I was privileged to be at a conference with Shirin Ebadi in early September in Atlanta, and when this relatively short and outwardly unprepossessing woman took the podium, she was transformed into something like an Old Testament prophet, preaching adherence to the rule of law and the rights of citizens with a firm, unyielding persistence and a fire in her eyes.
The Nobel medal was lucky to be associated with her. Her moral authority cannot be pilfered by some fundamentalist lowlife employed by a pedestrian authoritarian regime.
The NYT reports that the northern province of Qunduz has reemerged as a Taliban center. It is the northern province with the biggest proportion of Pashtuns, about 1/3 of the population, so the Taliban have a recruitment pool there. And, since the US and NATO have shifted some supply lines to Tajikistan from Pakistan, it is important to the Taliban to cut off the Tajikistan route, and Qunduz is ideally suited to this purpose. I don’t agree that the resurgence there could have been prevented with some better police work. I think it is structural. If there were no supply lines to NATO from Tajikistan, I’m not sure the Taliban would have wasted resources to stage a comeback up there. They have been focused on cutting off the Khyber Pass route between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
There is another possible route, down from Lithuania to Uzbekistan through Russia, but the Russians are complaining that despite the agreement reached a year ago between Washington and Moscow allowing use of that route, the US and NATO have shipped nothing that way. Presumably the latter are afraid of becoming too beholden to Russia.
India and Russia want an Obama ‘surge’ in Afghanistan because they are afraid that if Muslim extremists take over the country, that development could threaten their own security. China is more or less bankrolling the Afghanistan War, and Beijing views the Taliban as close to Uighur Muslim separatists in its troubled northwestern Xianjian Province, so although they are not vocal about it, Chinese leaders are probably just as glad if the US ups its ante in Afghanistan, which has a short highland border with China.
In contrast, Pakistan does not seem eager for the further foreign troops, in part because it wants to project power and influence into Afghanistan itself. But Pakistan is not as influential as the new sub-superpower tier that some call BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China)– though in this case it is probably just RIC, since Brazil is not involved.
Word of the resignation reached Qunduz, where the elder from whose tribe most of the victims derived gave an interview in Pashto expressing satisfaction at the development. The USG Open Source Center translated it:
‘ Afghan elder hails German general’s resignation over air raid deaths Afghan Islamic Press Thursday, November 26, 2009 Document Type: OSC Translated Text
Afghan elder hails German general’s resignation over air raid deaths
Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency
Konduz, 26 November: A tribal elder in northern Afghanistan calls the resignation of the German chief of army staff a positive move.
A tribal elder from the Omarkhel tribes, Asadollah Omarkhel, says the move in protest against civilian casualties is a positive act.
Asadollah Omarkhel is a tribal elder of the Omarkhel tribe in the Aliabad District (Konduz Province) in which more than a 100 members of his tribe were martyred on 3 September in a German-led air strike. In an interview with Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) he said that they praise the decision. He added that many civilians are being killed in foreign troops’ air strikes.
“On September more 100 civilians, most of them from Omarkhel tribe, were killed by the air strikes in the Aliabad District,” he said. Omarkhel added that they hoped other foreigners also felt such responsibility and condemn the killings of Afghan civilians and show to the world that they are against such acts.
He also called on Afghan officials to strongly condemn civilian casualties.
Omarkhel said that they hoped that the Afghan and coalition forces should take major steps to save civilians lives and avoid killing and them calling them as suspected insurgents.
On 3rd and 4th of September of the current year the Taleban hijacked two NATO fuel tankers in the Aliabad District of Konduz Province. They called on the people to come and get fuel. After people largely gathered there, NATO planes bombed the oil tankers in which more than 100 people died. For this reason the German chief of staff announced his resignation today.
