Afghanistan
On September 11th, 2001, the primitive religious fascists
of Al-Qa'ida - supported by the
barbarous, illiterate Taliban regime of Afghanistan -
attacked America,
killing thousands of innocent men, women and children.
America viewed this (quite properly) as a declaration of war,
and attacked Afghanistan immediately.
Within ten weeks
of the Sept 11th attack,
the entire Taliban regime had been destroyed,
and Al-Qa'ida had been scattered, with thousands of jihadis dead.
They have not staged a mega-attack since.
By historical standards,
it was a stunning victory.
Attack the West, and your regime will end.
- This equation, and the
skill and bravery of the American (and Allied) soldiers
who enforce it, is what keeps civilization alive
against the many savages and barbarians
all over the world
who would destroy it.
The impressive
Prince Harry of England
is a symbol of the West's long-term commitment to this global struggle against Islamist terror.
The West is a formidable enemy.
In the 20th century, it destroyed Fascism and Communism.
And now Islamism is in its sights, and will also in turn be destroyed.
Saudi princes live a decadent life of pleasure in their palaces.
Enemy leaders Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri hide unseen in caves.
But
Prince Harry, the younger brother of the future King of England, and maybe even the future King himself,
risks his very life in Afghanistan in this struggle of decency against evil.
He has been in combat.
He has actually killed enemy Islamist fighters.
This is the most impressive act by a member of the Royal family
in many years.
Note that other Royals saw combat against other tyrannies:
Prince Andrew
fought against the Argentine military dictatorship,
and
Prince Philip
fought against both Nazi Germany and Axis Japan.
Image from here.
History
Background to the war
The war
- The West wins again
-
Rejoice, rejoice
- The
Daily Telegraph
celebrates victory.
-
The war was fast, easy and a stunning success.
The complete opposite of the "quagmire" that
Robert Fisk
and a thousand other ignorant
media whiners predicted.
- "Today .. everyone who cast doubt on the
possibilities of success and everyone who sneered at
American "gung-ho" should observe a period of silence.
The rest of us should, to use a famous phrase from another
war, "just rejoice rejoice"."
-
It was a stunning display of
the bravery and
awesome skill and power
of the US military and its allies.
Give thanks that
civilization is protected
by such brave men and women.
-
So what have the anti-war crowd got to say now?
by Anne McElvoy
- "We were warned that this would be America's Vietnam ...
The West would get bogged down in a ground war,
the bombing campaign was "getting nowhere".
The first time this objection was raised to me was six days
after it began and every week
thereafter.
...
I've known minor roadworks that took longer to complete than the
fall of Kabul."
-
Victory Shifts
the Muslim World
by Daniel Pipes
- Overwhelming American military victory
will not alienate the
Islamic world,
but rather will make the
Islamic world
turn towards the West,
and see fundamentalism as the creed of losers,
which is what it is.
See followup.
- Arabs on our side
by Fareed Zakaria
- Countering radical Islam
by Charles Krauthammer
- Max Singer
on how to counter the popularity of Militant Islam:
"I would argue that the heart of an effort to
minimize support for MI is to use US power to convince
Moslems that it is too dangerous to attack the West."
- The utter failure of the Irish media
on the war on Afghanistan
-
The Afghan war is only the start
- article
by Charles Krauthammer
- What Are We Fighting For?
by Victor Davis Hanson
- First note that Bin Laden is an open liar.
First in Sept 2001, in front of the world,
he
denied carrying out 9/11.
Later, in front of the whole world, he openly takes credit for it.
You have to understand that
lying to infidels
is
not considered sinful
by religious Islamists.
-
Captured private video, Afghanistan, Dec 2001:
"we calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy,
who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors
that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all.
.. due to my experience in this field, I was thinking
that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure
of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only.
This is all that we had hoped for.".
- Public U.S. election video, Nov 2004:
"I say to you, Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers.
But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the
American/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.
...
And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish
the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste
some of what we tasted
...
It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces
would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone,
the time when they most needed him.
But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat
and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes
and their butting of the skyscrapers,
we were given three times the period required to execute the operations - all praise is due to Allah."
- Public audio, May 2006:
"I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers"
-
Ayman al-Zawahiri video, July 2006
- "About a year before the two raids of New York and Washington DC the leader,
Abu-Hafs (may Allah
have mercy on his soul), gave a lecture to a group of trainees about Palestine and the Muslims'
conditions in Qandahar. At the end of the lecture the hero,
Muhammad Attah
(may Allah have mercy
on his soul) stood up and asked the leader with seriousness and enthusiasm "what is the way to defeat
the attack on Palestine?" and America knows very well the rest of the story."
-
Video released Sept 2006
showing Bin Laden with the 9/11 hijackers.
-
Video captured by US 2001-2,
released Oct 2006,
showing the 9/11 lead pilots Mohammed Atta and
Ziad Jarrah
at Bin Laden's camp in Afghanistan in 2000.
-
Al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahri says they carried out 9/11, Apr 2008.
He attacks 9/11 truthers.
In his bizarre, hate-filled, narrow sectarian world,
he accuses the Shia Muslims
of spreading these
conspiracy theories, such as that Israel carried out 9/11:
"The purpose of this lie is clear - (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history."
Also here.
Ziad Jarrah and Mohammed Atta,
the smiling faces of modern religious evil.
Video still, 2000
(note, this is when
Clinton
was president).
The following year, these two starry-eyed religious young men attacked American civilian targets,
killing 3,000 American men, women and children for no reason.
- The mass killer of innocents
Osama Bin Laden was, I used to think,
killed by the brave US military in late 2001
in Afghanistan.
