In the aftermath of national elections widely condemned as fraudulent, the U.S. and its allies are wondering what to do about Afghanistan. Malalai Joya, an Afghan parliamentarian deemed “the bravest woman in Afghanistan” by the BBC has some unsolicited advice for General Stanley McChrystal and other American commanders: “They must leave my country today, it is much better than tomorrow.” On the advice of McChrystal, Obama announced in December 2009 he will send 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan in early 2010, on top of some 68,000 already in the country.
“They say a civil war will happen [if the foreigners leave],” says Joya between sips of green tea, “but nobody talks about today’s civil war.” The Afghan conflict claimed 1,000 civilian lives in the first half of 2009, a 24 per cent increase from the previous year, according to the Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA). Canada’s Afghan mission began in 2002, claiming the lives of 133 Canadian soliders as of October, 2009.
Joya is the youngest woman ever elected to Afghanistan’s parliament. An unflinching critic of both foreign occupation and Taliban-style fundamentalism, she has escaped five separate assassination attempts. “I’m a little tired,” she confesses as we sit down in a hotel restaurant, “but we must be tireless.”
I spoke with Malalai Joya in November 2009, prior to the launch of her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords: the Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice.
The Sasquatch: In much of Canada, the standard debate on Afghanistan goes something like this: if foreign troops leave, the Taliban will return to power, girls won’t go to school and the country will become a launching pad for extremist attacks around the world. How do you respond to this?
Malalai Joya: Democracy never comes from war, from the barrel of the gun, from cluster bombs. Liberation never comes from occupation. After the 9-11 tragedy, the U.S. and its allies pushed us from the frying pan into the fire. They replaced the Taliban with Northern Alliance fundamentalists who are a photocopy of the Taliban.
They occupied our country in the name of women’s rights, but today the situation for women is as catastrophic as under the Taliban. The only difference is that all these crimes are happening under the name of democracy, freedom, human rights and women’s rights. Women’s rights can’t be donated from abroad or forced at gunpoint.
They [occupying forces] say if troops leave, the Taliban will eat us. But they are supporting the Taliban today, supporting warlords. Both of them are eating us. To fight against one enemy is easier than two. We are between two enemies [the occupiers and the extremists].
The New York Times recently reported that Ahmed Wali Karzai, President Hamid Karzai’s brother and a well-known drug trafficker, has been on the CIA’s payroll for years. Foreign troops indirectly fund the Taliban by paying them to protect supply routes, according to The Nation. Do average people in Afghanistan talk about this sort of collusion?
People know very well. Many others, including Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, who ran for President in the election, their bums are on the lap of the CIA. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar [another warlord] is said to be using his old CIA-generated [drug] trafficking network to fund the current insurgency.
If [Canadian Prime Minister Stephen] Harper is honest, why is he silent in supporting this mafia system? These people are criminals; but with suits and ties they are in power.
If this [CIA funding warlords] isn’t bad enough, [President Hamid Karzai] appointed Izzatullah Wasifi as Afghanistan’s anti-corruption chief [in 2007]. Wasifi is a convicted drug trafficker who spent almost four years in Nevada state prison for selling heroin, but he was an old friend of the Karzai family. As Afghans often say, ‘Karzai assigned a rabbit to take care of the carrot.’
In March 2001, Rahmatullah Hashimi, a top aide to then Taliban leader Mullah Omar reportedly met officials in Washington to discuss the proposed Trans-Afghan Pipeline or TAP, which would carry natural gas from Central Asia through Afghanistan to India, by-passing U.S. adversaries Iran and Russia. Negotiations between the U.S. and Taliban broke down over a dispute over transit fees, according to Asia Times reporter Pepe Escobar. How important are Central Asian energy reserves in motivating the current occupation?
They occupied my country because of geopolitical aims: Afghanistan is in the heart of Asia. China and Russia are becoming more powerful and the US doesn’t want that. Afghanistan is a good transit point to easily access the gas and oil resources of Central Asia. The superpower is using and occupying our country as part of a big chess game. Afghanistan has many other natural resources: China recently successfully bid billions of dollars for the right to exploit our copper deposits, estimated to be worth $88 billion.
Eight soldiers from Saskatchewan, representing double its share for the population, have died in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002. As an Afghan parliamentarian, what would you tell their parents about what is happening in your country?
When your government says the war in Iraq is a bad war and the one in Afghanistan is good, you should ask them, [what’s] the difference?
The war in Afghanistan has fostered terrorism, even though the stated goal is to fight it. The biggest beneficiaries of the conflict have been extremist groups who take advantage of legitimate grievances against NATO.
I send condolences to those Canadian moms who lost their sons and daughters in Afghanistan under the name of the so-called war on terror. They are the ones who must put pressure on the government, change their fears and sorrows to strength and raise their voices against this war crime. They themselves are victims of wrong policies of their government.
Chris Arsenault is a journalist and author of Blowback: A Canadian History of Agent Orange and the War at Home.
Yes, and time will break the USA. We should, as punishment for 9-11 etc, level the place with total war until out pullout with immigration restrictions imposed on those people. How could we have won or win without fighting the war.(Corruption has kept us from outright winning). One doesn ‘t win by carrot sticking or politicking but by bringing destruction to the enemy!