It has now become an irrefutable fact that
the events of September 11, 2001 and
the ensuing invasion and occupation of
Afghanistan have changed the course of
global politics. In the 13 years since the
attacks on the World Trade Center, the
world has been defined more than anything
else by ongoing wars and occupations in
the elusive battle against terrorism – a fight
which began, and continues today, in the
mountains of Afghanistan.
The protracted war in Afghanistan has been
defining point not only for world politics,
but also of Canadian foreign policy. The war
has marked a step away from the official
doctrine of Canada as a “peacekeeping”
nation towards a doctrine of unapologetic
warmongering – albeit in the name of
“fighting terrorism” and developing “human
rights and democracy”.
It is therefore imperative that we as
Canadians and as citizens of the world
reflect on and learn from the longest war in
modern history.
On December 28, 2014, NATO's
International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) mission in Afghanistan officially
ended. However, this hardly marked the
end of the thirteen-year war. In place of
the ISAF flag, a flag for NATO's new
mission, Operation Resolute Support, was
raised. The new mission will employ 12,000
soldiers in a “supporting role” for the Afghan
National Security Forces (ANSF) and the
Afghan police. In addition to these soldiers,
5,500 American soldiers will remain in
Afghanistan, primarily elite troops involved
in counterterrorism operations. However,
the bulk of the foreign military presence
in Afghanistan will not be soldiers, but
20,000 heavily-armed foreign 'contractors'
– employed by companies notorious for
their shady human rights records in combat
zones.
Marking the end of the mission, US
President Barack Obama stated, “our
combat mission in Afghanistan is ending,
and the longest war in American history is
coming to a responsible conclusion”.
However, anyone watching events in
Afghanistan can see that combat is far from
concluded.
The United Nations estimates that over
10,000 Afghans were killed or injured
in 2014. Attacks by the Taliban on
foreign outposts in Kabul have become
commonplace – and the Taliban have
gained back a substantial amount of
territory in rural Afghanistan. Indeed, the
security situation for foreign forces and
the Afghan army, which is supposed to
be taking over security of the country is
looking rather grim. In 2014 alone, over
5,000 Afghan soldiers were killed – nearly
double the number of foreign troops killed
in the last decade-plus. For all the talk of
'mission accomplished' in Afghanistan, it is
clear that today the country is in perhaps
the worst situation since the 2001 invasion.
Over the last fourteen years, the mission has
cost over a trillion dollars. At least 21,000
Afghans have lost their lives in the war
(although the true number is likely much
higher). As well, 3387 foreign soldiers have
lost their lives – 158 of them Canadian.
So what has been achieved for this massive
human and financial cost? Those hailing the
mission as a success point to a number of
achievements: schools, hospitals and roads
built across the country; increasing school
enrollment; the Taliban ousted from power
and a democratically elected government
installed in its place.
However, the reality on the ground – as told
by Afghans and front-line aid workers – is
a far cry from the official line of NATO
countries.
In February 2014, the medical aid
organization Medcins Sans Frontieres
published a damning report on the state of
health care in Afghanistan, titled “Between
Rhetoric and Reality: The Ongoing Struggle
to Access Healthcare in Afghanistan”.
Introducing the report, its
authors note, “the results
are grim. Statistics and
personal accounts highlight
the devastating impact of
the ongoing war on Afghan
communities. In a country
with some of the highest
mortality rates in the world,
the conflict is causing
widespread disruption to
health services, particularly
in remote areas.”
The report, based on data
collected from interviewing
patients and those
accompanying them at MSF
and Afghan hospitals, found
that one in eight of those
October 2014 Protest in Kabul, Afghanistan
interviewed had been prevented from
getting to a hospital previously. Eighty-
seven percent of those interviewed said
the conflict had prevented them from
getting there. Some had been prevented
from leaving their homes due to fighting or
lack of security; others faced harassment at
checkpoints while en route to the hospital.
Cost, distance, and poor quality of health
care at some facilities were found to be
major barriers as well. In fact, 13% of
respondents from Kabul province and 26%
of those from Khost reported that they had
family or close friends die due to lack of
access to health care within the previous
year.
Another major concern cited was the use
of medical facilities as a base for combat
operations. In eighty percent of cases
reported, it was Afghan government forces
which took over hospitals for military use.
This dangerous and irresponsible practice
puts patients and staff at risk of attack and
serves to further prevent those in need from
seeking help at those facilities.
In summary, the report notes that “it is
striking how far the accounts of ordinary
Afghans differ from prevailing narratives
of progress. Packaging the intervention
into a simple success story risks obscuring
the reality of the ongoing war and people’s
increasing humanitarian needs.”
The Afghan education
system is in a bad spot as
well. Although enrollment
numbers have increased, this
number does not necessarily
reflect the number of
children actually attending
school. Many schools report
that only half of students
enrolled attend classes. The
necessity to earn a living for
their family prevents many
children from attending
school, while others are
barred by security concerns
and ongoing fighting.
For those who are able to
attend classes, the quality of
education is often sorely lacking. According
to a report by the Afghan Ministry of
Education, only 40% of Afghan schools
have permanent buildings. The majority
are held in tents or simply in the open air.
