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Speech Presented by Joyce Ramay In Afghanistan and Pakistan, President Obama faces daunting challenges, which stem from policies dating back 30 years. 1979 was a pivotal year, of the Iranian revolution against the American installed Shah, and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. My first husband and I chose that eventful time for a trip around the world. We left the US on November 2nd. On November 4th, radical student revolutionaries seized our embassy in Tehran. Four days before our arrival in Pakistan later that month, the American Embassy in Islamabad had been burned, in reaction to false reports that an American had attacked the Holy Shrine in Mecca. It was a dangerous time to be there. Everywhere we went people stared in amazement, because all other Americans had left the country. We visited Lahore, and then flew to Peshawar, landing at a large Air Force base, originally built by the Americans to facilitate our U2 spy flights over Russia. Our friend borrowed a car from a Pakistan Air Force colonel, and we drove through the now famous tribal areas, seeing the small village factories where they produced hand-made guns. Those shops later helped to arm the mujahideen. We traveled through the Khyber Pass, which was a desolate, barren area, traversed by camel caravans, donkeys, and the colorfully painted Pathan trucks. Today there are continuous settlements of Afghan refugees all the way from Peshawar through the pass to the border. This is the hazardous, Taliban-infested route now used by the US military convoys to take supplies to Afghanistan, and may soon be our only one after our last Central Asian air base in Kyrgyzstan is closed. Along the curving mountain roads, we observed huge pyramid shaped concrete blocks called “dragon’s teeth”. Military border guards told us they had recently been put there so that they could be quickly installed as barriers to stop the Russian tanks. The Afghans and Pakistanis were alarmed by the impending Russian invasion. They reasoned that America would be distracted after the Iranians had taken our embassy, so the Russians would take the opportunity to invade Afghanistan, and if possible, Pakistan, to finally get their corridor to the warm water Indian Ocean. When we arrived back in the States for Christmas, we heard news that the invasion had taken place, and the American government and State Department expressed great surprise. For the next ten years there would be a brutal war between Soviet troops and the Afghans. At least 1.5 million Afghans were killed, and the Soviets were defeated. The Soviet empire collapsed, and the Central Asian states declared independence from Russia. More than three million Afghan refugees were in Pakistan, and another 1.5 million in Iran. I saw their huge tent cities in Frontier in 1989. Afghan farms, vineyards, and orchards had been destroyed. Their cities lay in rubble. Yet the Afghans celebrated their victory over the Great Russian Bear. Afghanistan has been called the “graveyard of empires” starting with Alexander the Great, down through the centuries to the time of the British, then the Russians. Today America is bogged down there, while the legends of Afghan invincibility sustain the courage of the insurgents. During the Soviet war, the U.S. collaborated with the Saudis to indoctrinate, train and arm Afghan mujahideen who fought the Russians. Saudi imams went to Pakistan’s Frontier to establish madrassas in which they propagated their ultra-fundamentalist, militant Wahabbi version of Islam. Osama Bin Laden was among the Saudis who were welcomed on this jihad. Working with our CIA and Pakistan’s ISI, the mujahideen fought the Russians, until Afghanistan became a wasteland. We also sent millions of dollars to support Pakistan’s military dictator, General Zia ul Haq, who promoted fundamentalist Islam in Pakistan. Prior to Zia’s coup, Pakistan had been a moderate and even progressive state under both Field Marshal Ayub Khan, and democratically elected Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. In 1988, I married a Pakistani and moved to Lahore. After 11 years of Zia’s military dictatorship, People’s Party liberal leader Benazir Bhutto had just been elected as Prime Minister - the first woman Prime Minister in an Islamic country. (We are still waiting here.) There was a tremendous mood of optimism and enthusiasm for the future. Twenty years ago, there was a strong pro-American attitude. Everyone wanted American clothes, American music, and American education. Throughout most of its history, Pakistan had been a strong ally of America, and part of various pacts designed to oppose the communist threat. Once the Soviets were defeated, however, the American government sent official representatives to announce, “The U.S. no longer has any strategic interest in this area,” and soon there would be no more AID funds. I was present at such an event, along with many political leaders, including Begum Nasim Wali Khan, the Pashtun leader of the Awami National Party, the main secular party of Northwest Frontier. She was amazed, and said, “You mean after we carry on your fight against Russia for ten years, you no longer have any interest in us, or the three million Afghan refugees we are caring for in Frontier?” The speaker, sent by our State Department, confirmed that was the case. That was the beginning of the bitterness and resentment that grew in the region, particularly among the Pashtun peoples of southern Afghanistan and NWFP. Osama Bin Laden would be among those who felt betrayed. For five years, Afghan tribal