(Description of Source: Peshawar Afghan Islamic Press in Pashto — Peshawar-based agency, staffed by Afghans. The agency used to have good contacts with Taliban leadership; however, since the fall of the Taliban regime, it now describes itself as independent and self-financing). ‘
The USG Open Source Center translates the statement of Mullah Omar, leader of the “Old Taliban” in Afghanistan, on the occasion of the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha). Mullah Omar demands and end to the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and rejects the idea of negotiating with the US, calling it a “surrender.”
November 25, 2009 Wednesday
Taleban leader calls for end to Afghan “occupation” in Id al-Adha message
Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency
Kandahar, 25 November: Taleban leader:
In his message on the occasion of the 1388 [year beginning 21 March 2009] Id al-Adha, Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has said that by talking about negotiations, the invading Americans want the mojahedin to surrender to them – something that is impossible.
He has talked about many important issues in his long message. Talking to Afghan Islamic Press [AIP] on the phone, Taleban Spokesman Qari Mohammad Yusof Ahmadi confirmed that it was their leader’s message. Because the message covers some important issues, based on its policy AIP is publishing its full text:
Message of congratulations of honourable Amir al-Momenin [Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar Mojahed] on the auspicious occasion of Id al-Adha:
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. [Verse in Arabic]
I congratulate the mojahed [holy-warrior] nation of Afghanistan, the respectable families of martyrs, those who live in captivity of the enemy, the brave mojahedin [holy warriors] and all members of the Islamic Ummah [nation] on the auspicious occasion of Id al-Adha. May this sacred day be the day of eternal freedom, pride, happiness, wellbeing and success for the entire Islamic Ummah. May Allah accept the hajj, acts of worship and prayers of hajjis [pilgrims to Mecca] and make their religious gathering a cause for unity among members of the Ummah.
On the auspicious occasion of Id al-Adha and based on the needs of time, I would also like to mention a few necessary issues:
1. To Muslim and mojahed nation
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my Muslim nation for welcoming the request of the Islamic Emirate not to participate in the American process under the name of elections and thus failing and exposing this American drama. I strongly believe that if the mojahed nation continues to extend its all-round and sincere cooperation, Allah will foil all conspiracies of the enemies of our country one after another. It is because of your sacrifices and the grace of Allah that the arrogant enemy is facing a major embarrassment and defeat and is panicking. In order to attain our Islamic objectives, you should continue your jihad and struggle and help the mojahedin who are sacrificing their lives. Strengthen the ranks of the mojahedin by joining them and by offering your wealth. I especially hope that you will take care of the families of holy martyrs and captives. Similarly, on the basis of your religious responsibility, cut all your ties with the mercenary administration in Kabul.
Those who have occupied our country and have held our nation hostage are now trying to use for some time the deceitful drama of talks the way they used the elections drama in order to secure their colonial objectives. The occupying enemy does not want talks as a result of which Afghanistan will become independent and which will end their occupation. They want talks that will ensure the continuation of their occupation and dirty colonial policies. However, the mojahed nation of Afghanistan will never accept talks that will legalize the continual presence of foreign forces in our beloved country. Cont’d (click below or on “comments”)
Afghanistan is our home and nobody negotiates with anyone about the ownership of their home and about how to share sovereignty and management responsibilities of their home. Nobody will give up their right to be the owner of their home and nobody will wilfully lose their authority in their own home. The foreigners have taken over the home of the Afghans by force and cruelty. If they want a solution to the problem, they should first end their occupation of Afghanistan. Under the pretext of talks, the invading Americans want the mojahedin to surrender to them. This is something that is impossible.
Our nation has good experiences and clear principles to guide them resolve their problems and deal with the world. Therefore, the position of the Islamic Emirate is based on Islamic and national interests and strong reasons.
2. To brave mojahedin in the trenches
Your victory against the infidel occupiers is because of help from Allah. If in return you dedicate yourselves to pleasing Allah and serving the people in exchange for His help, Allah will be kinder to you, the enemy will not be able to stand against you and you will have the pride of having defeated the colonial superpower of this century. This is something that seems to be happening already, God is willing.
Follow the orders of Allah, stay united and refrain from disunity and differences among yourself.
