generalspeaking

Surmounting the Insurmountable

"Every time something bad happened, I would turn to poetry -- it would give me calm."
"It's been seven months that I can't write. It no longer gives me calm. When I sit down to focus on one incident for a poem, 30 others flash through my head."
"My words do not have the strength for all of them."
Sajid Bahar, 25, Khost, Afghanistan

"We had a fake economy, fake money and fake prosperity [with the presence of U.S. and NATO forces and international humanitarian aid groups]. Security was provided by foreigners."
"My sense is that the situation will get worse as that fakeness crumbles, that we will reach the edge of collapse before there is a move for the better."
"But once it crumbles, we will see that underneath, the society has actually transformed."
Mirwais Arya, Kabul, Afghanistan

"This election is an arena for two generations: one that is about the glories and the grievances of the past, and a younger generation that wants to build the Afghanistan of the future."
"People still have a lot of hope in this new generation that they can stand against the corruption, against the warlords, against the stereotypes."
Sami Mahdi, candidate for Kabul Parliament

Civilians and military personnel stand beside the grave of Gen. Abdul Raziq, Kandahar police chief, during his burial in Kandahar

Ah, yes, but can they 'stand against' a neighbour like Pakistan that encourages and supports the Taliban in its unending campaign to restore themselves to power? Can they 'stand against' the presence of al-Qaeda and Islamic State, vying with the Taliban to destroy as much of civil society as possible, in Afghanistan? Can they 'stand against' the nation's farmers opting to grow poppies instead of basic food commodities because the Taliban threaten them if they turn away from producing crops whose profit swell Talibran treasuries?

Afghans in general, so beaten down by countless invasions over the centuries, yet assertively defensive and prepared to fight back to restore a vestige of sovereignty to find a way forward to their undetermined destiny, will have their own tribal and sectarian blights that constrain civil life, not to mention corruption strangling the operation of a civil society, and the frailty of a national police force and military infiltrated by violent Islamists. Ah, and the scourge of war lords...!

The scene after a blast Wednesday targeting parliamentary candidate Abdul Jabar Qaharman, in Helmand province's capital, Lashkargah city

Suicide bombings even in areas held to be the most secure where foreign aid workers, diplomats and government departments are considered to be beyond the reach of the Taliban and Islamic State are devastating in their death grasps when they occur, putting the lie to security and trust. Government security forces have been unable to overcome the Taliban advantage in conflict; a daily toll of 100 dead devastates the mind.

Islamic State loyalists in Kabul have succeeded in sowing terror through their ability to foil security and the burgeoning death toll they take. Sectarian divisions run deep and are intensified with each succeeding act of violence against the Shiite minority despite government promises of protection. Ordinary Afghans are reluctant to surrender their vision of democracy of some type in their future for all the good that's done them, to date.

Though despite the turmoil, the violence, the uncertainty, an October 20 parliamentary election proceeded. Ten candidates for election and dozens of their supporters died, including a parliamentary hopeful, during the election campaign. Abdul Jabar Qahraman died in Helmand Province when a bomb placed by a Taliban under his chair, exploded. An estimated 78 people, among them 28 members of the security forces, were killed while 470 mostly civilians were wounded in the election violence.

Violence has plagued the run-up to Afghanistan's long-delayed parliamentary vote, scheduled for October 20 [Parwiz/Re

Taking centre stage in all of this turmoil sits Pakistan which refuses to halt its sheltering of the insurgency leaders or to make use of its influence with the Taliban to persuade it to come to the bargaining table for a solution to the constant attacks. Russia and Iran have involved themselves by supporting the Taliban, for their own nefarious reasons, neither concerned with the casualties represented by Afghan deaths.

Intelligence working with the Afghan military has enabled suspects to be rounded up and he disruption of insurgent networks, even while it is acknowledged that the bombings will continue. Afghans who have suffered the fallout of attacks, surviving them, take their wounds in stride and make every effort to get on with their daily lives. Advocacy and politics remain an avenue to hope for needed change.

President Ashraf Ghani is counting on a new generation of Afghans able and willing to help the country overcome the adversity facing it, appointing young officials to government jobs, despite criticism, even while thousands of other young Afghans choose to leave their country for a stable future elsewhere -- if they can.

Afghan men lined up to cast their vote at a polling center in Mazar-i-Sharif

Labels: Afghanistan, Election, Islamic State, Pakistan, Taliban, Violence

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, November 06, 2018