[at-l] An alternate view of the tradegy from abroad

[dfaddleton@mindspring.com (David)]

Correction: I got the military dictators in Pakistan mixed up . . . it was
Zia ul-Haq, not Yahyah Khan . . .


> > http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,551036,00.html
>
> I cannot agree with the description of recent central asian history
> described in this op-ed piece, although I can agree with its general
thrust.
> Having lived from 1956 through 1973 in Pakistan, having studied the
history
> and religion of Islam in graduate and postgraduate course work, and having
> followed the more  recent and sad history of the Afgan peoples, I feel I
> have some small basis for my opinions.
>
> The Americans and the British did indeed fund much (but not nearly all of)
> the Afgan resistance to Soviet occupation; the west did not, however, run
> that show, preferring instead to use a string of proxies to keep their
hand
> as hidden as Osama bin Laden hopes his is hidden . . . The west funneled
its
> $$ to Afganistan through Pakistan's intelligence community, which employed
a
> variety of Afgan, Pakistani, Saudi, UAE, Kuwaiti, Iranian, and other
groups
> to put the $$ to use. The Pakistanis chose which groups got the western $$
> and material based on its own interests in the region, and not based on
> western interests, lining in the process the personal pockets of the
people
> moving that money to the Afgans . . . Pakistan was itself governed at that
> time by a military dictator, Yahyah Khan, during a period of stunning
> refugee migration from Afganistan to escape the Soviet war, a migration
> which altered the social fabric of Pakistan in remarkable and devisive
ways.
> The Soviet puppet regime in Kabul destroyed the Afgan's middle and
educated
> classes long before the Taliban emerged in Khandahar's ruins from the
> Pakistani refugee camps . . . using Iraqi, Saudi, and Iranian money to
> leverage what was left of its western support into a civil war premised
upon
> its own warped idea about Islamic purity. The migration from soviet
> domination sent the wealthiest and better educated Afgans to the west as
> immigrants, leaving the less educated and poor to fend for themselves in
the
> camps. Unlike the west, Islam as a religion and as a culture has not yet
> completed its hike down the "enlightenment" trail. The migration of
> conservative, fundamentalist "puritan" arabs from the middle east to
> Afganistan during and after the Soviet occupation, to my mind, reflects an
> internal cultural and religious struggle. These "afgan arabs" as they're
> called are now called are beating a hasty retreat from Afganisatan to
avoid
> the consequences of western anger. They will reappear Iraq, Syria, Sudan,
> Algeria, etc., where, if Bush wants to topple states which sponsor
terrorism
> the real war against terrorism must be fought. Sadly, Afganistan is
already
> living in the stone age and any talk about bombing it "back to the stone
> age" makes no sense to me. In the process of procurring Pakistani support
> for a war on Afganistan, the west risks igniting a civil war in Pakistan
> (now a nuclear power), based on regional and religious fissures. I have as
> much dread about the coming months for the peoples of Afganistan and
> Pakistan as I have revulsion for the barbarous events this week in
America.
>
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