Voting in Afghanistan: Warlords, Jihadis, and Iranian Agents
by Mike Whitney
www.dissidentvoice.org
October 24, 2005



 

The Western media rarely explores the failures of the Afghanistan war. That’s unfortunate, because the conflict tells us a great deal about the suicidal direction of American foreign policy.

95% of the American public supported the war in Afghanistan, feeling that something had to be done in response to the attacks of September 11. Something was done: we invaded a sovereign nation, toppled the fanatical Taliban, and cobbled together an American-friendly regime that has never had any real authority and never provided even minimal security for its people.

The toxic effects of the conflict are now tragically evident in the unexpected results of the parliamentary elections. The September 18 elections for the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House) show that warlords and ex-Taliban commanders won over half of the seats in the new parliament. Many of those elected are among the most extreme human rights abusers in the country, certainly not what President Bush imagined when he began his “global democratic revolution.” Now, former jihadis, Islamic fundamentalists, and warlords will control a majority of the seats in Parliament ensuring that the security of the Afghani people will continue to be at risk.

For all practical purposes, the country has returned to its brutal pre-Taliban days where the nation was divided into fiefdoms controlled by regional warlords. Many of the candidates participated in the civil war during the 1990s that devastated much of the country. They are now in a position to challenge the power of the central government and obstruct efforts to further integrate the country.

Some of the Taliban leaders who won spots in the new government are Wakil Mutawakil, former Foreign Minister for the Taliban, and Maulavi Qalamuddin, the head of the Department for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue, the fanatical agency that enforced Sharia Law through severe forms of punishment and physical abuse. It is widely believed that Tehran is directly supporting the more extreme members in the fledgling parliament. This tells us that Iran is developing a base of political support in Afghanistan as it has in Iraq. Ironically, the US is currently defending Iran-friendly regimes in both countries it has chosen to invade.

After four years of occupation, we can see that the administration’s promises for Afghanistan were all lies. The military has never tried to liberate the countryside from the tyranny of the warlords, nor has Bush’s promise of a Marshall Plan ever materialized. The Karzai government is a feeble puppet regime with no popular base and with no real power beyond the confines of Kabul. Judging by its inability to address any of Afghanistan’s urgent problems -- security, drug trafficking, sanitation, human rights abuses -- we can conclude that Karzai and his American overlords are a serious obstacle to Afghanistan’s rehabilitation. There’s really no chance of meaningful recovery or development in Afghanistan until Karzai is replaced by someone with a broader popular mandate.

The increasing attacks on American forces are a sign of the widespread frustration with the American occupation. The public no longer believes that the US will honor its original commitments to rebuild or stabilize the country and that is causing growing discontent and violence. Life in Afghanistan is an endless cycle of sporadic attacks, bureaucratic ineffectiveness, and grinding poverty. The specter of occupation only adds to the sense of hopelessness.

The window of opportunity for the US to demonstrate its good intentions has long since passed. The reported incidents of prisoner abuse and even death are fueling the rising restlessness and anger. The recent broadcast of the US troops burning the bodies of Taliban fighters is just the latest, and most obscene, affront to the cultural sensitivities and religious beliefs of the Afghanistan people. The shockwaves from this incident will undoubtedly be felt for years to come.

Things will only get worse in Afghanistan until the United States leaves. We are no longer trusted by the people, nor can we claim the moral authority to know what is in their best interest. The sad fact is that American troops are no longer guarantors of the peace but, rather, are the main instigators of the hostilities. According to Stars and Stripes magazine, “the recent surge in fighting (in Afghanistan) could be attributed more to American aggressiveness than anything Al Qaida is doing.” Just like in Iraq, the American tendency to “shoot now, and ask questions later” is the primary source of the burgeoning violence.

Western media has scrupulously kept Afghanistan off the front page of America’s newspapers. That spot has been reserved for the spurious charges against Syria so that Washington can drum up support for its next war. But, thoughtful Americans should take a second look at Afghanistan and judge for themselves whether any of the administration’s goals have been realized or if the conflict has been a dismal failure. The recent parliamentary elections demonstrate beyond a doubt that America’s involvement has only strengthened the most reactionary and brutal elements in Afghani society. This is a clear sign that it is high time for us to withdraw our troops and to reconsider the use of military force as the primary means of achieving foreign policy objectives.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state, and can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com.

