It is clear from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, that military solutions have not worked.  Perhaps emerging from the dark cloud, peaceful coexistence becomes the future global strategy rather than extensions of power.   My former partner was an ordinary Afghan artist who as a 10 year old recalls the Russians invading his country and his terror at the gunships.  He saw a relatively egalitarian society (women attending university) slowly come under the dark cloud of fundamentalism.  I spoke to his mother and sister who tried to explain to me the difficulty of wearing a chadari to attend wounds as a doctor and the inability to travel outside the house without a male escort.  For women all they can see is the criss cross pattern of threads in a square piece (for eyes) as the only opening in the chardari (burqa), they never feel the wind on their faces and they are severely physically and emotionally suppressed. 

The Americans came as the liberators of Afghanistan through the background lobbying of Joanne Herring who interestingly was a Christian who felt called to help the Afghan people. Wikipedia is sourced to provide an extract of the preliminary situation. My further comments and solutions are below together with the statistics of this war.

Charles “Charlie” Nesbitt Wilson (June 1, 1933 – February 10, 2010) was a United States naval officer and former 12-term Democratic United States Representative from Texas’s 2nd congressional district.

Wilson is best known for leading Congress into supporting Operation Cyclone, the largest-ever Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operation which, under the Reagan administration, supplied military equipment including anti-aircraft weapons such as Stinger antiaircraft missiles and paramilitary officers from their Special Activities Division to the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. His behind-the-scenes campaign was the subject of the non-fiction book Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile and a subsequent film adaptation starring Tom Hanks as Wilson.

In 1980, Wilson read an Associated Press dispatch on the congressional wires describing the refugees fleeing Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. The communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan had taken over power during the Afghan Civil War and asked the Soviet Union to help suppress resistance from the mujahideen. According to biographer George Crile III, Wilson called the staff of the House Appropriations Committee dealing with “black appropriations” and requested a twofold appropriation increase for Afghanistan. Because Wilson had just been named to  the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense (which is responsible for funding CIA operations), his request went through.^[22]

 

Charlie Wilson with George Crile III in Afghanistan.  (who is the Afghan guy?)

That was not the last time he increased the CIA budget for its Afghan operation. In 1983, he won an additional $40 million, $17 million of which was allocated for anti-aircraft weapons to shoot down Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopters.^[23] The next year, CIA officer Gust Avrakotos directly approached Wilson—breaking the CIA’s policy against lobbying Congress for money—asking Wilson for $50 million more. Wilson agreed and convinced Congress, saying, “The U.S. had nothing whatsoever to do with these people’s decision to fight … but we’ll be damned by history if we let them fight with stones.”^[24] Later, Wilson succeeded in giving the Afghans $300 million of unused Pentagon money before the end of the fiscal year.^[25] Thus, Wilson directly influenced the level of United States government support for the Afghan Mujahideen. Wilson has said that the covert operation succeeded because “there was no partisanship or damaging leaks.”^[26] Michael Pillsbury, a senior Pentagon official, used Wilson’s funding to provide Stinger missiles to the Afghan resistance in a controversial decision.  (refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson_%28Texas_politician%29)

What was clear from the film was that no extra monies were spent to help the people recover from the enormous damage, particularly given they are extremely poor, to help them rebuild their country and broken lives.  What was clear was national interest (cold war) was served but that did not include best interest (social policy), the true interest in helping the people, particularly the girls to get educated to give them a stronger voice.  Similar to Iraq, had the peoples in both countries been supported by education and health care there may have been very different outcomes.  I was told by Iraqi women that they needed help to build the middle class and they would have overthrown Saddam Hussein. I think that is an interesting argument for bringing countries up to parity in respect of sharing the wealth. I would venture a change in political/military strategic intention of winning wars (win/lose) to responsibility to protect the people (defence as modus operandi) and social programs (education, health, infrastructure) would deliver different strategic outcomes that would align with the mandate of the United Nations which is to maintain international security and peace, hence serving the greater good rather than specific interests who have no regard for the people.

The dark cloud from my perspective appears to be the oil and energy links at the highest levels.  This reflects the fundamental problem of profit over people filtering into governance and rationales for wars. It appears the wars were on the basis of corporate interests (Afghanistan) and name change (Iraq) according to Scott Ritter former UN weapons inspector. The war on terror appears to have been used to expand militarism. The key issue there is the funding of disgruntled groups to gain weapons to further agendas, the question is who is behind terrorism? who gains? and how to instigate international mechanisms for dispute resolution without violence? Endless war is not an option if our desire is peace.

