"The New York Times last week reported senior US government officials as
saying that a group of mid-level operatives have taken over from Bin
Laden and have forged links with extremists in several Islamic
countries. "This new alliance of terrorists, though loosely knit, is as
fully capable of planning and carrying out potent attacks on American
targets as the more centralised network once led by Osama bin Laden.
Classified investigations of the Qaida threat now under way at the FBI
and CIA have concluded that the war in Afghanistan failed to diminish
the threat to the United States, the officials said. Instead, the war
might have complicated counterterrorism efforts by dispersing potential
attackers across a wider geographic area," the paper wrote."
Forfatteren nedenfor er bekymret over at "Vesten" igjen trekker seg unna
Afghanistan. I lyset av ovenstående er det vanskelig å begripe hvorfor.
Det begivenhetene viser er nok en gang, at de reelle sosiale
misforholdene i et land nå en gang ikke kan rettes på av andre enn
landets egen befolkning og at bombing fra lufta endrer lite i grunnen,
bortsett fra den elendighet den skaper. Og dersom den US-amerikanske
intervensjonen virkelig siktet mot å vinne over Al Qaida, viser det seg
at den snarere har gjort den oppgaven vanskeligere.
Detsom inntraff 11. sep. var (enda) et Mene Tekel til verdens nåværende
utvikling, selvom det neppe var tilsiktet å være det fra terroristenes
side (eller fra dem i US-etteretningsorganene som satte kikkerten for
det blinde øyet), i deres innskrenkede svart-hvite religionsverden er
det, presis som i Bush 2.'s tilfelle, andre middelalderlige symbolske
verdier som hevn osv. som gjelder. Alt hva USAs makthavere har foretatt
seg siden er forskjellige forsøk på å fortrenge virkeligheten ved først
å fremst å utnytte tragedien til propaganda og maktspill, hvormed man
selvsagt på litt lengre sikt bare har forsterket krisen og kastet verden
enda et hakk videre i den onde spiralen.
Karsten Johansen
The west is walking away from Afghanistan - again
The modernising forces are quickly losing ground to the warlords
Jonathan Steele
Monday June 24, 2002
The Guardian
I n the heady days after the Taliban fell, western politicians developed
a simple refrain. "This time we will not walk away," they promised. By
that they meant no repetition of what happened after western-supported
mojahedin forces gained control of Afghanistan a decade earlier. Foreign
governments had cheered their allies' victory, but when the mojahedin
factions fell out and destroyed Kabul in an orgy of artillery shelling,
rape and murder, they turned a blind eye.
It was an experience that Mohammed Latif will never forget. A civil
servant who now earns more by driving a taxi, he lives across the street
from the site of the loya jirga or grand tribal council which chose the
country's new government last week. His house was damaged during the
mojahedin fighting. Huge shell-holes are still visible on the two-storey
facade, now partly filled by bricks. Latif pointed up the hill to the
Intercontinental Hotel (where most of the loya jirga press corps was
staying) and described how forces loyal to the main Tajik mojahedin
commander, Ahmed Shah Massoud, had fired down from the ridge on to his
neighbourhood during the years of anarchy.
He hoped the west would exert a restraining hand this time. Yet, as the
loya jirga ended, it was hard to be optimistic. Admittedly, there had
been unprecedentedly open debate. Around half the delegates were chosen
in elections which were reasonably free. When it came to sharing jobs in
President Hamid Karzai's new government a balance was struck between the
country's main ethnic groups, the Tajiks and the Pashtun. But on the
major issue of whether Afghanistan will be run by educated people with a
vision of democratic development, the loya jirga was a disaster. The
struggle between the modernisers and the old mojahedin leaders was won
decisively by the latter. Men responsible for the mayhem of the early
1990s hogged the microphones to boast of their role in resisting Soviet
occupation but ignored the more recent destruction they caused and the
fact that ordinary Afghans despise them as reactionary warlords. They
forced their fundamentalist views of Islam on to the assembly, demanding
- and getting from Karzai - the right to call the government "Islamic".
A chief justice was appointed who believes in a strict interpretation of
sharia law. The minister for women's affairs was denounced as
"Afghanistan's Salman Rushdie".
The loya jirga also failed to enhance the power of the central
government and extend it to the provinces. The thugs who run the cities
of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif rejected offers to join Karzai's government
in Kabul, preferring to stay in monopoly control of their regional
fiefdoms. How much western governments could do to stop these internal
processes can be debated. But by refusing to send international
peacekeepers out of Kabul to help Karzai to disarm the warlords the west
is helping the forces of conservatism. By declining to make aid for
regional government projects conditional on human rights progress, it is
doing the same. Indeed, it is not even providing all the aid it
promised, with or without strings attached.
The World Food Programme estimates that over half of all Afghan families
are in need of emergency supplies, but it has received only 57% of the
food it asked for from foreign donors. The United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees is also short of funds. Afghan refugees in
Pakistan have been coming home in far higher numbers than the UN
anticipated. Their mass return is not necessarily a sign of confidence
in the "new" Afghanistan. Many lived in Pakistani cities rather than
refugee camps, and complain that government-encouraged police harassment
forced them to leave Pakistan. They come back to a country where homes
are destroyed and livestock is dead. Yet the UNHCR had to cut food
rations to the returnees by two-thirds last month. Now it is warning it
may have to end all food handouts if foreign governments do not deliver
the cash they promised.
Removing the Taliban was not the primary purpose of the US air strikes
on Afghanistan last autumn. "Regime change" became a war aim relatively
late in the day. The main goals were to capture Osama bin Laden and
eliminate the danger of further al-Qaida attacks. But neither Bin Laden
nor his main lieutenants have been found. A new audio tape obtained by
the al-Jazeera TV station says they are alive and ready for more
outrages. So the hunt for al-Qaida inside Afghanistan has failed, as
Britain's decision to abandon its help for the United States and
withdraw its marines next month demonstrates.
And the Bush administration now admits the threat may be greater than it
was before it bombed Afghanistan. The New York Times last week reported
senior US government officials as saying that a group of mid-level
operatives have taken over from Bin Laden and have forged links with
extremists in several Islamic countries. "This new alliance of
terrorists, though loosely knit, is as fully capable of planning and
carrying out potent attacks on American targets as the more centralised
network once led by Osama bin Laden. Classified investigations of the
Qaida threat now under way at the FBI and CIA have concluded that the
war in Afghanistan failed to diminish the threat to the United States,
the officials said. Instead, the war might have complicated
counterterrorism efforts by dispersing potential attackers across a
wider geographic area," the paper wrote.
By this analysis the internal politics of Afghanistan are the only area
where the United States can claim success from its decision to respond
to the September 11 attacks with military force. Forget, for a moment,
the hundreds of civilians killed by bombs and the thousands who died of
hunger during the disruption of aid supplies. Ignore the dangerous
precedent of accepting one nation's right to overthrow a foreign
government, however brutal, by bombing another country. The crude test
of the operation depends on whether the fall of the Taliban outweighs
the high costs. In the euphoria of last December many people felt it
did. Can they feel so sure six months down the line?
The Taliban's collapse created real opportunities for progress and Kabul
has become a vibrant city once again. Women are able to lead normal
public lives, and at the loya jirga, in spite of efforts at
intimidation, many spoke out against the warlords with more courage than
the men. But signs of regression are already emerging. Many delegates
were concerned that when they left the spotlight of publicity and
returned to the provinces they could be targeted. The fundamentalists
are reasserting their authoritarian rule. In spite of its loud promises
the west has begun to "walk away".
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