BAMYAN PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
—The Obama administration (and NATO) wants to:
1. Withdraw gradually in proclaimed Victory and win the 2012 US elections (and NATO to establish their role as the ‘global policemen’ along with the US)
2. Establish permanent military bases in Afghanistan
3. Maintain their hegemony in the region, increasingly important in the light of their diminishing influence in a revolutionizing Middle East.
I think that US officials DO NOT have contact with ALL the important Taliban or insurgent elements (they are a diverse group of tribal power-mongers, criminal gangs and religious ‘extremists’). The US will also not achieve a settlement if they leave out important elements from Pakistan or the Haqqani network.
The Taliban reportedly wants:
1. the release of up to 20 fighters detained at Guantanamo
2. withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan, and
3. a comprehensive guarantee of a substantive Taliban role in the Afghan government.
So, the Taliban will not see eye-to-eye with the US’ aim to establish permanent military bases and to keep remnant foreign troops in Afghanistan, which I think is a US act of ‘terrorism’ that will give the same ‘September 11th’ justification for the ‘jihadists’ to ‘blowback’ with continued or escalated ‘terrorism’.
The ‘Taliban’ naturally wants a comprehensive guarantee of a substantive Taliban role in the Afghan government, rightly worried that it no longer has enough popular support (note that almost all ordinary Afghans detest the Taliban and do not want the Taliban to come back into power—the 10,000 person demonstrations led by Amrullah Saleh and Dr Abdullah on the 6th of May is an example).
So, I think that the ‘negotiations’ are simply ‘violent power negotiations’ which will eventually be touted as a ‘success for the violent power-players (which includes the US/NATO coalition). The ordinary people of Afghanistan and Pakistan will continue to suffer under a violent global politico-militarism.
What I think the peace movement may attempt, in the face of the almost ‘invincible global militarism’, is to:
1. Maximize the worldwide ‘youth-driven’ protests spreading especially across the Middle East, but evident even in Spain now. I suggest starting a ‘Y Not/’ movement, perhaps focusing on ‘Why not equality?’ This would hopefully also ride on world public opinion that is awakening to the possibility of better equality and equity. The June 10 boat Gaza flotilla would be part of a global solidarity against unequal rights.
2. For Afghanistan, there is an urgent, specific need to raise awareness of the ‘terrible consequences’ of the US signing a permanent military bases agreement with the corrupt client Karzai government.
A NONVIOLENT APPROACH is premised on a commitment to the well-being of the People and to non-killing.
We suggest the appointment of an INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION TEAM, an independent, neutral, non-partisan, volunteer, (we cannot over-emphasize the importance of having individuals who are beholden to none except humanity) ‘blue-scarf’ civilian team of mediators that would work with but not under the United Nations in:
1. Reaching an accord for all armed local and foreign groups to cease their killings, an Accord to cease the international method of killings
2. Mediating on behalf of the People of Afghanistan for the interests of the People. All of the people of Afghanistan have to right to live as independent communities within a sovereign nation. The international mediation team would mediate between ALL Afghan groups, regional-country groups including Pakistan and Iran, and US/NATO countries, and this would include mediating for Afghans to be given the rights of independent, sovereign communities.
3. Establishing an international transitional peacekeeping force that will maintain the cessation of war, while determining definite timelines for the complete, responsible withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan. The presence of foreign military in Saudi Arabia was one reason Osama Bin Laden gave for the September 11th attacks, so this mistake must not be repeated in Afghanistan.
4. Establishing a humanitarian and livelihood crises team to provide essential services and employment through independent, interdependent and indigenous systems, thus respecting and meeting the demands of the ordinary people of Afghanistan to have decent independent lives, an independence and dignity which excludes all foreign interference but includes equal relations with all nations.
5. Enabling civil society groups to deliberately organize an Afghan national Consensus and Unity Campaign, across all Afghan ethnic communities in all provinces, including through peace education classes in all institutions of learning. This needs to have the
intentionality and intensity of a national campaign. Such a campaign has never happened. The consensus will serve as a guide to establishing fresh socioeconomic relationships among Afghan communities and forging shared values and rules of law. It will be also used as a guide to formulating future policies of local governance committed to the expressed interests of the People, in structurally and socially overcoming the poverty, corruption, distrust, oppression and nepotism prevalent in the war-torn Afghan society of today.
6. Establishing a locally-appropriate means of restorative justice, an element of which includes meeting the People’s minimum demand for all those involved in past killings to apologize and NOT seek further positions of leadership or power.
7. Removing privileges and unquestioned power and wealth from the system of governance, and implementing reforms for the equitable, transparent and sustainable use and accounting of community and national resources.
8. Holding ‘clean’ local level elections to choose ‘clean’ representatives, representatives who have no involvement in any killings in the past and who are not known to be corrupt, as is expected in the Islamic or any faith. The representatives will be chosen for positions that do not confer any special privileges or wealth.
We have offered some far from comprehensive suggestions, confident that humanity is capable of many other creative, nonviolent ways, confident that we all wish for the days and nights when we can finally live without wars.