VTMBH Article: Body
Kabul, Afghanistan:
<i>Just after dawn the rumble of distant artillery fire shatters the frosted crystal morning. To my surprise, no one reacts. They have grown used to the sound of war. But Abdul Wahed?s eldest son...of about 12, begins to draw on the side of the black metal stove with a piece of chalk: a jet, looking like a paper plane, and short dashes representing the bombs it drops.</i> [National Geographic]
It is ironic how little Afghanistan has changed since 1985, when the above passage was written, to now. Though in 1985 Afghanistan was the arena where the superpowers battled each other in relative obscurity, it is now the arena where the visible battles the obscure. I think it is fair to say that few Americans knew where or what Afghanistan was until the tragic events of September 11th. It is hard to imagine that life in Afghanistan in the 1960?s, particularly in Kabul, was not all that different from Europe or North America at that time. Students attended classes at Kabul University, went to the movies and attended concerts. In the mid-to-late 1970?s one could see men and women inside Kabul doing their best to keep up with the latest fashions: bell bottoms, polyester shirts, and singing along with ABBA when they appeared on TV.
My parents have some great pictures from when we were in Afghanistan. I laugh every time I see my father with those long, bushy sideburns and my mom with her ?70?s hairdo. It was a time when girls went to school, women held positions in the government, careers were a matter of choice, and the now infamous "burka" was an optional social custom. This is very different from the images now being broadcast all over the world: ghostly images of women in burkas, long bearded men with turbans, and desolate, utter poverty.
So what exactly happened to this country that sent it back to the stone age? One simple answer: the Cold War.
Afghanistan used to be a moderate Islamic society. King Mohammad Zahir Shah presided over the many ethnic groups in Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973. Kabul University was set up in 1946, women ran for public office in 1965, a liberal constitution was introduced in 1974, and the press was relatively free. In 1973, Zahir Shah was overthrown in a military coup by his cousin, Mohammad Davoud, with the support of the Soviets and the Communist Party. Together they went after Islamic scholars and other Islamists, many of whom were imprisoned or murdered for ideological reasons. When Davoud realized the dangers of communism and wanted to get rid of the ever-increasing influence of the Soviets, he was overthrown and killed by them.
By the late 1970?s, the United States and the Soviet Union fought proxy wars in Angola, Somalia, and Ethiopia, only a few years after Vietnam and only decades after Korea. The United States had begun providing aid to Pakistan-based Afghan Islamists some months before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor to President Carter stated, "We didn?t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would." And on December 27, 1979, the day the Soviets invaded Afghanistan: "Now," he said, "we can give the USSR its Vietnam War."
In the mid 1980?s, William Casey, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under President Reagan, committed CIA funds to a broader plan to organize the Muslims of the world into a global jihad against Soviet communism. By the mid-1980?s, the CIA office in Islamabad, Pakistan, had become second in size only to its own headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and American assistance to the Afghan Islamists channeled through the CIA and the Pakistan intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was running into the billions of dollars. Pakistan expressed a great interest in Afghanistan because in the event of an invasion by India, Pakistan considered Afghanistan to be a military "safety net," a place to retreat and continue resistance. As General Gul, the ISI director-general under Pakistan?s former President Zia, stated, "...it was enough to justify a decade?s worth of meddling and military intervention [by the United States]."
Additionally, some Saudi elements saw the war in Afghanistan as a way of exporting influence through their Wahabism (an extremist version of Sunni Islam, whose founders in the early nineteenth century actually attacked their fellow Muslims at Mecca and Medina, two of Islam?s holiest sites). The CIA worked very closely with these Saudi elements and with the Pakistani ISI, funneling billions of dollars in arms and aid. It was this relationship that provided the mission and the means for a rich Saudi businessman, Osama bin Laden, to organize thousands of poor Arabs from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. They were attracted by promises of food and money, and many harbored deep-seated anger and hatred towards their perceived oppressors. These groups made convenient soldiers in the CIA-backed "jihad" against communism.
In 1989, the Soviets conceded defeat after a long and bloody war and finally withdrew from Afghanistan; it was only two years later that the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States, having accomplished its objective, left Afghanistan as well. With the Soviet Union disintegrating and the United States celebrating the collapse, Afghanistan was left in ruins with no assistance from outside. The billions of dollars from the Untied States quickly dried up.
