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It is common knowledge that Al Qaeda and Taliban were American creations to implement its military agenda in the region.
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In
the aftermath of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, there emerged
numerous resistance groups called mujahedeen to liberate their country.
Amongst them was Al Qaeda established by Osama bin Laden
who
hails from a wealthy Saudi family and gave up all his wealth and
comforts to liberate Afghanistan. Osama Bin Laden funneled money, arms
and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war.
The
US, hell bent on defeating its super rival Soviet Union in Afghanistan
spent billions and supplied mujahedeen with money, training and arms.
This included the supply of lethal Stinger missiles, which shot down
Soviet helicopter gunships while Pakistan, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and
the Gulf States supplied with cash and arms.
Thus
in this war against Moscow bin Laden became a reliable American
partner. He was elevated to heroic state by millions in the Islamic
world due to his magnificent efforts and sacrifices while the US media
gave him all the kudos as a multi-millionaire abandoning his millions
and living in the caves of Afghanistan to fight the Russian occupiers.
As
expected and, as predicted by those who knew Afghan history, the
Afghans got Soviet Union to bleed before withdrawing in humiliation from
Afghanistan within ten years in 1998.
Once
the war was over, instead of closing ranks in the true spirit of
Islamic brotherhood, mujahedeen groups started fighting among themselves
to grab power. People who suffered immense expected peace and relief.
However all their hopes of a better future were dashed and the
infighting brought untold misery.
It
was around this time in the latter part of 1994 there emerged a group
called Taliban-meaning students, whom US war monger President George
Bush thought was the name of a pop-group. America hand in glove with
Saudi Arabia and the oil rich Gulf States selected Afghan students from
religious schools in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan, trained, armed
and financed them to defeat the warring factions and capture power in
Afghanistan.
Taliban
gained control over several Afghan cities in lightning speed and
shocked the world when they successfully captured Kabul in September
1996. Disillusioned with warring factions and several years of conflict,
Afghans welcomed the Taliban who restored some measure of peace and
stability to their troubled nation.
Though
demonized and ostracized by the US and Europe now, Taliban made
significant positive contributions. They brought law and order and
stability to that lawless country, wiped out some rapacious war lords
and gangsters, ended civil wars, stamped out corruption, paved the way
for trade and commerce to flourish by making roads safer for people to
travel from one corner to another without the fear of being waylaid or
attacked, destroyed poppy cultivations and eliminated drug barons to
cite a few.
Taliban
were also known for their honesty, integrity and moral principles. So
much so British woman journalist Yvonne Ridley, arrested by Taliban
while in Afghanistan, converted to Islam following her release due to
the dignified treatment she received from her Taliban captors. This
was quite contrast to the American and NATO soldiers known for their
gang raping of Afghan, Iraqi, Libyan and other women in these
countries.
However,
according to Western media, a flurry of regulations forbidding girls
from attending school and women from working quickly brought them into
conflict with Islamic teachings. Taliban’s extreme policies towards
women, women’s education and employment and the like were contrary to
the rights and privileges offered to women by Islam.
Imagine
the predicament of Afghan women particularly female patients and
doctors. For example no male doctor could treat a woman patient and all
female doctors had been sacked. Women were not allowed to visit or
attend hospitals for treatment creating a nightmare for relief
organizations and medical aid groups. The ban on the education of
females meant that the majority of teachers who were women lost their
jobs as all girls’ schools were closed. As a result there seemed no
future for females aspiring to become doctors or those already qualified
to serve their communities as professionals in other walks of life.
The
immediate need was economic relief to the starving population,
restoration of social order and rebuilding the infrastructure. There
were hundreds of thousands of widows, orphans, maimed and crippled men,
women and children and the aged, and they all needed support. These were
not the priority of Taliban if we are to believe the western media
which remains war mongers deadly tool.
Meanwhile
the US with its own agenda to control the oil sources of Central Asia
tried to make a deal with their Taliban friends for an oil-pipe line
to run from the Caspian Sea and through Afghanistan to the warm waters
of the Gulf. The secret discussion was reported to have taken place in
Texas in the US but was supposed to have fallen through. The US then
believed to have dropped their support for their Taliban friends, and as
a prelude to complementing its designs on the region, unleashed a
well-orchestrated media campaign demonizing the Taliban coupled with an
attack on Islam trying to link both together.
The
media campaign, the UN sanctions and the US pressure on the Taliban
once again brought untold misery to the already impoverished people.
In
the midst came the Kuwaiti crisis triggered by Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Osama bin Laden who saw the
American and NATO atrocities and destruction in the gulf under the guise
of liberating Kuwait turned against America.
Boys between 12 and 18 killed by NATO bombing
Following
a public condemnation of the oppressive and autocratic Saudi monarchy
for allowing U.S. troops to enter and operate in Saudi Arabia, Osama Bin
Laden moved to Sudan and eventually, in 1996, to Afghanistan, where he
had earlier fought against the Soviet troops and where he was warmly
welcomed by the Taliban and its top leader, Mullah Omar. Hundreds of
Gulf and other Arabs who were disgusted with the disgraceful roles of
their rulers in collaborating with US to kill Muslims also joined Al
Qaeda to fight against America.
