generalspeaking

The New Afghanistan

Afghan citizens are being encouraged to vote for the second time in their history, for another government leader. Which new leader, needless to say, could be the current one. This is a democratic exercise, Afghan-style. Where a good proportion of the population is facing the reality of reprisals from the Taliban, should they cast their vote, and have their finger painted for swift identification. Fearful would-be voters will not vote.

Of course, the current leader, President Hamid Karzai, is exhorting his people to vote for the leader they already have Of whom it has been said there is no direct hint of corruption in a corrupt society where his politically influential brother is associated with the drug trade, and where members of President Karzai's government are known to have become wealthy on poppies and opium, many of whom are former war lords with blood, not merely drugs on their hands.

All seems to be fair in war and politics, no stone unturned for advantage. And President Karzai has been upturning many stones, letting loose lizards who have been celebrated for their violence against their own people. His closest opponent in the race for election, a former cabinet minister (foreign affairs) Abdullah Abdullah, is breathing hot behind him, but President Karzai remains in first place showing for popular support.

How popular that support is, may be debatable, since many Afghans, particularly those outside the capital, complain that safety and security have little improved; have in fact, become more dire with the Taliban now in possession of substantial parts of the country and threatening, despite the presence of foreign troops, to challenge for even more. But Karzai has always made his position clear; his willingness to reach peace with the Taliban.

Not to submit to their previous reign, a powerfully oppressive fundamentalist version of Islam, but to invite them into a partnership, a regime under his command. Feeling that, for all practical purposes, the Taliban are Afghans, and many of them are not fully committed to the fanatical cause of the Taliban leadership, finding employment and security with them, and safety for their families.

President Karzai may be a very nice man, wholly committed to his country's future, and willing to make difficult compromises to achieve some semblance of balance and social and political stability, but he has no hesitation in making deals with the devil. He has sacrificed the dignity and human rights of Shia women by signing into law at the insistence of the Shia mullahs the withholding of food from sexually non-compliant wives, and made it legal that they must seek permission from their husbands to venture outside their homes.

He has welcomed the presence of controversial war lords back to the country from (self-imposed?) exile in Turkey, for the support given him through tribal bloodlines. He begs the international community to continue to agree that his country requires the ongoing presence of foreign troops, while castigating those foreign troops for taking insufficient care in their skirmishes with the Taliban, that sacrifice innocent civilians.

The foreign troops and their representatives are fairly well convinced that neighbouring Iran has provided the Taliban with weaponry used to combat, battle and IED foreign troops (and just incidentally Afghan civilians, along with foreign diplomats, aid workers and others working tirelessly to assist the country to achieve a working level of civil administration) causing substantial death numbers among the foreign troops.

Iran, however, is a friend of Afghanistan, insists President Karzai. He and his country must, after all, live next to Iran, and one must have open diplomatic inroads in the neighbourhood. His closest contender for the presidency agrees, insisting that it has never been proven that Iran is responsible for arming the Taliban. Yet the Western powers continue to insist that it is their duty to save Afghanistan from itself.

Hoping to imbue the country gradually with values commensurate with those of their own; tolerance for others, acceptance of civil behaviour in dealing with those unlike themselves. The necessity for providing sound educational opportunities for the children of Afghanistan. The provision of at least standard health services for the population, in the provinces, outside the major cities. The training of an uncorrupt civil service.

And lastly to train adequate numbers of reliable military and police to ensure that the country will, over time, be able to fend for itself, finally. For this, many sacrifices in lives lost, time spent, massive funding expenditures are made by foreign countries. Seeing, while they labour, the indecisiveness of the people they attempt to serve, along with social inequities revealing tradition and their ancient culture.

Intrusive corruption everywhere they turn; in the civil service, the police, the government, the army. And worse, the dreadful position of women as inferior to the male population in every conceivable way. Still, not quite as horrible as the conscienceless sexual abuse of young boys unable to protect themselves in a society that feeds off its vulnerable youth and its women.

Labels: Human Rights, Political Realities, World Crises

posted by Pieface @ Monday, August 17, 2009