Afghanistan

Lest we forget.

Four years ago today, 186 children died at Beslan's School Number One after 1,100 people were taken hostage by terrorists, 777 being children.

As we wage one of our despicable wars in Afghanistan, let us pause to reflect what horrors we have wrought, the most recent being the murder of 60 children, as confirmed by the UN,in their sleep, by our airstrikes this past August 22 in western Afghanistan. This follows other atrocities, now long forgotten: the 15 children who died in one of our airstrikes two weeks before Christmas in 2003; 18 January 6, 2006; the 45 killed in the last week of June, 2007; the 9 children and 6 women killed on October 1, 2007; 17 in June, 2007; 22 July 4, 2008; 47 July 6, 2008; 8 July 15, 2008; 50 July 17, 2008; 27 July 26, 2008;

...and the beat goes on.

It is our sad fate that for those who of us who think deeply, feel deeply. I recall that warm autumn September night in 2004. The children were dreaming in their beds. The dog was snoozing at my feet, and the moan of a far off lawnmower was making me drowse in the cool night breeze. I was packing their backpacks in front of the TV with new school supplies: creamy fresh white copybooks awaiting an alphabet, a doodle, and for the smudge, perfumed pink erasers atop perfect pencils, a green lunchbox for a red thermos. And always my note: I love you. And then the news: 1,100 children and teachers taken hostage at Beslan, 334 killed, 186 being children. After watching the footage, I hurried to my children's bedroom, locked the door, and got into bed with my youngest baby to hold so tight. As the ivory light of the moon slowly crept across her blanket, I wept while she slept.

 Dear gentle reader.

Have we lost all compassion, are we now so numb, so dumb to the violence committed in our names by vainglorious yet coward politicians to do nothing but gape?

I have no doubt that a Muslim mother, huddling with her children under a kitchen table in a blackout, sh-shivering with fear, loves them as much as we do here. By refusing to confront the politics that cause such misery, by allowing the cowardice of our politicians to deny what our hearts would affirm, we too, through callous indifference, add just a little more to her pain, destroy just a little more of her hope, and make more certain the death of her children. Guilt drives us to fix our steely gaze strictly upon our shopping malls, cars, and celebrity pratfalls.

How convenient to ignore the blood-soaked political misery and injustice on which our present happy oblivion is ultimately derived. How we are told it is beyond our ken to deal with these issues ourselves which silently scream for our attention.

Why do we not hear the same level of condemnation, the same indignation which arose after Belsan when the US and NATO, today, and in our names, commit the same crime, but only piecemeal?

As American troops die in greater numbers in Afghanistan last month than in Iraq, it is good to hear some words of appreciation from our man in Kabul, on whose behalf our boys are shedding their young blood.

If you are in the mood for some black humour, read and weep as Karzei spills the beans as to who are the really corrupt ones in Afghanistan: us.

Madam President?:
Government Report, Democrats, Accuse Bush of Violations for Missing Anti-terror Plans By Rob Hager
April 22, 2008

The Democratic Congress has declined to make the executive branch accountable for all the various laws that the Bush-Cheney gunslingers have broken since 2001 in the only way it can: impeachment. In the calculation of Democrat vote-counters, the inevitably unsuccessful impeachment proceedings might cost them the margin of victory in 2008. They fear voters may see impeachment as the kind of divisive and diversionary party politics that the Republicans displayed when the tables were reversed. Meanwhile we all have to take the chance that the incompetents in charge will do no more irreversible damage to the national security, economy and Constitution of the United States before adult supervision is restored to the executive branch.

Title, Pakistan’s Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy Making: A Study of Pakistan’s Post 9/11 Afghan Policy
Author Ijaz Khan
Publisher Nova Science Publishers, New York, USA
The book studies Pakistan’s Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy Decision–Making process with the help of Prof. Karl Deutsch’s Streams of Information Model and explains how and so why Pakistan made the decision to support Taliban, then why and how, in the wake of 9/11, it changed that policy, noting the difficulties it is facing as a result of the changed Afghan Policy. It is argued that Pakistan’s support for Taliban was a result of its strategic culture that had developed over years, that saw religious extremist forces as good and reliable tools of policy, more precisely its security policy. Thus all its domestic perceptions were woven around Pakistan’s establishment belief that Taliban serves Pakistan’s regional security interests best. The change resulting in abandoning of Taliban was more a result of external inputs which conflicted with its long held security perceptions which continues to be unchanged for most part. Thus one notes a growing crisis of state and society and more importantly of international credibility as long as Pakistan’s role in the ‘War against Terrorism’ is concerned as pro Taliban Policy continues to be viewed as a better option in a wide range of establishment intelligentsia, not just the religious extremists. The book ends with suggestions how and where to change Pakistan’s decision making process by changing its strategic culture, as required by Pakistan’s announced change in its Foreign/Afghan Policy. The study helps in understanding Pakistan’s role in the ‘War against Terrorism’ addressing issues of capabilities as well as willingness.