With the great superpowers gone, the resulting power vacuum saw the mujahideen (freedom fighters) in Afghanistan fighting amongst themselves. By the following year 25,000 Afghans had been killed in a civil war that would last for six years.
In 1994, with the help of the Pakistani ISI, the Taliban movement began. From humble beginnings and with the promise of peace, the Taliban consolidated its power over the next two years by conquering the cities and towns of Afghanistan that had been racked by civil war. As it conquered, the Taliban quickly changed its promises of peace and emerged as one of the most repressive regimes in the world. From 1996 to 1999 the civil war evolved into a conflict between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, a loose affiliation of the warlords who had been fighting each other prior to the Taliban?s rise to power.
Meanwhile, except for a few missiles President Clinton lobbed into empty tents and the occasional verbal harangue against bin Laden, the rest of the world forgot Afghanistan. In a telling comment, which in many ways typified the attitude of the United States and the West, Brzezinski asked rhetorically, "What was more important in the worldview of history? The Taliban, or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A few stirred-up Muslims, or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?"
These "few stirred-up Muslims" have become the chief protagonists in the first war of the twenty-first century. Central Europe continues to be the home of many terrorist groups. In one of just many ironies, Afghanistan, the birthplace of the famous Sufi poet Rumi, the country that stifled the expansion of the British Empire, and the place that saw the last great battle of the Cold War has quickly risen from the ashes of obscurity to become the center of the world?s attention.
So, what have these last 20-plus years of war done to the people of Afghanistan?
Millions have been brutalized and killed. At least two million people are now in refugee camps: displaced, homeless, hungry, sick, without work, without education, many orphaned. Many of these young people who are attracted to the promises of food, shelter, education, and work that are offered by some of the most radical extremists in the region.
To the Afghan people, war has been a way of life, and drawing pictures of jets and bombs is nothing unusual for an Afghan child. It?s all many of these children know and have grown up with. Afghanistan has been manipulated and deserted in some way or another by many of its neighbors and by much of the West.
In the realm of international affairs, concern and memory often run thin. Let?s hope that we don?t make the same mistake again. Let?s hope our memory does not fade away so quickly this time.
Mariam Zaka is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in biochemistry. She was born in Kabul, Afghanistan.
<i>Just after dawn the rumble of distant artillery fire shatters the frosted crystal morning. To my surprise, no one reacts. They have grown used to the sound of war. But Abdul Wahed?s eldest son...of about 12, begins to draw on the side of the black metal stove with a piece of chalk: a jet, looking like a paper plane, and short dashes representing the bombs it drops.</i> [National Geographic]
It is ironic how little Afghanistan has changed since 1985, when the above passage was written, to now. Though in 1985 Afghanistan was the arena where the superpowers battled each other in relative obscurity, it is now the arena where the visible battles the obscure. I think it is fair to say that few Americans knew where or what Afghanistan was until the tragic events of September 11th. It is hard to imagine that life in Afghanistan in the 1960?s, particularly in Kabul, was not all that different from Europe or North America at that time. Students attended classes at Kabul University, went to the movies and attended concerts. In the mid-to-late 1970?s one could see men and women inside Kabul doing their best to keep up with the latest fashions: bell bottoms, polyester shirts, and singing along with ABBA when they appeared on TV.
My parents have some great pictures from when we were in Afghanistan. I laugh every time I see my father with those long, bushy sideburns and my mom with her ?70?s hairdo. It was a time when girls went to school, women held positions in the government, careers were a matter of choice, and the now infamous "burka" was an optional social custom. This is very different from the images now being broadcast all over the world: ghostly images of women in burkas, long bearded men with turbans, and desolate, utter poverty.
So what exactly happened to this country that sent it back to the stone age? One simple answer: the Cold War.
Afghanistan used to be a moderate Islamic society. King Mohammad Zahir Shah presided over the many ethnic groups in Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973. Kabul University was set up in 1946, women ran for public office in 1965, a liberal constitution was introduced in 1974, and the press was relatively free. In 1973, Zahir Shah was overthrown in a military coup by his cousin, Mohammad Davoud, with the support of the Soviets and the Communist Party. Together they went after Islamic scholars and other Islamists, many of whom were imprisoned or murdered for ideological reasons. When Davoud realized the dangers of communism and wanted to get rid of the ever-increasing influence of the Soviets, he was overthrown and killed by them.