Obey the commands of your superiors in all matters of jihad. Be very careful not to harm civilians and public property. Pay special attention to targeting occupiers, their mercenaries and important targets only while launching martyrdom (self-sacrificing) operations. It is a religious duty of every Muslim to avoid harming ordinary people. There is no Islamic justification for killing and injuring ordinary people nor is there any space in our holy religion for such an act.
The cunning enemy wants to defame mojahedin by launching bloody attacks among the people (in religious centres, mosques and similar places) and then call their attacks martyrdom attacks. Mojahedin should be vigilant about enemy tactics and never engage in this kind of activity.
You should prioritize pleasure of Allah and wellbeing of your oppressed nation. You should respect elders and prominent figures and be kind to youngsters. Ensure justice in social affairs and make sure that everyone’s rights are upheld. You should fully implement the principles of the Islamic Emirate to better your jihad efforts.
Take advantage of existing experiences, advice and strong measures to prevent differences, complaints and casualties in military operations and in all other jihadi matters.
Similarly, take special care to protect your lives. Respect his rights if a member of the opposition surrenders to you, as this process is in progress.
The defeated Americans are trying to repeat the failed experience of the communists who, on the verge of their defeat, formed tribal battalions and secret armed groups under the name of tribal militias to create internal differences and to use these groups to take revenge on the mojahedin. I strongly believe that this tactic of the enemy will also fail and the enemy will be further defamed. But you should also try hard to fail the enemy’s this latest plan with the help of your mojahed nation. You should punish those who supervise schism and sedition so that others learn a lesson and the dark history of wild and notorious militias is not repeated.
3. To the officials and employees of the slave Kabul administration
Stop oppressing and tormenting your Muslim and oppressed nation by serving as slaves to infidel occupiers. Foreign occupiers can never wish well for the Afghan nation. They intend to destroy the belief and sanctities of the people of Afghanistan. They plan to devour all material wealth of our country.
Slogans of reconstruction that they chant are empty words that they use to achieve their own objectives. They have pocketed back thousands of millions of dollars that they provided in aid for the so-called reconstruction of Afghanistan and they intend to entrap our country into a massive debt trap under a well-planned conspiracy.
They have come to enslave our brave nation. I call on all of you, like I have done in the past because of my responsibility, to stop living disgracefully. Stop being an enemy of your own people and instead of being shameless, stand with the mojahedin in the ranks of pride, nobility and faith.
The enemy wants to put a gun on your shoulder to kill your countrymen but you should try not to be associated with pro-Britain Shah Shoja and pro-Soviet [Nur Mohammad] Taraki, [Hafizollah] Amin, [Babrak] Karmal and Najib and carry the shame of sharing the same fate with them.
If you abandon the path of lies, you will be victorious in this world and in the world hereafter. You should realize that the magic spell of Western colonial power has been broken and realities on the ground in our beloved country show that the enemy is on the run. The caravan of truth is patiently marching forward towards its logical victorious conclusion. The brave mojahedin are improving with time and gaining experience in military, political, media and social affairs. Desperate efforts by the aggressors and their servants resemble sand castles in the way of the waves of ocean. Waves sent by the brave Afghan nation will prevail over the arrogance of the aggressor, Allah willing.
4. To the Organization of the Islamic Conference and so-called international human rights organizations
I call on the Organization of the Islamic Conference and all human rights organizations in the world to prevent the killing of civilians in Afghanistan by American and coalition forces. They should raise their voices and ask for punishment for this crime. Similarly, occupation forces led by America and the puppet administration in Kabul have in violation of all international principles set up prisons in different parts of the country where many of our innocent and poor countrymen are savagely tortured. All human rights organizations must take immediate action in line with their responsibility to stop these inhuman acts. Many of our prisoners have been martyred or maimed because of bad treatment and torture at these prisons.
If human rights organizations are not fulfilling their responsibility in order to please America and the West, they should remove their titles as human rights organizations.