So the question is – is what happened a crime against humanity?  If so, will justice and reparations be undertaken?  To answer the question place yourselves in the shoes of those Afghans and Iraqi’s who lost family members.  Imagine the rings of pain that eminate from that, the trauma and deep despair of losing someone you love through murder.  Moreover, the people have to try and survive when there is no economy, how to feed children? maintain health? deal with depression? suicides? etc. Afghans and Iraqis are very close to their families, their whole world collapses when they die, not dissimilar to indigenous people who are deeply family oriented.  I recall a SAS documentary where soldiers had accidently killed an Afghan man’s family.  He sat motionless on the ground circled by sitting British soldiers.  They tried to apologise for the death of his family and were giving him money.  I have known Afghans and he would not have understood money replacing his family, to pay them off is inconceivable to these simple people.  I could see the guilt and sorrow in the soldiers faces as the inhumanity of what they had done was evident as they could see the desperate loss for this man, who is clearly not a terrorist.   The soldiers believe they are ridding the world of evil terrorists to find innocent people are paying the price.  It is this reality that is sanitised in the media and the public blindly follow and believe what they read without turning to international justice or their own research to find out what their money (taxes) is being spent on.

I remember my former Afghan partner Kabir not breathing during the night, I had to wake him up as he was experiencing trauma, he saw a lot of deaths. He had a hernia from stress. What I loved about him was that he himself was kind and loving he did not hate the Americans nor the Russians, he hated what had been done by all sides to his country, as it was totally destroyed.  I witnessed his intense guilt living in a western society with a house, money and comforts whilst his people were suffering, starving and being murdered. Can you imagine if it was you?   He is a surrealist painter painting about the blind movement of fundamentalist Islam and its impacts on women.  He saw the insanity of the war and his pain, like his people, just went on and on. Their war never ends, this is the true meaning of endless war. His mother, a simple lady became more political in her speech and the women were angry with the men for allowing war, she would shake her head in despair as the loss was impossible to communicate. She was exiled in Canada and died at 55 of cancer. What I loved about these people is that they were so kind to others and hospitable. I was made to feel welcome, there was no desire to convert me to Islam, we just exchanged culturally and I heard their stories. They were ordinary people like me. This of course is the essence, until we can see other people as ourselves, we continue to demonise whole populations. The moment you see a muslim you think terrorism and that is what brain washing does (repeated messages). I can understand the detachment of people as the news flickers images of wars all the time. We become desensitised, they are pictures not people. Yet when it is our turn, what then? Who will help us? We are indeed our brothers and sisters keepers as they say. We have to find more enlightened ways to solve problems.

According to Costs of War, the final bill is at least $3.7 trillion and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the research project “Costs of War” by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. (www.costsofwar.org)

According to Wikipedia in Iraq Classified US military documents released by WikiLeaks in October 2010, record Iraqi and Coalition military deaths between January 2004 and December 2009.^{[1][3][4][5][10][10][11]} The documents record 109,032 deaths broken down into “Civilian” (66,081 deaths), “Host Nation” (15,196 deaths),”Enemy” (23,984 deaths), and “Friendly” (3,771 deaths).^[7][12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War

In Afghanistan direct & indirect deaths: 17,611 – 37,208.
Refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan_%282001%E2%80%93present%29

According to Wikipedia US soldiers killed in Iraq state: As of February 13, 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, there were 4,408 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile)
Refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#Iraq_Body_Count

In the article below Obama cites 1,800 US soldiers killed in Afghanistan.  It is clear civilian casualties are the real costs of war.  That is why reparations are essential to help the poorest people on the planet, to rebuild shattered lives.

What is the cost of peace and wellbeing?  I venture an infinitesimal fraction.

It is critical to move away from the outdated idea that power is violence and dominance towards a new way of thinking of global representative democracy or parity (equality) where each have responsibility for the whole.  That is, we are all equal. We are one world. We cannot afford war.

As a peace educator myself I have challenges surviving as schools and governments are not funding my work to teach peace education to enable children to solve problems peacefully and not turn to violence as a solution.  Peace is perceived by some as sugar coating or idealistic peace niks or couched in language of peace negotiations, rather than dealing with unresolved issues, illusory projections, power extensions rather than training people to identify real grievances and apply conflict resolution to deal with the problem but not hate the person.

