Reflecting on

Global Disenchantment

This section presents analysis on socio-political issues through a cross-cultural perspective

In an act with extraordinary historical resonance, United Nations officials covered up a tapestry reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s anti-war mural “Guernica” during US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s February 5 presentation of the American case for war against Iraq.

"The Americans will always do the right thing... after they`ve exhausted all the alternatives."       --Winston Churchill on American foreign policy
Two Daughters by their two Fathers

2005 aol 'Picture of the Month' collection

State of the World

The dark side of us has been targeting the children recently. The glaring omission of the ethno-religious identities of these children are too obvious to ignore: The Israelis attacking Palestinian children in Gaza, ISIS targeting Yazidi children in Iraq,  Boko Haram targeting Christian children in Nigeria, the Syrian air force dropping chlorine gas bombs on the Sunni children, and the US-backed Afghan forces targeting Pashtun children in Afghanistan. Your politics may look the other way, but your conscience won't.  You could close your eyes on the images of this disturbing reality, but you cannot make the seen unseen. 

To read the perspectives on State of the World shared by Aisha Faiz and Noor-Malika Cheshti click here 

and those who dare to report on it

Now that the world has sufficiently mourned the tragic death of the journalists in Paris, perhaps it’s time to remember the many journalists killed trying to expose the atrocities of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2014 alone, the 36th year of the perpetual war in Afghanistan, the hand of terror snuffed out the lives of these journalists. Let's live through remembrance the dreams of the thousands unnameable victims of these wars of aggression and of those who risked their lives to tell the untold stories.

April 15, 2013 Boston, Massachusetts - April 7, 2013 Kunar, Afghanistan

Terror has no face; tragedy has no name to the fallen angels and risen souls to whose innocence we’ve lost our humanity in the same week. On the left the youngest victim of the Boston Marathon terrorist attack and on the right the young victims of the hidden side of Operation Enduring Freedom through the precision bombing of one of many NATO air strikes in Kunar, Afghanistan. One Newtown too many and too frequently for a country 1/10th the size of ours.

Same God, Different Perceptions

                                                                       -- Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a.

مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَلِكَ كَتَبْنَا عَلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنَّهُ مَن قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَا أَحْيَا النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَلَقَدْ جَاء تْهُمْ رُسُلُنَا بِالبَيِّنَاتِ ثُمَّ إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنْهُم بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ فِي الأَرْضِ لَمُسْرِفُونَ

Because of this did We ordain unto the children of Israel that if anyone slays a human being-unless it be [in punishment] for murder or for spreading corruption on earth-it shall be as though he had slain all mankind; whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind. And, indeed, there came unto them Our apostles with all evidence of the truth: yet, behold, notwithstanding all this, many of them go on committing all manner of excesses on earth.

                                                                                                                      -- The Holy Qur’an - Al-Maeda, Aaya 32 (5:32)

Palestinian children, wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, cry as they lay on the floor at the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip,Thursday, July 24, 2014.

Photo - Associated Press.          

To see more click here

Some defer, some beg to differ 

Joan Rivers to Palestinians: "You deserve to be dead."

Israel parliament deputy speaker's Gaza genocide plan: "Concentrate" and "exterminate."

Israeli parliament member Ayelet Shaked: "They are all our enemies and their blood should be on our hands.  This also applies to the mothers of the dead terrorists."

Some have conscience and beg to differ. 

David Attenborough - July 21, 2014 5:08 PM

I am unaware of any animal that is as cruel as Israelis – not even crocodiles. They bomb schools, hospitals, refugee camps, orphanages, UN feeding stations, water works, power plants, ambulances, kids playing on the beach. They put millions of people in a siege. They shoot children going to school. They kidnap kinds and harvest their organs. They inject prisoners with disease pathogens before releasing them. They murder by land, sea and air. And worst of all, they slander their defenceless victims as “terrorists”.

Irish Senator David Norris: (play the video clip to the right).

For a somewhat vulgar, but apt cartoon depiction of the Gaza crisis click here.

