Imtiaz Gul
The Afghan society continues to suffer as the country’s conservative tribal make-up generates feuds and assassinations, writes Imtiaz Gul.
What lies behind Afghanistan’s current woes? What are the constant and trigger factors that have bled the country for over four decades? Outsiders, as many of the Elites point out, or selfish Elites, Disunity and a Tribal Mindset?
Let us consider what constitutes the constant in Afghan society and what are the external trigger factors?
Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US peace envoy for Afghanistan, insists that former President Ashraf Ghani’s “intransigence” and the Afghan elite’s “selfishness” pushed the turmoil-hit nation into the current morass.
The Afghan-born US envoy, often trolled and abused by Afghans from their comfortable abodes in Americas, Canada and Europe, acknowledges that outsiders might have played a role but the primary responsibility lay squarely on Afghans, especially those who occupied key dollar-denominated positions to run the country over the past four decades of deadly conflicts.
Khalilzad’s criticism of the Afghan elites has drawn immediate retaliation from some of those who served in the Hamid Karzai and Ghani administrations in Kabul, including Amrullah Saleh and Rangin Dadfar Spanta. They blame Khalilzad for paving the ground for the Taliban return to power. Quite a twist to the course of events that has gradually been unfolding since December 2019, when former president Donald Trump approached Imran Khan, the Pakistani prime minister, for help in engaging with the Taliban. The February 2020 Doha Deal between the US and the Taliban, the inconclusive Intra-Afghan dialogue resulted from Trump request. But unfortunately, as pointed out by Khalilzad, intransigence and the tendency to deflect from own failures saw the Taliban return to power on August 15.
The Impact of Political Assassinations on Afghan Society
A glance over the litany of cold-blooded high-profile murders and internal intrigues stemming from domestic feuds – beginning with the deposition of Afghan King Zahir Shah in 1973 – in fact testifies to Khalilzad’s assertions – naked undeniable facts on what Afghan elites have been doing to one another. The Afghan society continues to suffer because of the bloody power game—aimed at securing the vested interests of the powerful.
The influx of information on social media about current affairs does not allow people to step back and study the events in proper historic prospective, making it difficult to draw any solid conclusions about why the Afghan society continues to suffer. Afghanistan is the classic example. Here is what happened over the past four decades rather than indulging in a debate whether Khalilzad or others are telling the real story, or whether this or that country is responsible for the current situation.
# President Sardar Mohammed Daud was overthrown and murdered in a coup led by pro communist Afghan rebels in April, 1978.
# In September 1979, Noor Mohammad Taraki was himself overthrown and murdered by supporters of Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin
# On Dec. 27, Amin himself and many of his followers were executed
# President Dr.Najeebullah was executed by in April 1992 by the “sons of soil” who had in 1980s/1990s been hailed as great Afghan freedom fighters
# Ahmed Shah Masood was killed by disguised Arab journalists in September 2001– Not Pakistan
# It was a rigid Afghan Mulla Omar who refused to expel his guest Osama bin Laden and pushed Afghanistan into yet another war. He even ordered all Pakistani diplomats to leave Afghanistan once a sham jirga decided not to expel Osama bin Laden in late September 2001. By doing so, Mulla Omar pushed his country into another protracted but futile war which ended when the United States struck a peace deal with the same Taliban it had come to hunt.
# Arab hijackers crashed four commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center Towers in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania field. Did they carry Pakistani passports?
Time For Afghan Elite To Face Up The Reality
Isn’t time for the Afghan elites to face up the reality i.e. for nearly two decades tens of thousands of Afghans spied on their own people and helped assassinate thousands of Afghans in day and night raids by the notorious Paktika, Paktia and Khost Protection Forces.
Both Karzai and Ghani had been pleading the US Security apparatus to stop the night raids.
Outsiders, Tribal Make-up And Afghan Society
While outsiders ( Soviet Union, US, Pakistan, Iran ) may be partially responsible – as trigger factors – for the crises facing Afghanistan, but those familiar with Afghanistan – be it Khalilzad or someone else – the primary reasons rest in the country’s conservative tribal make-up that has bred feuds in the Afghan society and resulted in political assassinations for decades, serving the interest of most powerful or influential and only making life difficult for ordinary Afghans.
Moral of the Story
The Afghan elites , particularly those ensconced abroad, would probably serve their country better if they stopped deception, deflection and a scapegoating behaviour that will only make life difficult for the millions that are still struggling for peace and economic survival.