5. To scholars, writers and authors
I request the independent scholars and politicians that they in all gatherings and meetings should support their innocent and oppressed people. In their books, publications and articles they should enlighten the minds of the people and the world. By using their words and their pens they should start jihad to pay for the debt for their God-given talent.
I call upon journalists and writers to play their role and make efforts supporting an independent and fully Islamic nation.
The media should convey the realities clearly to the people and should strive to tell the truth. I also call upon the caring and compassionate poets to strengthen the passion of mojahedin’s achievements and struggle against the invaders and to strengthen people’s sentiments for independence, honour, national unity, independence and Islamic dynamism.
6. To regional and neighbouring countries
The West’s vicious expansionist colonialist plans in the region have paved the way for the overt and covert plots by known and mercenary murderers and filthy companies under the name of economic assistance and for resentment, hatred and discord among the nations of the region. These are in fact actions against human values, justice, peace, reciprocal relations and independence of the countries.
If countries of the region ignore the American colonialist interference and large-scale military presence in the region, then the entire region will remain unstable, backward and independent for ever. We confidently say that with help of Almighty God and the firm determination and resistance of the mojahedin, the enemy’s ability has swiftly decreased and their vicious plans has been neutralized.
It is time that you all help and cooperate with us for freedom of our nation. The Islamic Emirates in case of mutual respect wants to take major steps to cooperate and work with all nations of the world. We see the whole region as our common home against colonialism and as a responsible force we want to play our role for the long-term peace and stability of the whole region.
7. To White House officials and pro-war Americans
Considering the current realities in Afghanistan the occupier Americans and their coalition is fully defeated in Afghanistan; a defeat which cannot be compensated by even by sending more troops or creating many illogical strategies. You must understand that the logic of force and oppression will not more work and you will not be able to use force and evil intentions to deceive the zealous Afghan people.
The people you chosen to fight with are those brave and warrior people who has the honour of toppling despotic empires in the world and has full skill and historical experience in this regard. Our Muslim nation will not allow the Western occupiers to undermine our freedom and vital values and to transform our nation as a base for plots of aggressors against other nations.
This is the nation which eliminated the Russian and British empires from the map of the world. Using the past experiences with full patience, force and high morale we are continuing our holy war against the defeated invaders. Based on our faith and high morale we believe in our victory and your defeat. You need to choose logical ways instead of flexing your muscle to end the occupation of Afghanistan.
Your aggressive policies will increase your people’s enemies all over the world and will make life for you as hell, this is because war and aggression is no longer acceptable for anyone.
8. To Europe and in general to the freedom-loving Western nation
Your aggressive authorities have attacked and occupied our country under the pretext of war on terror in order to increase the wealth of a few capitalists. Our youths, elders, women and children die on a daily basis by your bombs and cannons. The occupiers attack our people homes during the day and destroy our green orchards, our national wealth and our educational and business centres. To fight such a cruelty and aggression is our legitimate and national right.
We would use our full rights with all the resources we have.
You should not be deceived by your aggressive officials who call their aggression as the war of necessity. This is not a war of necessity but it is in fact a war of aggression. The expression of war on terror is a fraudulent and false tool which your authorities have in their hands. It is your moral responsibility to raise your voice in order to prevent them from cruelty.
We are in favour of an Islamic system in our country where the rights of all men and women are protected in the light of Islamic principles. We want a self-sufficient system which should be based on the Islamic principles. We want a system whose domestic and foreign policy should neither harm others nor let others to harm it. The illogical concept of war against terrorism is an expression made by the Pentagon and Washington. Through this expression, they want to occupy the independent countries. They want to snatch their natural and economic resources. They want to abuse their religion and beliefs.
9. To the entire Muslim Ummah
[Verse in Arabic] I suggest to all Muslim brothers in all corners of the world that you should act upon the sacred instructions of Islam to regain your previous pride and glory Help your innocent Muslim brothers all across the world. Take a lead in performing jihad against the cruel aggressors. Stay away from disunity and pay careful attention to all those plots and conspiracies of the enemy which had been hatched for defaming Muslims.