Other Articles by Mike Whitney

* Saddam's Mock Trial
* Escorting Judy to the Gallows
* Miller’s Confession: The Last Gasp Before the Indictments
* The Iraqi Constitution: A Cynical Cover for Partition
* Can Attacks on Oil Facilities Lead to Peace?
* George Bush and the Four Horsemen
* Bunker Days with Reichsführer George
* Martial Law and the Advent of the Supreme Executive
* The Evil of Torture and the Power of Non-Violence
* Why Not Torture Judith Miller?
* The Occupation of New Orleans
* Brownie's Comic Opera
* Apartheid Justice in America: Krugal vs. Padilla  
* The Impending Cakewalk in Iran
* Farewell to the Democratic PartyBunker Days with Reichsführer George
* Basra: Another Milestone in the War on Terror
* The Inevitable War with Iran
* Let Them Die Or Let Them Go
* Who’s Blowing Up Iraq?
* The Second American Revolution
* Hurricane Hugo at the UN
* Tal Afar: Crackdown in the Sunni Heartland
* John Roberts’ Role in the Guantanamo Hunger Strike
* Jose Padilla and the Death of Personal Liberty
* Rodney King in New Orleans
* Rehnquist Paved the Way for the Imperial Presidency
* The New Orleans Looters Are the Bush Progeny
* The Devastating Impact of Hurricane George
* “Transformation”: How Rumsfeld Smashed the National Guard
* The Lords of War
* Robertson’s Fatwah: “A Whole Lotta Smitin’ Goin’ On”
* Turning Cindy Sheehan’s Victory Into Defeat 
* “My Son Died for Nothing”
* "Shoot to Kill": Tony Blair’s First Trophy
* Greenspan’s Role in the Housing Bubble
* Failing in Iraq
* Revving Up World War III
* Pretty Hot in Crawford, Pretty Hot in Hell
* Straight-Shootin’ George Galloway
* “Operation Community Shield”: Comrade Chertoff’s Preemptive Crackdown
* Kristallnacht: What Happens When the Public Says Nothing? 
* Burying Blair: Post-Mortem for the British PM
* “Withdrawal” from Iraq?: Forget About It
* The Globalization of State Terror
* Tom Friedman: Fabricating the Roots of Terror
* Doomsday: The Final Months of the “Housing Bubble”
* John Roberts and the National Security State
* Guantanamo: the Calculus of Human Misery
* Did Greenspan Know About the London Bombings Two Days Before?
* Another Casualty in Rumsfeld’s Information War
* Genesis of an American Gestapo
* Bush's Orgy of Carnage
* Goodbye to Sandra Day O’ Connor . . . and Good Riddance
* The Rumsfeld Solution: “Liberating Iraq, One Journalist at a Time”
* Show Your Independence on the 4th -- Burn a Flag
* "Up in Smoke": Bush Flops in Prime Time
* More Rumsfeld Lies About Insurgent Meetings
* Incinerating Iraqis: The Napalm Cover-Up
* Guantanamo: The New-World Icon
* The Bush Radio Address: More Delusional Blather While Iraq Bleeds
* The Friedman Solution: Reinstate the Draft
* Body Slamming the 4th Amendment
* Operation Desperation: Rumsfeld’s Baghdad Fiasco
* The EU Constitution: Don’t Believe the BS
* Protecting the Plutocrats
* What Was Laura Bush Doing at the Al Aqsa Mosque?
* Free Jose Padilla!
* Alberto Gonzales’ Kristallnacht: Purges for a Safer America
* Tom Friedman: The Imperial Chronicler
* Gods, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw
* A Tentative Strategy for Ending the War
* The Specter of Violence in America
* Free Speech in the Crosshairs
* Why America Needs to be Defeated in Iraq
* More Madness at the Bush News Conference
* Ratzinger’s Plan to Hide the Pedophiles
* Let’s Let Atheists Back into Politics
* Pope Ratzinger: More “Pie-in-the-Sky” for the Struggling Masses
* The Purveyors of Violence: The NY Times in Falluja
* Screw You, Paul Volker!
* Pope TV and the New World Media
* The Economic Tsunami: Sooner Than You Think
* Destroy Abu Ghraib!
* Terri Schiavo and the Battered Judiciary
* Railroading Moussaoui
* The Wolfowitz Appointment: A Red Flag for the Coming Wars
* “Economic Meltdown” -- Sorry, but We’re Toast
* John Bolton and the Road to Tehran
* Clearing the Way for the American Police State
* Challenging the Language of Violence
* Jose Padilla and the 10 Commandments
* Crushing the UN for a Stronger America
* Europe to Bush: “Hands Off Iran”?
* The Incredible Shrinking Dollar
* Assassinating Al-Hariri Fits Washington’s Plan
* Washington’s Plan to Foment Civil War in Iraq
* Condi’s Euro-Tour
* Folksy Tom Friedman and New Age Imperialism
* Government Without Consent
* The Desperate State of the Union
* Iraq’s Election Fiasco
* Boarding Up the “Window of Opportunity”
* KGB Chieftain Finds Home at Homeland Security
* Bush’s Grand Plan: Incite Civil War
* Pink Slips at CBS

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