Afghanistan I saw in June/July 1977 (Conclusions)

 

In 1977 it was the same world physically but very different in every other aspect. The stones, sand, mountains were the same but everything else changed, changed for the worse, unfortunately.

 

Iran was ruled by a King, Shah of Iran, blatantly installed and supported by the west which was to have severe repercussions later.

 

Afghanistan had a liberal government of Mohammad Dawood Khan supported by the west and the communist block. He was playing one against the other making them develop his country. Universities, infrastructure and social development was going on at a fast pace and Afghanistan was catching up. Big cities had predominant western culture while the rural Afghanistan lacked education and liberal values. Mullah was influential but controlled.

 

This mix of 2 cultures was peacefully existing since the days of the British invasions when the King was forced to keep Afghanistan backward and Russians at a distance to avoid the vicious wrath of the Brits. This wrath was something they never hesitated showing, naturally with the lives and money of its most prized possession, India, that was itself suffering absolute poverty and misery.

 

Pakistan was democratic with a popular government which was liberal and semi socialist. It had a movement going on against it for the alleged rigging in recent elections but it was believed that the PP would again win free and fair coming to power with absolute majority.

 

Fast forward another two years and everything changed. The world wasn’t the same anymore. The world might have won the war against communism in favor of liberty and democracy but these three countries and their hundreds of millions poor citizens were forced to pay the price.

 

Iran fared badly as the foreign supported untouchable Shah was toppled soon and a government dominated by Mullahs gained power. This change brought war, sanctions and extreme poverty along with a suffocating theocracy. This suffering of Iranians has lasted over 42 years with no end in sight.

 

 

By the time I returned home after a few weeks, a very harmless looking general, Zia ul Haq, a Bhutto’s appointee, had taken over declaring martial law in Pakistan. He took pains to explain that he did all this reluctantly and temporarily as he was forced into it with absolutely no ambitions or lust for power. It was only much later we realized that Zia was the most ambitious, cunning, callous and ruthless person ever to have lived in Pakistan. He ruled for over 11 long years until he died in an air accident (we are told) and probably would have been in power if still alive as he had made a very influential power base for himself.

 

Only much later it was disclosed that Zia was planning Bhutto’s removal from power and hanging with US”s support for quite some time, but very clandestinely. Forming of the right wing alliance, PNA, was also arranged by him as was the movement against rigging in 1977 elections. Interestingly the movement that started against rigging somehow silently got converted to Tehreek I Nizam I Mustafa giving the control of movement to the mullahs. Such major changes don’t happen by chance as there are certain set of dynamics that cause them. Starting with Dulles’s open announcement to use religion against the Soviets to Kissinger’s equally public threat to Bhutto was certainly at work here.

 

 

Zia started with a naïve smile hanging Bhutto and the Pakistani judiciary, together. Then he also forced a very specific religion direct into Pakistani politics and society. The prevalent majority Sufi understanding was replaced by a puritanical and militant version of Islam that was imported and forced down the throats of the nation. Jihad against the Soviets was declared an essential tenet of Islam and the country was geared to support the anti Soviet war in Afghanistan.

 

This change in policy caused an influx of $ but also backwardness, illegal arms, violence, drugs and intolerance. We are still fighting these evils getting decades behind the world and sliding even further.

 

Within a year the Dawood government in Afghanistan was ousted by communists led by Nur Taraki. A few more revolutions later the Soviets invaded Afghanistan to help communists which was opposed by the US who engineered a guerrilla war against them. US had effectively trapped the Soviets and were over joyed at prospects of striking a major blow to their cold war competitors.

 

Guerrillas fighting the Soviets were declared Mujahideen, holy warriors, and supported with weapons, money and diplomacy. Brzezinski, the NSA of US met the Mujahideen telling them about the danger to their faith due to Soviets encouraging them to resist. This drama reached its zenith when these semiliterate, maulvi trained; violent men with a medieval mentality were invited to the White House by Reagan and pampered as the equivalent of Americas founding fathers.

 

This US supported guerrilla war lasted a decade costing a million Afghan lives and many more displacements, in catastrophe for the Soviets and USSR fragmented. Interestingly Afghanistan suffered tremendously and was thrown back to medieval ages, Pakistani society was irreversibly damaged but the US won just spending a few billion $.