False anti-Semitism charges used to undermine campus movement for Palestinian rights

On Monday, Palestine Solidarity Legal Support (PSLS) and CCR released findings regarding the increasing use of accusations of anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses to suppress speech critical of Israeli policy.  Between January and April of this year, PSLS documented 60 incidents involving accusations of anti-Semitism made against students or faculty and 24 incidents involving accusations that students or faculty were “terrorists” or “supporters of terrorism,” based solely on speech critical of Israeli policy.  At two universities, for example, votes on divestment resolutions were blocked because Israel advocacy groups claimed they would create an anti-Semitic climate.
 Such attacks deliberately conflate advocacy on behalf of Palestinian human rights with anti-Semitism in order to undermine such advocacy, including the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, as a way to shut it down. They thereby violate the free speech rights of students and scholars and undercut the university as a place of debate and critical thinking; they also detract from the fight against true anti-Semitism. 

Netanyahu will be remembered for speaking Israel's truth

For at least 25 years most Israeli statesmen have been lying, misleading the world, the Israelis and themselves, until Netanyahu arose. Better late than never.

By Gideon Levy Mar. 22, 2015 | 10:13 AM |

I would like to say thank you to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Thank you for telling the truth. Last week you were revealed as the first Israeli prime minister to tell the truth. For at least 25 years most Israeli statesmen have been lying, misleading the world, the Israelis and themselves, until Netanyahu arose – he of all statesmen – and told the truth. If only this truth had been told by an Israeli prime minister 25 years ago, maybe even 50 years ago, when the occupation was born. Still, better late than never. The public rewarded him for this truth, and Netanyahu was elected for a fourth term.

Astrological Reading of the Day of Loya Jirga

November 24, 2013 

The American team stole 11 bases (one more than expected) while the Afghans not only lost on their home turf, they forked over the whole turf along with their sovereignty.  Rumor mills speak of game-fixing that will be detrimental to the national standing of the current Afghan team in future political competitions.

Astrological charts on this day read this to be a case of parenthetical perplixities. As the signing date of agreement, the 2nd day of Sagittarius, the Archer, or two parentheses suggests, placing things between two parentheses may make its implementation optional.  

In the Afghan astrological reading the date of the agreement is the 2nd of qaws, 1392 or the day of two qawses  i.e. qawsayen ( قوسین ) places Afghanistan in qabza-e qawsain (قبضه قوسین) or held in the grip of two arches.  This indeed was the cases as the Afghans were presented with a predicament of either yielding their sovereignty to a global power today or losing it to a regional bully tomorrow.  Their freedom was not an option as a country that took pride in its two century long stand of neutrality resisting colonial intrigues succumbs to a clever neo-colonial scheme.

The Bilateral Security Agreement

The subject of the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement or the Bilateral Security Agreement is being hotly debated these days and has been addressed in detail in our Pashto/Dari website Stanizai.com  Here we would like to address a debate from the Internet email line that had taken a disturbing turn recently.  The debate for and against the agreement began with two Afghan scholars Dr. Waheedullah and Dr. Noorzoy.

Based on some legitimate and some trashy emails that have come our way this otherwise sound and healthy debate got derailed when Dr. Waheedullah ‘disqualified’ Dr. Noorzoy for even having the right to discuss the matter, let alone take a position against it.  Dr. Ahmad Shah Durani very aptly and gently reminded Dr. Waheedullah of the Nelson Mandela, i.e. Mother Teresa approach to reconciliation. 

A great opportunity for course-correction was missed at that juncture, instead the debate turned into a dirty mudslinging campaign aimed at the person, integrity, scholarship, and honor of Dr. Noorzoy. The counterpunch came as insults were hurled and accusation were made questioning the integrity and credibility of Dr. Waheedullah using the time-tested character assassination tactic of labeling him as a communist.

                                             Read more

Picture editorial

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O' the demands of a moral imperative

The Bilateral Security Agreement

U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement

Reflecting the sentiments of the majority of Afghans, the banner in the image below reads: "The Bilateral Security Agreement with the U.S. is Tantamount to Treason."

We showcased Afghan women as elected Parliamentarians, but are escorting them out of the hand-picked Grand Assembly for speaking out against the establishment of U.S. military bases the agreement calls for.  Did we liberate Afghan women from the tyranny of the Taliban in the name of Islam to subject them to our tyranny in the name of democracy? Did we help end the Soviet occupation so we can occupy the country instead? 

Does this GI's mission statement:  "Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight?" reflect American ideals or is it the case of one too many rotten apples in a whole rotten barrel for whom we want immunity from prosecution from the Afghan government in the Bilateral Security Agreement?

