Securing Afghanistan for the Sake of Afghans
Shaida M. Abdali and M. Ashraf Haidari
June 15, 2010
Placing the people of Afghanistan at the center of the ongoing debate on the
lingering war against extremism and terrorism is the key to the success of
international peace building efforts in the country. Yet, this is rarely done.
Afghans as the main victims of the past 30 years of imposed conflicts on our
country, seldom figure in the ongoing discussions of the past, present, and
future of Afghanistan. In other words, the moral obligation of helping Afghans
build a strong state, a secure future, increasingly appears to have become
secondary to preserving foreign national security interests in Afghanistan.
Indeed, the Afghan people would have built a functioning state and
Afghanistan’s development would have slowly taken off by now had Afghanistan not
become a victim of both the Cold War and its aftermath, the culmination of which
was the tragedy of September 11, 2001. But Afghanistan decided to side with the
West against the Soviets in the last decade of the Cold War. Of all the nations
in the West or in the East, and since the end of the Second World War, Afghans
made the ultimate sacrifice to help defend and ensure the freedom of then “the
Free World” or our NATO nation-partners today.
It is dismaying, however, that the sacrifices of the Afghan people are hardly
remembered or recognized in some NATO countries. One hardly reads in the U.S. or
European papers that Afghanistan suffered immense losses in human life and limb
(2 million killed; over 2 million injured), destruction of our country and
property ($100 billion a year for two decades), internal and external
displacement of the Afghan population (10 million displaced), and the ensuing
generational psychological trauma affecting every Afghan today.
In return, however, Afghanistan’s post-Cold War reconstruction was completely
neglected. The unspeakable atrocities of 1990s against the Afghan people are
well-documented by human rights organizations, and we remember the tragedy of
9/11 as a direct consequence of having failed to deliver on the moral obligation
of rebuilding post-war Afghanistan and giving Afghans a glimmer of hope for a
bright future, for their own sake.
So, today, when Afghans hear talk by some NATO countries of limited
involvement or withdrawal plans, even when we know that half-measures for the
last nine years have failed, many Afghans feel betrayed. They increasingly
believe that international involvement has hardly been about them, about their
human rights, about their very basic expectations for peace and justice, or
about their overwhelming demand for institutionalization of peace and democracy
in Afghanistan.
As they daily listen to the official statements of our nation-partners,
Afghans may begin believing that international involvement in Afghanistan is
more about the national security or geo-strategic interests of the countries
involved. These divergent and conflicting interests, Afghans may think, seem to
determine what should or could be done or what should not or could not be done
to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan.
Hence, Afghans could believe that Afghanistan is once again serving as a
proxy battlefield for international posturing and influence at worst or as the
main frontline in the war against transnational security threats at best. And
even the latter narrative now means different things to different countries in
or outside the alliance in Afghanistan. So, no wonder that to simplify this
crisis of what is really at stake in Afghanistan, metaphors such as poker, chess
or, worse, buzkashi have become routine to describe and rationalize
international intervention in Afghanistan.
Afghans are appalled by some of the most bizarre and irrelevant terms used to
describe our people, our country, our culture, and our very way of life. Some
call us a “tribal society” and thus primitive and backward, who don’t deserve
human or women’s rights, democratic security and governance, and a place in the
community of what they call “civilized nations.” Others call Afghanistan “the
graveyard of empires” where peace-building is doomed to failure no matter what.
And references to Afghanistan as America’s second Vietnam or NATO replacing the
former Soviet Union in Afghanistan are just as frequent.
Clearly, these mischaracterizations of Afghanistan may be designed to serve
certain domestic purposes in some countries, while in others it may be due to
mere ignorance of ground realities of the Afghan theater. The fact is, however,
that Afghanistan has one of the youngest populations in the world, which is at
once extremely resilient and enterprising. Contrary to the misperception of a
“divided tribal society,” Afghans take pride in our ethnic diversity, long
history and rich cultural heritage, and have stood united, particularly at the
grassroots level, on major national causes, including the stabilization,
reconstruction, and development of Afghanistan.
Despite all these problems and short-comings, Afghans have not lost hope in
their partners and the future of their country. The BBC-ABC-ARD poll released in
January, 2010 confirms widespread optimism and unity among Afghans, as 70
percent said they thought Afghanistan was going in the right direction. Ninety
percent said they want the country run by the current government, and only 6
percent want to see the Taliban come back. The same survey rated approval of
President Karzai at 72 percent, and 60 percent viewed government performance
favorably.
Indeed, if the state-building enterprise for the security of Afghanistan and
global peace is to succeed and sustain on the long run, it has to be
Afghan-centered and Afghan-led. In other words, international peace building
efforts must, henceforth, be driven by Afghan hands not “Afghan face,” for
without building peace by and for the sake of Afghans, the drama will most
likely end in tragedy again, not just for Afghanistan but for its
nation-partners as well. The tragedy of 9/11 is a sad reminder.
Shaida M. Abdali is Deputy National Security Adviser and Special Assistant to
President Hamid Karzai. M. Ashraf Haidari is the Political Counselor of the
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC.
The above article originally appeared in the
The Diplomatic Courier. Reprinted here with permission from the authors.
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