A short history about US involvment in Taliban rule

I was listening to the ABC’s PNN yesterady as Parliament was discussing human rights in Afghanistan and the plight of the Afghan’s under the Taliban. The speeches were very emotional and many members of Parliament spoke of the human suffering and human rights violations still occuring now.

I don’t doubt the sencerity of the speakers’ feelings to help the Afghan people but I always find it astounding that no-one ever makes mention of the fact that how the Taliban ended up ruling Afghanistan in the first place. During the Cold War, in the 1980s, when Russia supported the Communist government in Afghanistan against the Mujahedeen (Muslim fighters ) Resistance the USA wanted the Russians out of Afghanistan. So, together with Pakistan, Iran, the Saudis and China, the US government under Carter armed and financed the Mujahedeen, who were insurgents fighting the Russians. The CIA is said to have given millions of dollars to the insurgents and Ronald Reagan included support for the Mujahedee in his official US foreign policy.

At the same time, Osama bin Laden, originally from a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia, was a prominent organizer and financier of an all-Arab Islamist group of foreign volunteers; his Maktab al-Khadamat funnelled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the Muslim world into Afghanistan, with the assistance and support of the Saudi and Pakistani governments.

When the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan from about 1988, the Mujahedeen came into power. As they were not a unified group the individual war-lords continued fighting each other trying to gain power in Kabul. in 1996, after years of civil war, which had caused devastation and havoc, a new armed movement, with the support of Pakistan and al-Qaeda, ceased power from the various war lords in most of the country. They became known as the Taliban (“students” in Arabic), referring to the Saudi-backed religious schools known for producing extremism. Veteran mujahideen were confronted by this radical splinter group in 1996.

So the Taleban, once supported and partially financed by the US in order to oust the Russians, began to rule Afghanistan and enforced one of the strictest interpretations of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world. they became notorious internationally for their treatment of women, who were forced to wear the burqa in public. They were allowed neither to work nor to be educated after the age of eight, and until then were permitted only to study the Qur’an. They were not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperon, which led to illnesses remaining untreated. They faced public flogging in the street, and public execution for violations of the Taliban’s laws.

By 2001 a million Afghans had fled Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of people had died and the prominent opposition leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, who had tried to protect the population from the rule of the Taliban, was assassinated on 9 September 2001. Two days later the Twin Towers were attacked and it was this horrendous terrorist act which caused the US  to take military action in Afghanistan.

What is astounding is that US government paid no attention to the suffering of the Afghan people after the withdrawal of the Russian forces in 1989. As long as their arch enemies were gone the US considered their job done and paid no attention to the humanitarian crises developing in Afghanistan, the draconian law imposed by the Taliban. Their self serving support of the Mujahedeen ultimatley caused the rise of the Taliban and created the perfect training ground, with the help of Pakistan, for Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.  The suffering, starvation and horrendous political situation in Afghanistan was never an issue for the US administration until the time when their own nation came under attack. The US felt no responsibility to help the Afghan people although it was they and their allies who had played a major part in creating the political environment in which the Taliban came to power and which caused  the  injustice of Sharia law and the human rights violations the Afghan people have endured since 1996.

2 May 2011:

Bin Laden killed in US raid on Pakistan hideout

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/bin-laden-killed-in-us-raid-on-pakistan-hideout-20110502-1e56d.html

The attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001 was evil and a terrible act of violence and I can understand that Osama’s death gives many Americans a sense of closure, especially those who are and were directly affected. There is no question …that we all were horrified and shocked to see this tragedy unfold before our eyes.
I say this because I feel genuine and deep empathy for everyone who was affected personally by this horrorific attack. It is because of this feeling of helplessness and empathy at the memory of all who died that day that I am once again reminded of the political decisions made by Carter, Reagan and Bush, which significantly contributed to the rise of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and a strengthening of the fanatical Islamist movements in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is due to American support of these fanatical groups, beginning in the Cold War years, which aided terrorists like Osama bin Laden to get a foothold.
Osamam bin Laden, the man, whose megalomaniacal demagoguery, religious fanaticism and anti Western hatred led to the mindless and devastating attack on thousands of innocent Americans in 2001, had been instrumental in the suppport of the Taliban Dictatorship in Afghanistan. Millions of Afghanis died suffering under the Taliban due to Carter’s, Reagan’s and Bush’s actions. However, the guilty parties for the starvation, suffering, complete loss of political and religious freedom, lies with not only the Taliban but also the US governments of the time. The US wanted to do whatever it took to get Russia out of Afghanistan and was willing to arm and finance the most fanatical Muslim Islamists not matter how dangerous their ideas. Osama’s death should not bring triumphant celebrations but feelings of grief for those who died in September 2001 but also for the millions of dead Afghans who seem to conveniently have been left out of the historic events leading up to a ‘war on terror’ that has now lasted almost 10 years..