Doing Their Best
The results, when one country interferes with the affairs of another, are rarely pretty. The bitter resentment that invariably results from any such interferences - whether the intent can be defended or not - never redounds to the benefit of the interloper.When the United States made the decision that it would heed its own impetuous voice, not that of the United Nations, in invading Iraq - ostensibly to save its people from their grotesque oppressor - they convinced themselves they'd be greeted as the saviours of the country.
Or so they said. Well, they did rid the country - and the region, and the world at large - of yet another of its more odiously-compulsive state-murderers, but in the ensuing melee it also unleashed a red tide of sectarian bloodshed that continues to this day.
Under the former dictator a good proportion of the Iraqi citizenry lived in fear, but they were able to go about their normal, daily lives with some assurance of prevailing order.
Now, after years of protective occupation and internecine warfare, there is no peace, no order, no assurances of personal protection. Under the madly egocentric Saddam Hussein certain elements of society were targeted, now all elements of society are targeted - by their opposite religious brethren, by ethnic differences, by foreign terrorists.
Many can be forgiven for wondering exactly what it was they gave up in the name of Western style "freedom", for freedom seems a nasty canard when one's very life and that of their families are tenuously guarded by an incapable and self-serving government, endlessly conducting squabbles between their own representative factions.
Under these circumstances, brutal dictatorship with its guarantee of law and order, despite the occasional lapse into horrific brutality, looks acceptable. That's Iraq. How about Afghanistan, whose future well-being has become the concern of the UN, NATO, the Western world at large?
Foreign military stationed in the country attempting to re-build civic infrastructure is continually threatened by the resolutely jihad-mainlining Taliban. And, as in Iraq, civilians are targeted too, in suicide bombing attacks that successfully explode lives into the atmosphere where bits and pieces can later be scraped up for countless funerals, begging Allah's forgiveness.
Although the government of Afghanistan is fervid in its pleading with NATO-allied countries to remain steadfast in their resolve to assist it, the people of Afghanistan, like those of Iraq, are losing patience, beginning to wonder what exactly has replaced the rigidly authoritarian Mullah-ridden Taliban. For the Taliban, after all, are them, only slightly removed.
And, as did religious leaders and Islamic scholars, along with principals of Pakistan's madrassas issue a denunciation of U.S. and Western-allied attempts to isolate and destroy the Taliban, so too are influential elders in Afghanistan preparing to discuss the state of their country's growing lack of security and utter lawlessness.
Kandahar has been repeatedly assaulted by explosives, killing and injuring civilians, and on occasion, Afghan and Western military personnel. Afghans are beginning to think longingly of the security that was theirs when the dreaded Taliban was in power, despite their rigid authoritarian rule.
"You took away one evil and imposed another evil even worse", lamented a university teacher in Kandahar, addressing Western concerns. "Why should I thank you for that?" So much for winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans, to enlist them in support for their democratic-style government.
For the fact is, hundreds of people are dying in insurgent attacks targeting civilians. They're fodder in the war of attrition. Seen as complicit with the government of Hamid Karzai - as why would they not be - and deserving of death.
"We are fed up with these explosions" cried another. "It is beyond our tolerance. This is disgusting. For God's sake, stop this bloodshed. What can we do?"
What, indeed?
Labels: Terrorism, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, February 20, 2008
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