November 3,. 2006
(No Note on October 27, 2006, Eid holiday in Pakistan)

Quantum Note

The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Taliban—II

Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal

One hundred years of growing from a slim shoot
Look beyond this single tree
See the shady orchards of Kandahar
Autumnal red fruit gleams
Like the last flash of sunset on metal
Under my branches children played
Their parents told them
“A single pomegranate will cure a hundred sick”
                                            (Noor Fatima)

A man in uniform stands next to a bombed out mud house about sixty miles from Kandahar. He is holding a human skull in his hands. Next to him lie the bones of the skull. A few feet away, another soldier is rapidly clicking his digital camera. Then, the soldier throws away the skull and urinates on the body of the dead Afghan. A few minutes later, a group of soldiers view these photos and drink German wine especially sent to Afghanistan from Germany. Then they return to their base.
By next day, the photographs have been seen by many soldiers at the German base. On October 24, 2006, they appear on the front page of Germany’s largest selling newspaper, the Bild-Zeitung. In one of the photos, a soldier is pointing a gun at a human skeleton, in another a beret has been perched on top of a skull. Another picture shows bones positioned on the ground around four skulls to form the words “CSR TEAM” (Campsite Reconnaissance Team). There is the usual uproar in the media over these photos. Franz Josef Jung, the German Defence Minister, orders an inquiry. A few days pass, the news item disappears from monitors. The so-called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) of NATO continues its operations in Afghanistan. Everyone knows nothing would happen, for a similar inquiry about a previous set of photos had led to no action but mere “suspension” of two German soldiers.
It is impossible to even imagine that Taliban soldiers would have done something similar to the dead bodies of German soldiers, but suppose such a thing had taken place, the reaction in Europe and North America would have shocked the world. Does this mean that a human being clad in Afghan clothing is less worthy of respect than the one in a German army’s uniform? And Germans are not alone in committing such dreadful crimes. Americans and the British have committed terrible atrocities in that ravaged land. One remembers earlier massacres at Mazar Sharif, in Kanadahar, in the region around Tora Bora, and in other towns and deserts of that war-torn country at a time when the American military was poised to sweep through the entire region, accomplishing miraculous regime changes—a formula that had seemed to have worked so well in Afghanistan.
The recipe used in Afghanistan seemed promising: issue a short ultimatum with impossible demands, get the UN onboard, begin aerial bombardment, follow it up with ground assault by hired northern alliance, send marines once it is safe to do so, sweep through the country as fast as possible. Once the military operation has reached a certain stage, install a temporary President. Then arrange for fake elections to legitimize the new regime.
With the so-called fall of Taliban and the installment of a client government in Afghanistan, American adventure rapidly moved to Iraq. After Iraq, they had plans for Syria and Iran, in fact for the entire Middle East. That is why there was so much talk of a new Middle East around that time. But the mission in Afghanistan had barely finished when backfires emerged and spread throughout the southern region. Hard pressed to deal with the resurgent Taliban forces while American military resources were over-stretched in Iraq, the American administration looked elsewhere; it found NATO looking for a raison d’être after the cold war; a marriage of convenience took place. NATO took command and coordination of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in August 2003. This was NATO’s first mission outside the Euro-Atlantic area.
As of October 2006, there are approximately 31,000 ISAF troops fighting in Afghanistan under David Richards, a British general for whom this mission must evoke the long history of British defeats in Afghanistan. In theory, there are more than 25 countries involved in NATO’s operation; in reality, it is the same old US-Britain military in new disguise with a Canada and Germany hopping behind. America has the largest contingent (10,000 troops); in addition, it has a separate 8,000-strong force outside NATO command. Britain is contributing 5,200. Since the spring of 2006, Canada has begun a major role in the southern part of the Afghanistan, with a battle group of more than 2,000 soldiers. The Canadian Task Force Afghanistan, based around Kandahar, came into action after the Conservative Party won elections and formed a minority government, though Canadians have been Afghanistan before Stephen Harper became the new prime Minister of Canada. Harper thinks, speaks, and acts as if he is George W. Bush junior.
Whatever the dynamics of local and international politics, Afghanistan is now heading toward a long drawn out war, with no end in sight. It is no more a Taliban war; it is an Afghan war against foreign troops—something that Afghans seem to have done throughout their history.
Beyond the limited view of politicians who have sent their armies equipped with the most advanced weapons on the planet to a country where people still live their entire lives under the shade of pomegranates, the human tragedy of this new Afghan adventure does not stop at the obscene photos of German soldiers posing with skulls; the scars run deep, into the very heart of a region which was until 1979 the most enchanting place on earth.

 

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