Has the U.S. mission in Afghanistan been accomplished, economically, militarily, or politically?  Let these images answer the question.  
Afghanistan was a poor country, but not begging poor and certainly not starving poor.  By pouring millions if not billions to virtually bribe officials into corruption the U.S. has created a few of the richest Afghans in the world at the expense of hundreds of thousands of starving ones.  Afghanistan was a poor country, but not dirt poor.
Now its 'dirt,' rare earth minerals gets shipped out of the country every night as the airport becomes an off-limit security zone every night for the take off of giant C130s.  
The give and take of the American mission can be summarized by the captions of these last two images that read: "Rare earth minerals (Rare earth oxides)" versus "reared on earth minors (as fallen Taliban insurgents)." 

Remember after the Iraq invasion, the famous image of 'Mission Accomplished' off the coast of San Diego, California.  These images speak of an Afghanistan the U.S. leaves behind, never mind the ethnic polarization, the political corruption, and the systemic paralysis. 'Mission Accomplished,' indeed.

Peace on Earth begins with Peace in Afghanistan. Peace cannot be achieved by perusing war. If we can talk, we may not need to kill; but when we kill, we’ve eliminated the possibility of talking to achieve peace. 
With all the media, means, and gadgets we’ve developed for communication (radio, TV, newspapers, phones, internet, webs, Facebook, tweets…)
we still choose the barrel of a gun to make a point.  The paradox—we’ve incentivized war to burry peace under the ulterior motives of ‘god,’ greed, and glory. What we DO, matters, not what we claim to be doing. God has blessed us; we are not blessing ourselves. (To take action click on the image of the earth).

If this short commentary about the state of the world, and Afghanistan in particular, didn’t speak to you, perhaps one of the following will.  Click, set back, and watch, but stay awake as your conscience echoes the soundtrack. You may also want to read on some of the atrocious acts of violence inflicted on the 'uncivilized' other by our 'civilized' state apparatus in the name of 'national security'. 

  • Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill  -  Click here
  • “Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars” by Robert Greenwald  -  Click here
  • US aims to stay in Afghanistan for heroin business: Gordon Duff  -  Click here
  • U.S. Role in Global Drug Trafficking by  Konstantin Penzev  -  Click here
  • UK spies to run $100bn Afghan drug industry  -  Click here
  • MI6 seeks drug money in Afghanistan: Gordon Duff  -  Click here
  • Read the latest:
  • CNN Poll: Support for War in Afghanistan dips below  20 percent  - Click here
  • New Ideas for Lasting Peace and Stability in Afghanistan By Ahmad-Shah Duranai  (Click here for a PDF download)
  • I Worked on the U.S. Drone Program—Here's What Really Happens: Fews politicians who brazenly defend drones have a clue about how they actually work. By Heather Linebaugh / The Guardian (Click here for the full text)

The Debate:

The Bilateral Security Agreement

U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement

The subject of the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement or the Bilateral Security Agreement is being hotly debated these days and has been addressed in detail in our Pashto/Dari website Stanizai.com  Here we would like to address a debate from the Internet email line that had taken a disturbing turn recently.  The debate for and against the agreement began with two Afghan scholars Dr. Waheedullah and Dr. Noorzoy.

Based on some legitimate and some trashy emails that have come our way this otherwise sound and healthy debate got derailed when Dr. Waheedullah ‘disqualified’ Dr. Noorzoy for even having the right to discuss the matter, let alone take a position against it.  Dr. Ahmad Shah Durani very aptly and gently reminded Dr. Waheedullah of the Nelson Mandela, i.e. Mother Teresa approach to reconciliation.  A great opportunity for course-correction was missed at that juncture, instead the debate turned into a dirty mudslinging campaign aimed at the person, integrity, scholarship, and honor of Dr. Noorzoy. The counterpunch came as insults were hurled and accusation were made questioning the integrity and credibility of Dr. Waheedullah using the time-tested character assassination tactic of labeling him as a communist.

In Case of Zero Option

B.A. Zikria, MD, FACS - Professor Emeritus & Special Lecturer  

Columbia University - December 7, 2013

The Loya Jirga (Afghan National Assembly) met on November 19-25, 2013 and approved by consensus the bilateral security agreement (BSA) between the United States and Karzai governments.  At the closure of the assembly President Karzai told the 2500 delegates of the nation he would not sign the BSA until next year’s presidential election!

This raises the question of whether residual allied forces should remain or choose the so-called zero option as was done in Iraq.  The National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, immediately flew to Kabul and warned Mr. Karzai that Afghanistan does not hold great strategic value for American interests as he strongly counts on.  She warned him that the U.S. might go the way of zero option.