warlords engaged in a civil war over who would rule after the Russians left. In 1994, Mullah Omar and the Taliban took over Kandahar. The Taliban were students trained in the Saudi madrassas. Many were orphans or displaced refugees of the war. I recall talking with one of our embassy people and asking, “What do you think of the Taliban?” He told me, “We are working with them. We think they may be the only people who can unify and stabilize the country.” I asked, “What about their treatment of women, and fundamentalist views?” He said, “The Afghans have always been very conservative people. And besides, if they pacify the country, it will enable us to build a pipeline through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Gulf to carry oil from the new independent Central Asian countries.” It sounded a lot like the Russians’ dream. So we were backing the Taliban. By 1996, the Taliban succeeded over the warlords. In 2001, after 9/11 when Mullah Omar and the Taliban refused to turn over Osama Bin Laden, saying it violated a tradition of hospitality, instead of using our own special operations teams to take out Osama Bin Laden, when we knew where he was, we enlisted the Northern Alliance. They were the same old heroin-smuggling, gun-running civil warlords. We expected them to take out Al Qaeda on the ground while we safely bombed the Afghans from overhead. And they were later given the most important ministries in the Karzai government, alienating the majority Pashtuns of the south. After 9/11, America also sought the cooperation of Pakistan’s dictator President General Pervez Musharraf, and Pakistan provided several airfields for the attack on Afghanistan. In exchange, we once again gave Pakistan’s dictator a lot of military aid, (which had been cut off during the democratic government years). He became “the best of our allies.” Pakistan did capture and turn over about 500 Al Qaeda. But Musharraf walked a tight rope. After the Soviets left Afghanistan, many tribal mujahideen, working under Pakistan’s ISI, went to Kashmir, where they engaged in freedom fighter warfare against the Indians for the next ten years, including the 1999 Kargil war, led by Musharraf himself. Jihadi groups had a long history of working with Musharraf, and while he would do what he could to turn over members of Al Qaeda, he was reluctant to do the same with the Pashtun Taliban. The Pashtuns, or Pathans, are the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan, and also in the Northwest Frontier Province and the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan. Borders and central governments don’t mean much to them. Pakistan’s ISI also helped to form Lashkar e Tayeba, to work with jihadis in Kashmir. They are the group that reportedly planned the Mumbai attacks on the Taj and Oberoi hotels – where I have stayed. This occurred when the new democratic government’s Foreign Minister was trying to improve relations with India. Every time there has been a peace initiative made, some such action is taken to arouse animosity, since that suits the fundamentalist jihadis and the military, which justifies its exorbitant financial demands by the need to defend the country against India. During his reign, Musharraf allowed extremist Islamist parties to run the governments in the two provinces sharing 1400 miles of mountainous border with Afghanistan. The Baloch capital city of Quetta is now the likely haven of Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Osama Bin Laden is likely in NW Frontier Province or FATA. He had headquartered in Peshawar during the war against the Soviets and had many friends in that region. After Musharraf was removed from power last year by the newly elected democratic government, America belatedly decided “enough is enough” and started to bomb villages in northwest Pakistan. There have been more than a dozen attacks, mostly missile strikes by remote controlled drones. The Pakistani people ask why we tolerated the dictator’s double dealing all those years, and now, when there is finally a progressive democratic government, we have decided to bomb their country. Now America’s latest plan is to train and arm tribal militias in the border regions, supposedly to fight both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The model for this comes from Anbar Province in Iraq, where we did successfully arm Sunni tribes to fight the foreign Al Qaeda. But in Iraq, Al Qaeda were seen as outside troublemakers, whereas among the Pashtuns, they are often friends, who fought side by side with them against the Russian invaders, and who have been living and intermarrying with them for three decades. Some of our generals have warned that we cannot fight in Afghanistan the same way that we have in Iraq because the circumstances are very different. General David Petraeus, the new head of Central Command that is responsible for the entire Middle East region, makes a distinction between Al Qaeda and Taliban, and supports direct talks with the Taliban. “You have to talk to enemies,” he said, while pointing to Kabul’s efforts to negotiate a deal with some of the more moderate Taliban. He and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are presently preparing their new plan, which may include more troops and a more limited objective of disabling Al Qaeda and ending safe havens for them. Afghanistan and Pakistan both still suffer from the problems of integration of peoples living with arbitrary borders set by colonial powers. Afghanistan has the majority Pashtuns of the SE, some Baloch in the SW, Persian speaking Shia tribes in the NW, and Uzbeks and Tajiks