There have been high level proposals put forth for a Department of Peace by US Congressman Denis Kucinich refer http://kucinich.house.gov/issues/issue/?issueid=1564. Here in Australia, Stella Cornellius from the Conflict Resolution Network was on a United Nations Committee advocating for a Department of Peace (1986 International Year of Peace). She died in 2010 aged 91 still advocating for peace in the world. The point being made by peacemakers is that the focus must shift from a mentality of defence (counter strike, attack) to peace building (understanding and cooperation). It moves the world from the tooth and claw mentality of a dangerous world as stated by Thomas Hobbes (English philosopher) to a libertarian world view (cooperation) as stated by the English philosopher John Locke. These two philosophers represent the stark choices of realpolitik (national interest) or an evolving social order where we are one global community. The internet is facilitating this and the old divide and conquer mentality is diminishing as the global population becomes informed by multiple sources. Real peace is stability based on truthfulness and openness and is the only way forward in these unstable times, violence doesn’t work.

In reality peace is the hardest path as it requires us all to look at ourselves not the other.  For the conflicts start within us as we demonise people through projection of our unowned issues, that is called denial.  Foreign populations end up being killed in the name of a cause ‘the war on terror’ or ‘weapons of mass destruction’ to find innocent people had nothing to do with these perceived threats.  What happens is the media and governments create a culture of fear which people support in the aggressor country and violence is justified as a ‘just war’ when in truth, many innocent people are traumatised or die and those in the home country go broke.   I feel it is very important to have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate United States decision making, this could be run by the European Union and designed to investigate and address key issues publicly and openly to ensure it never happens again.  This would also apply to war criminals in Afghanistan who are well known by the people of Afghanistan. So the people are no longer usurped by power brokers, to give them a real voice in the future of their country. I recall in this moment the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics and the glimpse the public is having into the illegal phone hacking scandal and how this affects people on all sides and interestingly, how they think from their perspectives. It gives a real world feel rather than what we read in the papers or the summaries delivered in reports. As a global community we learn, make our own decisions and become involved in our community. Moreover, people can see justice being done rather than being seen to be done. Hence we don’t make the same mistakes again. Authentic leadership is to remember the past and this is why the United Nations was set up to ensure the violence doesn’t happen again.  Here is a brief overview of the UN’s history. Refer http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/united_nations.htm

The United Nations came from a meeting was between F D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. At this time America was not in World War Two though she was giving help to the Allies as a result of Lend-Lease. Roosevelt and Churchill met to discuss what shape the world might take once the war ended.

They came up with the so-called Atlantic Charter. This charter outlined the hopes of Roosevelt and Churchill for a better world. The main points to it were:

All countries should have a democratic government.

All countries would engage in trade freely with one another.

All countries would share in world prosperity.

All countries would seek to reduce their weaponry

To achieve such laudable aims, Roosevelt and Churchill wanted to create “a wider and permanent system of general security”. This was to become the United Nations.

It is time to learn from the past and create a better world.  Truth and Reconciliation is a starting point and universal adherence in law with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so that ordinary people are not used as human shields or for reprisals to punish regimes.    All war can occur on paper when we take full responsibility and educate citizens of the world in peace building leading to both inner and outer peace.

May we emerge from under the dark cloud of ignorance to arise to a new enlightenment.  I send peace to Afghan, Iraqi, US and allied troops who died and all families who lost loved ones.

My last thought with a heavy heart is … love is the answer.  We all have a responsibility to protect civilians and to ensure soldiers are not put in harms way unless it is to save innocent lives or the environment.

http://www.news-press.com/article/20120501/NATION/305010037/Obama-US-emerging-from-dark-cloud-war-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

Obama in Afghanistan, sees ‘light of new day’

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — On a swift, secretive trip to the war zone, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday night that after years of sacrifice the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan is winding down just as it has already ended in Iraq.

“We can see the light of a new day on the horizon,” he said on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death and in the midst of his own re-election campaign.

“Our goal is to destroy al-Qaida, and we are on a path to do exactly that,” Obama said in an unusual speech to America broadcast from an air base halfway around the world.

He spoke after signing an agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai setting post-war promises and expectations. With two armored troop carriers as a backdrop, Obama made his remarks in the midst of his endeavor to win re-election as U.S. president and commander in chief.