 

After the Soviets left Afghanistan a strange thing happened, US also left the scene leaving behind chaos and enormous stocks of arms in the hands of trained people indoctrinated with a very backward and violent interpretation of Islam.

 

I find it most amusing when people criticize Biden for leaving Afghanistan abruptly but no mention of the criminal and callous departure 3 decades earlier.

 

In 1990 Pakistan was left to deal with the armed people and their backward but violent thinking by itself, something the full might of NATO couldn’t do in 20 years decades later. Nothing could be more unfair and cruel for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

After the Soviets, US trained, armed and brainwashed Mujahideen came to power and the most painful period of Afghanistan started. There was utter lawlessness, violence and destruction across the country. Strange sadistic and pathological warlords formed their fiefdoms and the common Afghanis suffered tremendously.

 

It got so bad that when young, poor, seminary students with humble rural backgrounds started getting assertive against the tyranny of warlords they were considered a blessing. These were mostly from remote villages and had the typical backward mindset and simplicity. They were led by a local cleric Mullah Omar having a very exceptional leadership skills and credibility. He was honest and believed in what he professed. He can be opposed, his beliefs negated and criticized, but not his honesty, sincerity and leadership. Despite extreme economic hardships he completely finished the opium production from Afghanistan for the first time in history although opium was the main hard currency earner. His beliefs were firm and had to be adhered to at any cost.

 

These Taliban soon prevailed over nearly the whole country and a time of peace and stability started. Unfortunately these good changes were accompanied by many unwanted things backward mentality harbors. The world was shocked by their punishments, misogyny, support of international jehadis, originally created and trained by the US. The West could not understand that for a simple madrassa student, changing positions couldn’t be as easy as the US foreign policy makers.

 

After 5 years of stalemate US came with enormous firepower. Arrogance displayed knew no boundaries and the Secretary Rumsfeld publicly declared that we won’t take prisoners. Surprisingly he found killing of a large number of Afghans funny as he was smiling saying these words. Loud laughter of the journalists was even more painful talking loud about our state of civilization. And tens of thousands of Afghans were massacred, both armed and unarmed. The greatest military force was feeling proud of killing and ousting the world’s poorest and most backward country having only basic rudimentary arms. No one ever mentioned this strange occurrence in the international media raising many more questions.

 

US stayed in Afghanistan for 20 years killing another 1 million Afghanis and causing over 80 thousand deaths in Pakistan and then left handing back power to Taliban. During this time as usual a few cities were occupied and developed. Culture changed here for a very few and no one cared for the rural and remote places. The warlords in line with the US again established their fiefdoms extorting locals. Extreme corruption was imparted and lots of money making opportunities were given to some collaborators, or may I say McCauley’s kids. US forces were directly involved in corruption selling even the equipment through middlemen. In Pakistan we knew the prices of US supplies delivered here. This was a typical army of shopkeepers, unchecked capitalists or maybe the modern East India Company.

 

Most significantly the Opium trade that Taliban had stopped flourished again telling a lot about the US occupation.

 

Now the unprepared Taliban have to deal with the enormous problems planted by the 40 years of foreign meddling (we are not allowed to call it US occupation). The first gift they get is of freezing of all the Afghan reserves. No country in the world can survive that easily. Afghans appear to be on a way to pay dearly for winning a war against their occupiers.

 

Looking back at these forty some years it is very painful to see how these lovely, tolerant countries that were optimistic that with time they will solve their small problems and progress to join the world was taken back and destroyed. All this was done first to win the cold war against the Soviets and later to get advantage in the foreseeable competition against the emerging China. US was the major perpetuator and cause for most of the problems faced by Afghanistan and Pakistan. However it has the ability to call all this a kindly act and an exercise to modernize or democratize. A nation that can build and establish a narrative that by dropping nuclear bombs they saved Japanese lives, anything can be said, established and made to believe.

 

The main lesson to be learnt is that no occupiers should ever be allowed in our part of the world or influence our foreign policy. More importantly we must never indulge in other’s wars.

 

If imperialists have their way, the next jehad and 50 years of new war for the region is too obvious.

“To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”

— Henry Kissinger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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