Afghans Support International Forces
By M. Ashraf Haidari
February 18, 2009
In his February 17th op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor on “A
Reality Check for Obama in Afghanistan ,” Walter Rodgers falls into the
usual trap of assuming that Afghans uniformly and reflexively despise
foreigners. He’s wrong. A month-long stay among the Afghan people will reveal to
any serious observer of Afghanistan the fact that the hardships and suffering
the Afghan people have endured over the past thirty years have changed their
worldview. The youth that constitute more than 60% of the Afghan population look
to the future in today’s globalization context.
Afghans demand freedom, justice, security, and pluralism, which they know can
only be restored by long-term international engagement in our country. We
understand that premature international disengagement from Afghanistan in early
1990s made the country a no-man’s land where transnational extremists,
terrorists, and criminals freely roamed and used the stateless country to
endanger international peace and security. The tragedy of 9/11 is a sad
reminder.
Hence, comparing the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to the 2001
international reengagement in the country to free Afghans of the tyranny of the
Taliban is neither accurate nor helpful. The fact is that Afghans view American
and NATO forces as their liberators, while they perceived the Soviet forces as
invaders and occupiers with a godless ideology. Historical comparisons no longer
hold true in many cases, and Afghanistan is not an exception. We should rather
focus on delivering on the basic expectations of the Afghan people: security,
rule of law, and jobs that have given them hope after 2001.
M. Ashraf Haidari is the Political Counselor of the Embassy of Afghanistan in
Washington, DC. His e-mail is
haidari@embassyofafghanistan.org
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