By the late 1970?s, the United States and the Soviet Union fought proxy wars in Angola, Somalia, and Ethiopia, only a few years after Vietnam and only decades after Korea. The United States had begun providing aid to Pakistan-based Afghan Islamists some months before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor to President Carter stated, "We didn?t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would." And on December 27, 1979, the day the Soviets invaded Afghanistan: "Now," he said, "we can give the USSR its Vietnam War."
In the mid 1980?s, William Casey, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under President Reagan, committed CIA funds to a broader plan to organize the Muslims of the world into a global jihad against Soviet communism. By the mid-1980?s, the CIA office in Islamabad, Pakistan, had become second in size only to its own headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and American assistance to the Afghan Islamists channeled through the CIA and the Pakistan intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was running into the billions of dollars. Pakistan expressed a great interest in Afghanistan because in the event of an invasion by India, Pakistan considered Afghanistan to be a military "safety net," a place to retreat and continue resistance. As General Gul, the ISI director-general under Pakistan?s former President Zia, stated, "...it was enough to justify a decade?s worth of meddling and military intervention [by the United States]."
Additionally, some Saudi elements saw the war in Afghanistan as a way of exporting influence through their Wahabism (an extremist version of Sunni Islam, whose founders in the early nineteenth century actually attacked their fellow Muslims at Mecca and Medina, two of Islam?s holiest sites). The CIA worked very closely with these Saudi elements and with the Pakistani ISI, funneling billions of dollars in arms and aid. It was this relationship that provided the mission and the means for a rich Saudi businessman, Osama bin Laden, to organize thousands of poor Arabs from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. They were attracted by promises of food and money, and many harbored deep-seated anger and hatred towards their perceived oppressors. These groups made convenient soldiers in the CIA-backed "jihad" against communism.
In 1989, the Soviets conceded defeat after a long and bloody war and finally withdrew from Afghanistan; it was only two years later that the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States, having accomplished its objective, left Afghanistan as well. With the Soviet Union disintegrating and the United States celebrating the collapse, Afghanistan was left in ruins with no assistance from outside. The billions of dollars from the Untied States quickly dried up.
With the great superpowers gone, the resulting power vacuum saw the mujahideen (freedom fighters) in Afghanistan fighting amongst themselves. By the following year 25,000 Afghans had been killed in a civil war that would last for six years.
In 1994, with the help of the Pakistani ISI, the Taliban movement began. From humble beginnings and with the promise of peace, the Taliban consolidated its power over the next two years by conquering the cities and towns of Afghanistan that had been racked by civil war. As it conquered, the Taliban quickly changed its promises of peace and emerged as one of the most repressive regimes in the world. From 1996 to 1999 the civil war evolved into a conflict between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, a loose affiliation of the warlords who had been fighting each other prior to the Taliban?s rise to power.
Meanwhile, except for a few missiles President Clinton lobbed into empty tents and the occasional verbal harangue against bin Laden, the rest of the world forgot Afghanistan. In a telling comment, which in many ways typified the attitude of the United States and the West, Brzezinski asked rhetorically, "What was more important in the worldview of history? The Taliban, or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A few stirred-up Muslims, or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?"
These "few stirred-up Muslims" have become the chief protagonists in the first war of the twenty-first century. Central Europe continues to be the home of many terrorist groups. In one of just many ironies, Afghanistan, the birthplace of the famous Sufi poet Rumi, the country that stifled the expansion of the British Empire, and the place that saw the last great battle of the Cold War has quickly risen from the ashes of obscurity to become the center of the world?s attention.
So, what have these last 20-plus years of war done to the people of Afghanistan?
Millions have been brutalized and killed. At least two million people are now in refugee camps: displaced, homeless, hungry, sick, without work, without education, many orphaned. Many of these young people who are attracted to the promises of food, shelter, education, and work that are offered by some of the most radical extremists in the region.
To the Afghan people, war has been a way of life, and drawing pictures of jets and bombs is nothing unusual for an Afghan child. It?s all many of these children know and have grown up with. Afghanistan has been manipulated and deserted in some way or another by many of its neighbors and by much of the West.
In the realm of international affairs, concern and memory often run thin. Let?s hope that we don?t make the same mistake again. Let?s hope our memory does not fade away so quickly this time.
Mariam Zaka is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in biochemistry. She was born in Kabul, Afghanistan.