The president landed in Bagram in darkness, and his helicopter roared to Kabul for the meeting with Karzai, under close guard, with only the outlines of the nearby mountains visible. Later, back at the base, he was surrounded by U.S. troops, shaking every hand. He ended his lightning visit with the speech delivered straight to the television camera — and the voters he was trying to reach back home.

“This time of war began in Afghanistan,” he said. “With faith in each other, and our eyes fixed on the future, let us finish the work at hand and forge a just and lasting peace.”

Earlier, he delivered a similarly upbeat message to the troops. Noting their sacrifice, he said, “There’s a light on the horizon.”

It was Obama’s fourth trip to Afghanistan, his third as commander in chief. He was about seven hours on the ground in all. He also visited troops at a hospital at the Bagram base, awarding 10 Purple Hearts.

The written agreement that he and Karzai signed is to cover the decade after the planned final withdrawal of U.S. combat troops in 2014. Obama said American forces will be involved in counter-terrorism and training of the Afghan military. “But we will not build permanent bases in this country, nor will we be patrolling its cities and mountains.”

In his speech to the nation, Obama said, “I recognize many Americans are tired of war.”

He said that last year, “we removed 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Another 23,000 will leave by the end of the summer. After that, reductions will continue at a steady pace, with more of our troops coming home. And as our coalition agreed, by the end of 2014 the Afghans will be fully responsible for the security of their country.”

Without mentioning the political campaign back home, Obama claimed that on his watch the fortunes of the terrorists have suffered mightily.

Over the past three years “the tide has turned. We broke the Taliban’s momentum. We’ve built strong Afghan security forces. We devastated al-Qaida’s leadership, taking out over 20 of their top 30 leaders,” he said.

“And one year ago, from a base here in Afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed Osama bin laden.”

In a reference to the destruction of New York’s World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he added, “As we emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home, it is time to renew America … a united America of grit and resilience, where sunlight glistens off soaring new towers in downtown Manhattan, and we build our future as one people, as one nation.”

He spoke for less than 15 minutes, beginning at 4 a.m. in Afghanistan, 7:30 p.m. on the East Coast of the United States. Minutes later, Air Force One was on its way back to Washington.

According to the Pentagon, more than 1,800 American troops have been killed across more than a decade of war in Afghanistan.

Some 88,000 remain stationed there.

Obama flew to the site of America’s longest war not only as commander in chief but also as an incumbent president in the early stages of a tough re-election campaign. Nor were the two roles completely distinct.

His presence was a reminder that since taking office in 2009, Obama has ended the war in Iraq and moved to create an orderly end for the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan.

In the political realm, he and Vice President Joe Biden have marked the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s death by questioning whether Republican challenger Mitt Romney would have ordered the daring raid that penetrated the terrorist leader’s Pakistan hide-out. Republicans are accusing the president of politicizing the event, and Romney is insisting that he would indeed have ordered U.S. forces into action.

Obama slipped out of Washington, flew all night to Bagram, then shuttled by helicopter under a moonlight sky to Kabul to help two strained allies try to turn from war to peace — or at a least stable end to the war. He was greeted by U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker.

The deal does not commit the United States to any specific troop presence or spending. But it does allow the U.S. to potentially keep troops in Afghanistan after the war ends for two specific purposes: continued training of Afghan forces and targeted operations against al-Qaida. The terror group is present in neighboring Pakistan but has only a nominal presence inside Afghanistan.

Obama said the agreement was meant in part to pay tribute to the U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan since the war began. He also underlined his message to Afghans.

“With this agreement I am confident that the Afghan people will understand that the United States will stand by them,” he said.

Karzai said his countrymen “will never forget” the help of U.S. forces over the past decade. He said the partnership agreement shows the United States and Afghanistan will continue to fight terrorism together. The United States promises to seek money from Congress every year to support Afghanistan.

After the signing ceremony in Kabul, Obama flew back to Bagram Air Field. There he offered words of encouragement to assembled U.S. troops. Obama was to be on the ground for about seven hours in Afghanistan.

“There’s a light on the horizon,” he said after cautioning in somber tones that the war’s grim costs were not yet fully paid.

“I know the battle’s not yet over,” he said. “Some of your buddies are going to get injured. And some of your buddies may get killed. And there’s going to be heartbreak and pain and difficulty ahead.” He added that his administration is committed to ensuring that once the war is over, veterans will be given their due.

Officials have previously said as many as 20,000 U.S. troops may remain after the combat mission ends, but that still must still be negotiated.

Information on Afghanistan.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Afghanistan