April 6, 2003
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
Iraq and Afghanistan
But where is the Singing and Dancing?
by Moor Besharat
Can any superpower export freedom to another nation? Will military 'might' prevail no matter what? Despite sanctions, despite many wars over decades, despite hunger and despite their regime, the people are even more determined to unite against the foreign interference and occupation than ever before. They are unwilling to surrender to the allied sales pitch of 'democracy and freedom'. Iraq today is evidence enough that nations and people unite against the deadliest of odds, even more determined to resist foreign interference and occupation, no matter how well the cause of freedom and their humanitarian liberation is dressed. History repeats itself and man never learns.
Liberation of Afghanistan
In 1979 Soviet Union miscalculated the mood of the Afghan people imagining that its occupation forces would be greeted warmly in Afghanistan. The Russian politicians were after all not doing anything harmful to the Afghan nation, they were merely exporting their version of communism to a country mishandled by its rulers over many years. The Afghan people had been crushed under the combination of the wheels of poverty, corruption, political unrest, lack of freedom for speech and press and, all together the consequences of a deeply suppressed nation. And did the Afghan reality of the time not present the opportunity for an enlightened neighbour to walk in. A neighbour who had found freedom and prosperity in the communism philosophy. A neighbour attempting to export their 'freedom ideology' to Kabul. Every thing went smoothly to begin with and the streets of Kabul were filled with Russian tanks in a matter of one night. Along with the shipments of heavy planes, tall soldiers appeared fearlessly on top of invading tanks and the radio started broadcasting welcome news to the Russians. The puppet government of Afghanistan was installed instantly. But alas, one thing was missing, and this oversight determined the misfortune of the Russian Empire. This omission was the beginning of its crumbling, slowly but surely, and in the course of time this was exhibited in the form of lack of enthusiasm from the ordinary Afghan people to welcome their Russian brothers. No attendance of the public display of atan (national dance) in front of the liberators. For the Russians, however, this was a shock and in reality another example of the misjudgement of the Afghan psychology. For no matter how much the Afghans may dislike their governments, they would not welcome any invasion forces teaching them their foreign ideology and freedom. This recurring behaviour of the Afghans was evident in their history. The Afghans never trusted invaders and their was no reason for them to do so in 1979.
Afghans and the British
The history of Afghanistan tells many tales of scenes such as that of the barbaric behaviour of Chengiz Khan, Timor the lame, the Arabs and more recently that of the British attempts to colonise. The tales that tell why the Afghan nation dislikes invaders, always. The supposedly more civilised Christian British empire in their three clashes against the Afghans, raped women, murdered children, sacked the cities, burnt, towns - to make the Afghans submit - but never achieved this goal and caused the Afghans to be even more determine to fight against them. The British of the time hated Afghans for being war lovers and succeeding to resist. They asked themselves many a times "why these people do not accept us like the Indians and other colonies do?"
Indeed it would have been easier for both the Afghans and the British to accept each other. The British Raj and the Afghan Sepahi (soldier). After all Kabul was much more convenient for the British to reside and rule India from. Like the Babar the Moghul Emperor, they loved the cool weather of Kabul, the magnificent scenery of rivers, mountains, the rose gardens and of course the charcheteh bazzar. The bazaar being the famous acreage of four storeys of covered market with goods from places afar such as China to the East and from Italy to the West. India was dusty and hot in contrast. So there they were, the persistent British Raj having come to establish themselves in Balahesar, the Kabul fort, with their wives and children playing cricket on the green Afghan planes. They misjudged their reception. From the forty thousand soldiers that the British deployed in Afghanistan only one ever escaped to reach the safety of India after the war broke out. This by popular uprising of the ordinary Afghan as there was no army. But Afghanistan also paid a heavy price. In avenge, the British forces invaded again killed many adults, raped the women on route to Kabul and burnt the Balahesar, Chrcheteh, gardens and many historic monuments.
Liberation of Iraq
The US and British invasion of Iraq is under the pretext of Freedom of the Iraq people, and in a way very similar to Afghanistan when Russian prophecy advocated a vision that invasion of Afghanistan was for the benefit of the Afghan masses. It is true that the then invasion force probably also had ulterior motives but covered it well enough under the pretext of the Soviet Union Socialist responsibility to bring freedom to Afghans from their brutal government chain. The cover story did not sell in Afghanistan and neither can it in Iraq. The biggest shock for the coalition "liberators" is not so much the ability of the Iraqis to fight without proper weapons and create headaches for the military might of US and the British, but rather their puzzlement on the lack of Iraqis welcoming them with garlands and dancing with joy in front of the US marines. It shows that even Tony Blair who has more international respect as a politician than Bush got it wrong. He said "freedom of Iraq would be a blessing for the Iraqi people". Blessing from whose perspective, certainly not from that of the Iraqi's. It shows clearly how far removed the psychology of the western leaders and people supporting their actions have misjudged the Iraqis who are not at all like the other Arab countries welcoming the US. The Iraqis will always remember the first Gulf war and the day when their surrendering army consisting of their brothers and fathers was ambushed and assassinated in cold blood in the desert by the coalition even at the time of the official retreat from Kuwait. Afghanistan may have been occupied overnight by the Russians but they could not hold on to it any more than the previous invaders and finally, they were trapped and expelled. Iraq might be overpowered by the military might of the US, who isn't, but military might alone is not sustainable over time. It is easy for the military to invade but much harder and even impossible to change the psychology of the ordinary people to submissively accept foreign freedom or to endure a foreign imposed regime. People have already made up their mind that there is an ulterior motive in this freedom of Iraq coalition operation. Invading a country and trying to win the minds and hearts of its people who lost their loved ones and saw their houses and country destroyed is nothing less than ignorance.
From RAWA -- Revolutionary Association for the Women of Afghanistan (www.rawa.org)
24 March 2003