Seth G. Jones, who had served in Afghanistan, wrote the book, “In the Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan” and is presently the Associate Director of International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation.  On November 26th he wrote in the Wall Street Journal “The Obama Administration should publicly acknowledge its desire to keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014, while U.S. and Afghan officials go back to the drawing board.  The administration should not make the mistake it did in Iraq when it failed to reach an agreement with the government, withdrew all U.S. military forces, declared victory, and then watched al Qaeda resurge in Iraq and neighboring Syria.”  

Ethnocentric Russian and U.S. Strategies Imperil Afghanistan

Anti-Pashtun Ethnic and Geographic Segregationist Plot Serves as a Device to Counter Ascendant Taliban:

By Bruce G. Richardson

Former Bush Administration Ambassador to India and Envoy to Iraq, Robert Blackwell argues that “since the present US battle-plan is not going to weaken the Taliban, and Pashtun support for the US is not on the horizon, a partition of Afghanistan is the best policy/strategy option available to the US and the division of Afghanistan based on ethnic lines is the best course of action for the U.S. to implement its core security interests.” Blackwell’s divisive segregationist plan closely resembles what the British and Czarist Russian empires experimented with during the 19th Century.  Buttressed by sympathetic authors and publishers liberal usage of euphemistic camouflage, also known in the publishing world as an exercise in ‘literary license’, a number of celebrity journalists, essayists and politicians dubbed the ploy the “Great Game”, a calculated term that enjoys a resonance or currency in usage to this day, but in the final analysis, as history cautions, this deadly, biased and divisive strategy had and will again fail miserably upon implementation. Read more

The NSA and the Bush 9/11 Coup

By Gordon Duff

Recent revelations published on the Press TV website, the New York Post and Veterans Today have changed history.

Nine eleven was a coup against the constitution. Additional reports released this week make clear some of the reasons Bush lied to the American people, to congress, our military and our allies, “Obama’s Director for National Intelligence, James Clapper, has declassified new documents that reveal how the NSA was first given the green light to start collecting bulk communication data in the hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists after 9/11.

President Barack Obama’s administration has for the first time publicly confirmed ‘the existence of collection activities authorized by President George W. Bush,’ such as bulk amounts of Internet and phone metadata, as part of the ‘Terrorist Surveillance Program’ (TSP). The disclosures are part of Washington’s campaign to justify the NSA’s surveillance activities, following massive leaks to the media about the classified programs by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

                                                                        Read more

With Bags of Cash, C.I.A. Seeks Influence in Afghanistan

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Published: April 28, 2013

KABUL, Afghanistan — For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.

All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.

“We called it ‘ghost money,’ ” said Khalil Roman, who served as Mr. Karzai’s deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005. “It came in secret, and it left in secret.”

The C.I.A., which declined to comment for this article, has long been known to support some relatives and close aides of Mr. Karzai. But the new accounts of off-the-books cash delivered directly to his office show payments on a vaster scale, and with a far greater impact on everyday governing.

Why the U.S. Paid Karzai's Top Aide

By Eli Lake Josh Rogin - December 18th 2013 5:45 AM

The Afghan president’s top aide was on two USAID contractors’ payroll, drawing more than $100,000 a year as part of a program to install West-backed technocrats in the government.

The chief of staff to Afghanistan’s president drew a salary from two U.S. government contractors in 2002 and early 2003 as he was managing President Hamid Karzai’s office, serving as his spokesman and advising him on foreign affairs, according to documents reviewed by The Daily Beast and subsequent interviews.

The contractor salary provided to Said Jawad was part of a U.S. initiative to directly pay high salaries to Western-educated Afghans who helped rebuild a government from scratch in the midst of an ongoing civil war and foreign occupation.

While some current and former U.S. officials say these measures were necessary in the first months and years of the Afghan reconstruction to attract top talent to a daunting project, other experts say it’s no different from the kind of corruption the Bush and Obama administration have publicly criticized inside the Afghan government.

Burma Burning

This Kristallnacht was perpetrated in the name of another good religion on March 22, 2013 in Meiktila, Myanmar (Burma)

On that odd-numbered date

7 . 11 . 1995

The Earth rises in remembrance of the 8000+ souls in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Heavens descend in compliance.


Photo: Dado Ruvic/Reuters