Stay away from all those things which harm Muslims. Focus on defeating the aggressive enemy in the battlefield. Do not engage in aimless activities. Pay serious attention to your most important objective.
Muslims all over the world should pray for the protection and success of mojahedin in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and other countries. They should provide moral and Islamic support to the mojahedin and support them in a justified Islamic way. Same as the United States and its supporters make overt and covert efforts to destabilize the Islamic world and provoke differences in the Islamic countries in order to ensure their own interests, therefore, all the Muslims must know their real enemy and should be alert to their conspiracies. [Verses of in Arabic and their translation]
The servant of Islam, Amir al-Momenin Mullah Mohammad Omar Mojahed
Source: Afghan Islamic Press news agency, Peshawar, in Pashto 1135 gmt 25 Nov 09
Of 237 countries and territories in the world, the 4 largest newsgathering and distribution companies that supply the world with 90% of news do not cover 116 of them.
These 116 countries or territories contain 4 billion people over half the world.
63 of these media-ignored countries and territories are desperately poor.
All this has security implications for the United States. What do you want to bet that in the late 1990s, Afghanistan was in the 116? Hard to know an attack was being planned out there if you don’t know the place exists.
What HUM does not say is that the ignoring of the 116 comes from the news corporations’ profit motive, which is increasingly driving them to ignore most real news in favor of infotainment. Desperately poor 4th world countries? Not entertaining.
h/t Aljazeera.net’s blog. In fact, Aljazeera’s model, being backed by the Qatar Foundation, may be one of the few ways out of this information gap. Aljazeera English does a better job covering subsaharan Africa and Latin American than any other Anglophone news service, and they pay attention to the poor and working people.
When we used to do Thanksgiving as cross-dressing and insulting authority:
Thanksgiving was a Northeastern regional commemoration until Abraham Lincoln promulgated it as a national holiday in 1863, and it was celebrated in lots of different ways. One of those ways was for young men to dress up as women or in fantastic costumes and promenade, and mug, and make fun of authority. It was a “masculine escape” from the family, an opportunity to break rules and be outlandish. In our increasingly regimented national security state, we could do with some of that old Thanksgiving cheekiness, though we need both sexes now.
Thanksgiving in the nineteenth century in some parts of the country was a combination of Eddie Izzard (cross-dressing), Lady Gaga (wild costumes and breaking conventions), and Jon Stewart (mirthful insults directed at high political authority). Some historians suggest that the homey, nuclear-family Thanksgiving meal was a reaction against all this public rowdiness. Alas, so successful a reaction that the carnivale side of the holiday has been erased from public memory (Elizabeth Pleck, “The making of the domestic occasion: The history of Thanksgiving in the United States,” Journal of Social History (Summer 1999) Vol. 32, Iss. 4; pg. 773, 17 pgs).
Pleck writes,
‘As William Dean Howells put it, “The poor recognize [Thanksgiving] as a sort of carnival,” a masculine escape from the family, a day of rule breaking, and spontaneous mirth . . . Drunken men and boys, often masked, paraded from house to house and demanded to be treated. Boys misbehaved and men committed physical assaults on Thanksgiving as well as on Christmas.”
