McCain and Palin are bad for Afghanistan
Khadija Ibrahimi
October 19, 2008
On November 4th of this year, Americans will choose their next president and
vice president. Their decision will not only impact the lives of their fellow
Americans but also the lives of millions of Afghans living half a world away.
When the Americans got involved in Afghanistan and helped remove the Taliban
from power, many Afghans were hopeful that peace will finally come to
Afghanistan. In the beginning, things were going really well, however, today the
situation in Afghanistan is spiraling out of control and even the American
intelligence agencies are admitting to it.
One of the main reason, the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse and the
Taliban are getting more and more powerful is the interference and the downright
sabotage of the war on terror by Pakistan, specifically, it's spy agency the ISI.
Ever since the Afghan-Soviet war, the ISI has been involved in Afghanistan. They
have manipulated the political situation to suit their own government's needs,
instead of the needs of the Afghan people. They have been involved in the
assassination of major Afghan political figures, and secretly continue to
provide logistical and financial support to the Taliban who are friendly to
Pakistan. It is well known that they look the other way when they well know that
Al Qaeda is entrenched in the North West Frontier Province of their country.
The Pakistanis publicly claim that they are against the Taliban and
terrorism, and want to work with the Afghan government and the United States.
This in reality is far from true, and unfortunately, the Americans don't really
get it. Unless Pakistan is stopped from interfering in Afghanistan and stopped
from secretly helping the Taliban, peace will never come to Afghanistan.
If John McCain and Sarah Palin get elected, nothing will change for the
better. The Americans will continue to buy Pakistani lies about their support of
the war on terror. McCain and Palin will be too busy with their crusade in Iraq,
and Afghanistan will be forgotten for the second time. Even worse, bringing
peace and stability to Afghanistan might be outsourced to Pakistan! Pakistan is
quietly waiting for this opportunity, and in the meantime, they will tell the
Americans what they want to hear, and then proceed to do the exact opposite,
just like they have been doing for many years now.
Barack Obama on the other hand, understands the situation in Afghanistan much
better. He's too smart to buy the Pakistani lies, and has publicly declared that
if they need to, they will go into Pakistan to stop the Taliban and Al Qaeda if
the Pakistani government refuses to act. He grasps Pakistan's history of burning
the candle at both ends to keep peace with Al Qaeda, Taliban, as well as with
the United States. Obama was criticized for his comments by John McCain, and
McCain pointed to this as an example of Obama's political immaturity. In
reality, McCain is completely wrong on this, and it ony exposes the fact that he
does not understand the political situation in Afghanistan. It is ironic for
John McCain to talk about political maturity and diplomacy when he was caught on
American TV singing a song about bombing Iran to a group of his followers.
"Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" - is that diplomatic? No, however, it is very,
very telling of who he is as a person and the disrespect he has for non-American
lives. A wise person once said, "when someone tells you who they really are -
believe them!” McCain and Palin in charge of the most powerful army in the
world, and control over weapons of mass destruction is nothing short of disaster
for the whole world.
Another area that is important to take note of is the number of Afghan
civilian deaths as a result of US and NATO bombardments. Afghans shudder in fear
when US and NATO planes fly overhead, and anger and hatred for the Americans are
growing day by day as a result of these civilian deaths. Aerial bombardment is
done because there is a shortage of troops on the ground. Barack Obama noticed
this problem and wanted to bring this issue up in order to come up with a real
solution. He was seriously concerned about the number of civilian deaths in
Afghanistan. What do you think happened when Obama brought this up? McCain and
Palin immediately labeled him again as unpatriotic and accused him of insulting
the American troops. Do they not care about the innocent Afghan women and
children that are being killed? Clearly not!
Pakistan's president, Ali Zardari, upon first meeting Sarah Palin went
straight to work complementing her beauty and asking for hugs. This is
disgraceful behavior for a supposed Muslim man, period, but it is especially
inappropriate and disgusting for a Muslim leader whose "beloved" wife was only
recently assassinated; his actions were despicable. This just shows that the
Pakistan government is willing to do just about anything and tell the Americans
and their leaders whatever they want them to hear in order to keep them happy
and out of Pakistan's plans. They want clueless leaders in America, just like
Sarah Palin so they can easily distract them from Afghanistan. In the meantime,
they will secretly take over Afghanistan via their Taliban proxy.
Khadija Ibrahimi is a graduate student studying political science. She
can be reached at
khadija_ibrahimi@yahoo.com
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