The lack qualified teachers is another major
concern. The Ministry of Education reports
that 80% of Afghanistan's teachers either
have not completed post-secondary studies
or do not even hold a high school diploma
themselves. There are financial barriers
to achieving an education as well – most
families cannot afford to buy the books or
even pencils and paper required for their
children to complete their school work.
As a result of all these factors, high school
graduation rates remain low.
In the field of womens' rights, another cause
championed by foreign forces, the situation
also remains dire. Yes, there are women
serving in the Afghan parliament now,
and even a few in the Afghan police force.
However, the campaign for liberalization
on the surface has done little to improve the
lives of most Afghan women. They face not
only systemic and societal discrimination,
but the harsh reality of poverty and war
as well. Thousands of women have found
themselves in desperate poverty after their
husbands have been killed or injured in
the war; these women are often reduced
to begging, prostitution, or even selling
some of their children in order to feed their
families. The ongoing violence, instability,
and high unemployment rates have taken
a psychological toll on men as well – and
their pain and anger is often taken out on
their wives and daughters. The UN recorded
that in 2013, violence against women in
Afghanistan increased by 28% compared
with the previous year – a number which has
been steadily rising. Rather than improving,
conditions have in fact worsened over the
last decade for the majority of Afghan
women. This is perhaps most evident in the
epidemic of suicide among Afghan women.
The number of women taking their own
lives is increasing all the time, with 2500
deaths in 2013.
After 14 years of war, the human rights
situation remains dire. However, there are
two important objectives that remain for
the US and their NATO allies: ridding
Afghanistan of the Taliban and establishing
the country as a functioning democracy.
The Taliban were ousted from
official power rather quickly after
the 2001 bombing campaign.
However, after 14 years of war,
they are now gaining strength
and influence across much of the
country. Far from eliminating
them, the Taliban have become
the
de facto
government in many
areas of the country where the
Kabul government simply has no
power. In a number of districts, the
Taliban collect taxes, run schools,
and mediate disputes through a
court system which many Afghans
note is more efficient and less
corrupt than official government
channels.
While the Taliban are having
some success at expanding their
influence throughout the country,
the Afghan government, for all
its Western funding and support,
seems to be floundering in that
regard. The “transition to democracy” has
become a little more than a running joke
in the country. Elections have been marred
by low voter turnout, massive fraud, vote-
buying, and corruption. The ineffectiveness
of government combined with extortion by
local officials and blatant vote-buying by
various warlords
has left Afghans
with little faith
in their new
“democratic”
system. As
a result, The
government has
little real power
beyond Kabul,
while much of the
country remains
governed by the
Taliban or various
warlords. In much
of Afghanistan,
the reality is that
the Taliban is often the lesser of two evils.
With Western aid starting to dwindle, it is
looking doubtful whether the country will
even be able to support itself. Economic
growth, which had been fueled in large part
by foreign contracts, is slowing drastically.
In fact, without the $8 billion in foreign
assistance the Afghan government currently
receives, it will be unable to even pay the
wages of its own soldiers, which foreign
forces have worked so hard to build up. On
the other hand, Afghanistan’s underground
economy is booming. Opium production
increased 36% in 2013, according to the
UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The crop
is now worth 4% of the country’s GDP.
After fourteen years of war, the US/NATO
mission in Afghanistan is certainly not
being brought to a ‘responsible conclusion’.
In fact, rather than preventing it, fourteen
years of war has now turned Afghanistan
into a failed state: the government has little
control over much of the country, is unable
to provide the most basic services to the
majority of its citizens, and corruption runs
rampant.
Fourteen years of war have not brought
human rights or democracy, nor have they
even rid the country of the Taliban. Terrorist
attacks on Western targets, both within
Afghanistan’s borders and in Western
countries themselves, have increased.
Even by their own measure, US and NATO
countries have failed Afghanistan. This
failure has come at an unacceptable price:
tens of thousands of Afghan lives, and
many thousands more maimed. Hundreds
of thousands have displaced by the fighting,
many more forced into poverty. US and
NATO forces have not simply failed
Afghanistan; they have destroyed it.
That being said, the most important
question that remains for Afghanistan is:
which way forward?
On one hand, foreign forces have proven
that they are a force only of destruction in
Afghanistan. On the other, if foreign troops
leave it will be both difficult and dangerous
for Afghans to rebuild the country on their
own.
Which path is the right one? Having spent
over a decade researching not only the
war in Afghanistan, but also the beautiful,
rugged country itself, I must conclude that
Afghanistan must be left to the Afghans.
Throughout the long and rich history of
their nation, Afghans have driven out every
foreign occupier – and proved time and
again that they are more than capable of
building a thriving nation on their own. Let
us not forget that is was only a few decades
ago – before foreign intervention tore the
country apart - that Kabul was a bustling
modern metropolis, known as “the Paris of
Central Asia”.
The articles in this book form a sort of
chronicle of the Afghan war. My hope
is that they can present to the reader a
perspective of the war in Afghanistan
which is too often silenced: the voice of the
Afghan people calling for an end to this
injustice.
Finally, I hope you will join me – along
with millions in Afghanistan and around
the world – in demanding an end to this
brutal war.
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