(Well, that last part we don’t miss)
She continues,
“Groups of men, crossdressing, who called themselves the Fantastics or Fantasticals, masqueraded on Thanksgiving beginning in the 1780s. . . Subsequently the Fantastics copied these and other elements of English mumming, such as drunkenness and ridiculing authority . . . An editorial in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1870 defended the Fantastics, on the grounds that “it is better to be merry than sad, and if, as some genial writer asserts, a good hearty laugh takes a nail out of your coffin, a parade of the fantasticals can not fail to lessen the bills of mortality.” ‘
Another and somewhat strange way of observing the holiday in New York has been, up to very recent years, to dress one’s self in the most fantastic costume imaginable and parade the streets. . . Hundreds of companies of these motley persons, under some such name as the ” Square Back Rangers,” the ” Slenderfoot Army,” or the ” Original Hounds,” and dressed chiefly, as an old account says, as “clowns, Yankees, Irishmen, kings, washerwomen, and courtiers,” thronged the streets all day. These “ragamuffin parades” have fallen into disuse except for a few small boys, but as recently as 1885 they were in full swing, as the following paragraph, printed in the Sun on November 27, 1885, testifies:
” Fantastic processions burst out all over the town in unusual abundance and filled the popular eye with a panorama that looked like a crazy-quilt show grown crazy and filled the popular ear with the din of thumping drums and blaring trumpets. Thirty-six companies of fantastics had permits to march around making an uproar, and they did it with great success. Local statesmen went around.with the down-town paraders and helped them whoop things up. There were lots and lots of fantastics who hadn’t any permit, and who didn’t care either. They were the thousands and thousands of small boys who put on their sisters’ old dresses, smeared paint on their faces, pulled on red, yellow, brown, black, and indiscriminate wigs, and pranced round their own particular streets, without the least fear of police interference.’
So, as we sit, pants unbuttoned and droopy-lidded, around the flat screen television watching other people work off their calories, we could get an inkling of past Americana if we imagined uncle Joe dressed up in one of Madonna’s wilder costumes and making an obscene gesture in the general direction of the state capitol.
If only present-day Americans were not so apathetic and timid that they gave up the most basic rights enshrined in our Constitution almost without a fight just because Dick Cheney sneered at them and muttered something about national security — if only they showed some spunk and dared break social conventions and get uppity in the cause of personal liberty rather than that of corporate perquisites from time to time– now that would be something to be thankful for.
There are a million camels in Australia’s outback, and the camels were key to developing it.
And the camels and cameleers of the 19th century came from . . . Afghanistan! The site notes:
‘ Without the Afghans much of the development of the outback would have been very difficult if not impossible. Whole communities, towns, mining establishments, pastoral properties and some well known explorations in the interior have been made successful because of their contributions.
With their camels, who received more publicity than their owners, these cameleers opened up the outback, helped with the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line and Railways, erected fences, acted as guides for several major expeditions, and supplied almost every inland mine or station with its goods and services. These ‘pilots of the desert’ made a vital contribution to Australia.
The first Afghans arrived in South Australia in 1838 when Joseph Bruce brought out eighteen of them, one of whom died on 1 February 1840 . . . The first camel arrived at Port Adelaide in 1840 but was shot in 1846 after it caused the death of explorer John Horrocks. ‘
Afghans get bad press these days, but here is an example of where they contributed to nation-building in the South Pacific, far from home.
‘In Kabul last week, “an American service member and an Afghan police officer got into an argument because the American was drinking water in front of the Afghan police, who are not eating or drinking…because of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan…[The policeman] shot the American and seriously wounded him, while other American troops responded and seriously wounded the [policeman].” This depressing cameo encapsulates the problem for foreign troops in Afghanistan. And it shows the problems that Afghans have with ignorant foreigners whose boorish insensitivity would be laughable were it not so dangerous. . . . In Afghanistan the training course is ten weeks, and 90 percent of recruits are illiterate and language-incompatible with their peers, let alone the foreigners. Afghan instructors are keen but barely effective and the logistics system is a tattered joke. Some foreign instructors may be good, but most are depressingly ignorant of language, culture and customs. It is reported that “As part of the Obama administration’s surge, the 4th Brigade of the 82nd Airborne is being deployed to serve as trainers. This brigade is a regular Army brigade not specifically structured for the advisory mission.” My case rests.’
Welcome to Informed Comment, where I do my best to provide an independent and informed perspective on Middle Eastern and American politics.
Informed Comment is made possible by your support. If you value the information and essays, I make available and write here, please take a moment to contribute what you can.