Taliban
allowed Bin Laden to recruit freedom fighters and run training camps
.The United Nations Security Council passed two resolutions UNSCR 1267
(1999) and 1333 (2000), asking the Taliban to hand over Bin Laden. The
Taliban dismissed Security Council resolutions. After the alleged
bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 the US
asked the Taliban to turn over Bin Laden. The Taliban refused.
In
the midst came the September 11 events in New York and Washington which
were swiftly exploited by President George Bush and his
neo-conservative cabal to impose their hegemony on Afghanistan, and
thus, Central Asia, to serve US oil companies, arms industries and other
corporate establishments. Within 48 hours, George Bush accused Al
Qaeda of masterminding this attack, without any investigation to find
out the actual perpetrators of the 9/11 tragedy and demanded the Taliban
authorities hand them over for trial in US.
Refusing
to yield to US pressure and blackmail, the Taliban asked the US to
submit proof of Osama bin Laden’s involvement in the 9/11 events. The US
was too arrogant to furnish any proof, and put the onus on their new
enemy the Taliban to do so. The Taliban began conducting their own
investigations, but before any conclusive evidence could be collected,
the US Allies invaded Afghanistan.
US ivasion in normal Afghanistan life
The
US, the sole superpower certainly does take the cake for its sheer
bloody conceit, its shameful betrayals of erstwhile allies, breaking its
word dozens of times and imagining it is completely above international
law. It plays by its own rules, thumbs its nose at international
treaties and kicks anyone in the behind when questioned about its
despicably bullying behavior. Its contemptible actions and those of its
sycophantic Western confederates have exposed power politics in their
most primitive and ruthless form.
Washington
let loose its destructive military juggernaut on the poorest of the
poor Afghans, pitiable people forced to forage for a single meal and who
didn’t know where their next nibble would be coming from. All
humanitarian appeals not to wage war on Afghanistan went unheeded.
Taliban was routed out by December 2001; thousands of Afghans were
slaughtered, installed a puppet regime and began implementing its agenda
covering the entire region.
The
US blitz turned what was already a battered and blemished land into a
region of nearly complete devastation. In addition to human casualties,
roads, homes, TV and radio stations and hospitals were destroyed.
Carpet-bombing, missile attack, and cluster bombs were responsible for
killing thousands of civilians. In addition thousands more died from
starvation or exposure, including children, who make up more than half
of the population of Afghanistan. Everyone except the victims failed to
view the issue from the Afghan perspective. Many of these impoverished
victims knew little or nothing about politics. Indeed, a good many of
them were not aware that a country called America even existed. The
bombardment which wreaked unspeakable collateral damage on the nation
was a violation of both international law and the United States law, set
forth in the UN Charter, a treaty ratified by the US and therefore part
of the supreme law of the land under the US Constitution.
The
Taliban would have been the darlings of Washington if only they had
agreed to be party to the proposals of the US oil cartels to exploit the
resources of Central Asia. Their failure to do so and more
significantly their refusal to extradite Osama bin Laden put them on a
crash course with Washington. But they paid dearly for their unyielding
position on bin Laden, demonized as America’s Public Enemy Number One.
They were thrown out of power and suffered slaughter in the process as
the world’s sole superpower exacted its vengeful pound of flesh.
The
US rushed to sign agreements with Central Asian countries for oil
exploration in an endeavor to keep both China and Japan out of the
scene. In the guise of introducing democracy, freedom and human rights,
the US aggression brought back to power war lords, gangsters, hooligans
and murderers, who terrorized, looted and killed innocent people.
Karzai’s administration, protected by US troops, was confined to Kabul,
while opium production began to flourish and drug cartels again became
active. Around 75 percent of world’s opium comes from Afghanistan and
with opium poppy being cultivated in 28 out of 32 provinces and,
according to UN sources, Afghan opium farmers and traffickers brought
home billions.
Ten
years later today Americans had to withdraw with humiliation in the
same way Soviet Union ran away from Afghanistan. This proves what
Indo-Pak sub continent’s great poet philosopher Sir Allama Mohammad
Iqbal said - “Afghanistan remains a grave a graveyard for invaders. So
much even Alexander the Great said “it is easy to get into Afghanistan,
but extremely difficult to get out”.
Taliban
has once again emerged not only as a force to reckon with but to even
drive out Americans. However even today very little is known about the
inner working of the Taliban due to their deep secrecy that has always
surrounded them.
Summing
up the situation Malalai Joya who is the youngest and most famous
female MP in Afghanistan who now lives in exile and whose bravery and
vision have won her an international following had this to state in her
book “ Raising My Voice”;
“Afghans
are represented in the media as a backward people, nothing more than
terrorists, criminals and henchmen. This false image is extremely
dangerous for the future of both my country and the West. The truth is
that Afghans are a brave and freedom loving people with a rich culture
and a proud history. We are capable of defending of independence,
governing ourselves and determine our own future. But Afghanistan has
long been used as a deadly playground in the Great Game between
superpowers, from the British Empire to Soviet Empire, and now the
Americans and their allies. They have tried to rule Afghanistan by
dividing it. They have given money and power to thugs, fundamentalists
and warlords who have driven our people into terrible misery. We do not
want to be misused and misrepresented to the world. We need security and
helping hand around the world, but not this endless US led so called
“War on Terror” which is in fact war against the Afghan people”. By; Latheef Farook
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