in the north. They all have tribal leaders, and they struggle for power with each other. A strong central government there is not likely to be possible. These people have fierce tribal loyalties. They resist domination even by their own nation state. It takes generations to build a national identity. And it certainly does not happen at the gunpoint of a foreign power. Then there are the cross-border tribes. The Baloch are in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Kashmiris are divided between India and Pakistan. The Pashtuns are in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and constitute most of the Taliban fighters. Many Taliban want to create a separate Pashtunistan state, or take over Pakistan entirely. Benazir Bhutto was the most outspoken, capable and progressive opponent of militant terrorism. On the day of her return from exile in October 2007, extremists bombed her bus, and killed hundreds in the southern port city of Karachi. She survived, but in December that year, while she was campaigning in Rawalpindi, the General Headquarters of the Pakistan army, she was killed. Taliban terrorists are suspected. In September last year they bombed the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad two hours after her husband’s inaugural speech as President. We Americans experienced a terrible trauma when our homeland was attacked on 9/11. It was an event that was played over and over again until it became a focus of our fears and insecurities. It became the justification for our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, although no Afghans were involved in the attacks, and Iraq had nothing to do with them at all. Imagine the lives of people who have lived with attacks and bombs and explosions for thirty years. Almost every Afghan family has had members killed, or maimed for life. Many live in refugee tents in one of the harshest climates on earth. Their children have grown up knowing nothing but war. Years of drought and war leave them malnourished. If they fight, someone may feed them. Today, President Hamid Karzai is referred to as the Mayor of Kabul. His government is corrupt and incompetent. After 7 years of American presence, Afghans’ earlier hopes for a better life after the Taliban have been lost. For the past couple years, the Taliban have been welcomed back into many villages, because the people think, (just as America once did), that at least the Taliban may restore some order and safety. They control about 70% of the countryside now. So while there was initial relief and celebration, when music once again filled the streets and girls returned to schools, after seven fruitless years America is viewed much the same as the Russians once were - as the occupier, and the destroyer of villages. Can we change that now? I certainly hope so. While the US talked about dangers of non-proliferation, President Bush entered into a nuclear pact with India, providing them with nuclear fissile material and expertise, which escalated fears in Pakistan. As a consequence, Pakistanis again celebrate the name of A.Q. Khan, the infamous scientist who helped to develop Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, and also provided nuclear technology and materials to Iran and North Korea. This week Pakistan’s courts ordered his release from house arrest. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan would be devastating to the world. This region is rightly called the most dangerous on earth. There is one final thing I want to mention, and that is our current financial crisis. Afghans feel proud that they defeated the Soviet Empire. They believe, and many historians agree, that the Soviet military overextension, exceeding their economic capabilities, led to the Soviet downfall. Afghans see themselves as brave warriors like David who slew Goliath. Now they see America with its vast military ventures and huge deficits, exceeding our capabilities, and they forecast the downfall of the American empire. Some of our own scholars would agree. Our military expenditures exceed those of the next top 45 countries combined! Chalmers Johnson wrote, “Given our economic crisis, the estimated trillion dollars we spend each year on the military and its weaponry is simply unsustainable.” He said, “Until we decide (or are forced) to dismantle our empire, sell off most of our 761 military bases in other people’s countries, and bring our military expenditures into line with those of the rest of the world, we are destined to go bankrupt in the name of national defense.” We have to learn to connect the dots, don’t we? I have always been proud to be an American. Our support for human rights has been a beacon light for the world. We have served as role models of how people can live better lives in so many ways. But in our over-reaction since 9/11, we have lost our stature. We are suffering from the “blowback” consequences of our ill-conceived actions. We desperately need to re-evaluate and to re-formulate our foreign policy goals, behavior and principles. As President Obama stated, we need to talk to people, with mutual respect. And we should use “smart power” as Hillary Clinton stated when she took her oath as Secretary of State. It’s time for us to ask ourselves, what is the price of our empire? What is the price of our fear? What is the price of our paranoia? Is it time to make friends instead of enemies? Is it time to hold out the olive branch, and to release the dove of peace around the world? Is it time to devote our resources to education, health, and construction, instead of death and destruction? We must choose wisely. |