sending you the
>link!
>
> http://www.slate.com/id/2144094/
>
>xoxo
>
>-D
>
>
Deborah:
Here’s my take on Afghanistan as a whole, I cant speak on points of the
article without giving more background, so please bear with me here.
The Russians did more damage to this country than anyone realizes. We are
still finding remnants of their mining and deforestation campaign.
Searching for a straight route to the ocean to expand their presence through
Southwest Asia, the Russians came to Afghanistan, and attempted to do what
the Indians, the British, and the Iranians had not been able to do for
thousands of years: Take, and HOLD Afghanistan as a territory.
The issue with holding on to Afghanistan is the Hindu-Kush mountains,that
split the country like a knife, and the vast stretches of nothingness that
amount to the countryside. It wasn’t always desert, though. The Russians,
after deciding that their presence in Afghanistan was too costly in both
lives and money, started a massively successful deforestation campaign that
wiped out literally half the country’s vegetation. Everything from
chemicals to salt was used in an attempt to destroy the lives of the Afghan
people. The apparent motto being if we cant have it, no one can. This
took place during the Cold War, and we, in hatred of an enemy that we
thought was oppressing the Afghan peoples, decided to support a militant
splinter group headed by a man named Osama Bin Laden, the son of an Afghan
construction worker. (this is a very abbreviated history). Osama Bin Laden,
and his Taliban (themselves a radical offshoot from the traditional
Muslims), with help from a related group named Al-Qaida (or Al Quaeda, Al
Khaida, pick your spelling) drove the Russians from the country with our
financial backing.
The real reason that the Russians could not gain a firm foothold, though is
not Osama Bin Laden, Al Quaida, or the Taliban. It is the country itself,
and the ways of the peoples. Tere is nothing connecting one village in
Afghanistan to another. There are no phone lines, no power lines, and no
truly centralized (or even recognized) government. People in Salerno (in
the southern part of the country) most likely do not know that just over the
mountains is a whole other group of villages. Nor do they care. They used
to be a nomadic peoples, and as they settled into their communities, it
became tribal. This tribal mentality pervades the peoples of Afghanistan,
and stops them from caring about outsiders. Because there is no defined
infrastructure, there was nothing TO be taken over. The fight to conquer
Afghanistan has to be fought one village at a time. There cant be a
surrender, when the people don’t care what happens 20 miles outside of their
village. The US could literally slaughter everyone in Parwan, and half the
people in Koh-e-Shat would cheer, and the other half would go back to work.
I guess what I am trying to say is that to conquer a country, you must break
its spirit, and to do that they have to have a sense of solidarity and
community. These things don’t exist on any large level here, due to
religious, familial, and geographic separation. It is like a country of
tiny kingdoms.
This is the same problem that the US Army is having. Instead of being able
to incite the people with a sense of accomplishment, we have encountered a
sense of malaise. Furthermore, their religion, and their basic beliefs make
everything even more frustrating. There is a phrase used frequently in this
country Dresh Allah (sp?), meaning At Gods will, and typically used to
mean whatever, when God deems that I should show up, and anything else
you can think of. If you schedule a meeting with someone for 10:00 a.m.,
you can expect him to show up anywhere from 10:00 until 2:00 p.m., and this
is expected. It also seems here, that everything is negotiable. They are a
bartering people, used to trading for what they need instead of working (not
as a whole, but a large part of the population). When I confiscate a cell
phone (the most common item used to set off IEDs), the locals that come on
base want to plead for their phone, offering all sorts of excuses and,
sometimes, lies:
Mohammad: this is my first time here
Me: why did I confiscate a different phone from you last week?
Mo: but sir, I did not know
Me: I confiscated one last week from you, and you drove past nine signs
explicitly telling you not to have a phone
Mo: but sir, no one has ever TOLD me I could not have one
Me: then why was it hidden behind your trucks CD player?
This is my day. All day. They believe that everything and everyone is for
sale, or can be talked into or out of something. Not to generalize, but it
seems to be a basic part of their belief structure, and I think, quite
possibly a result of their bartering economy. This is what NATO is up
against. These people do not care about each other, but are willing to die
for their religion or their family. Retribution is a way of life here. And
yes, they do chop off hands for theft in some parts of the country. They
are isolated, and like it that way. The Afghan National Army does not pay
well, even by their standards, so enlistment is poor, and looked down upon.
Because of their bartering economy, ANA soldiers are frequently bought by
warlords as bodyguards. How do you stop that?
As far as the inkblot expansion that the article spoke of, I don’t believe
that we, as the United States, have the troops to support such a campaign,
especially given the state of affairs in the middle east and Korea. NATO as
a whole does, but each country retains semi-autonomous control over their
troops, and can choose where to place them. These are typically peaceful
countries, with no desire to actually get their hands dirty. They want to
remain members of the EU, without loss of life, so they pledge forces to
NATO and choose not to fight.
I honestly don’t know what the solution is to this country’s problems, but I
know that it is not in throwing money at a corrupt society, it is not
through education, as many children that go to school get beaten for it, and
it is not through government, as most of the country has no desire to be
part of something larger than their village. Mostly, these people want to
be left alone.
NATO is like a big dog, with no teeth. They have an imposing presence, but
cant stomach the fight that this country needs. I believe it will take a
full scale, armed occupation for these people to rally together, just as
they did against the Russians. America doesn’t have the stomach for that,
either, from what I can see. We have fixed nothing in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
and that was with the backing of the people. Here, we have the backing of
about 10% of the population, and the rest could care less.
I don’t know if this answered any of your questions, but I hope it did
-Paul
Political and personal musings 