- The reason I thought he was dead
was there had been no clearly dated videos since 2001.
Just audiotape.
- Bin Laden Is Dead?
-
Bin Laden Is Dead by Tony Allwright, 2002.
- Bill Whittle,
October 06, 2004:
- "God, the restraint that the President must have when that murdering bastard's name is mentioned
in derision as a sign of Bush's incompetence.
It's practically superhuman.
...
Osama made endless videotapes. Lecturing, preaching, instructing, firing an AK-47: all the things that make
young jihadis feel funny in the pants. After 9/11, he wowed 'em in several tapes gloating and laughing
over the attack and its aftermath. He was reliably heard on the radio during the final phase of Tora Bora,
then .. nothing.
...
The freaking invasion of a Muslim country by the Great Satan,
and this new Caliph, the Leader of the Oppressed, cannot bring himself to shoot a crummy VHS
in front of a white wall condemning this outrage? This glory-seeking egomaniac,
.. who practically put out a 10 DVD commemorative set every time the US so much as hiccupped,
is now suddenly silent, and has been for three years?
You may call that a Terror Mastermind. I call it a greasy wet spot on the wall of a cave in Afghanistan.
The man is dead. Dead, or just possibly captured. The likelihood of him having been killed at Tora Bora
.. was rising with his deafening silence concerning each American counterstroke
and became 100% when nothing was heard from the late Osama after the US invasion of Iraq."
- "Does President Bush know what became of him? I would say, very likely.
...
Now, do I fault President Bush for not announcing this? I do not. For the President to not disclose something so beneficial to himself, politically, must mean that there is a reason of great magnitude behind the official silence.
Are we, the American People, entitled to know what this secret is?
We are not.
We are not for the same reason we were not entitled to know that allied cryptographers won WWII by breaking
the Japanese and German codes and having the good sense to shut up about it.
...
I suspect that if I live another ten years, I'll be sitting watching the History Channel some night
.. and all will be revealed to me. Until then, I'm happy not to know.
I know some people have a hard time with that. Go to hell. This is serious business.
Not everything is about you."
-
Bin Laden is alive:
- Or so it seems, from his video released
to try to influence
the U.S. election, Nov 2004.
-
Bin Laden Springs Back to Life
- About the new video:
- There is no image in the video to date it.
Bin Laden never holds up a newspaper or anything.
All there is is the audio.
- The audio is clearly new. It mentions Iraq, Kerry,
Fahrenheit 9/11, etc.
- Presumably the audio synchs with Bin Laden's lips,
or someone would have pointed this out.
So it looks like he was speaking it.
So he is alive!
- This is incredible.
If he is alive, why has he released no video in 3 years?
Why no video for the Iraq War?
We're going to have to re-assess everything.
Maybe those audio recordings over the past 3 years
really were him.
-
Bin Laden video, Sept 2007.
- Still no image in the video to date it.
Could he hold up a newspaper or something?
- He praises leftist
Noam Chomsky:
"This war was entirely unnecessary, as testified to by your own reports. And among the most capable of those from your own side who speak to you on this topic and on the manufacturing of public opinion is Noam Chomsky, who spoke sober words of advice prior to the war, but the leader of Texas doesn't like those who give advice."
- Like Nazi propaganda in WW2
claiming that they cared about the people of Britain,
Bin Laden spews out leftist criticism of Bush
that he knows will work with the naive in the West:
"It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interests of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations.
And with that, it has become clear to all that they are the real tyrannical terrorists. In fact, the life of all of mankind is in danger because of the global warming resulting to a large degree from the emissions of the factories of the major corporations, yet despite that, the representative of these corporations in the White House insists on not observing the Kyoto accord, with the knowledge that the statistic speaks of the death and displacement of the millions of human beings because of that, especially in Africa."
As if Bin Laden gives a shit about global warming or black Africans!
- By the way, his main point is to oppose "the democratic system" itself,
not to argue for a reformed version of it.
He thinks Bush is an argument against democracy.
- He shows the great hope he had that
the Democrats
would bring about a surrender,
and how disappointed he is that this has not yet happened:
"Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven't made a move worth mentioning. ... why have the Democrats failed to stop this war, despite them being the majority?"
- He fakes concern for the "suffering" American public:
"And Iraq and Afghanistan and their tragedies; and the reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages".
As if Afghanistan or Waziristan could even dream of the wealth of the Americans.
As if Islamism rather than capitalism can generate a
GDP of
$44,000 per capita
for 300 million people!
As if Bin Laden even gives a shit about earthly wealth!
- He praises
Michael Scheuer
and
Emmanuel Todd.
- He praises and quotes
a Guardian anti-war video,
"Inside the Surge: Baghdad"
by Sean Smith.
- David Brooks
on the video:
"you read this thing, and it's like he's been sitting around reading lefty blogs, and he's one of these childish people posting rants at the bottom the page, you know, Noam Chomsky and all this stuff.
You can't help read it and not laugh at it".
- It seems to me that Bin Laden is alive,
but I wouldn't totally dismiss the alternative theory:
-
Tony Allwright still makes the case that Bin Laden is dead, Oct 2007:
"Why are these fifteen recordings of such poor technical quality? For years, now, anyone with a laptop, microphone and webcam can record audio and video of almost professional quality, undreamt of just a decade ago. But with OBL recordings so few and far between, it is inconceivable that these productions would be other than of the highest calibre, designed to frighten the infidels and inspire the faithful.
There is only one explanation: Osama bin Laden is dead.
...
All "recordings" since 2001 are fabrications".
- It's a good question.
Why are all the tapes of such terrible quality?
The Taliban remnants, 2001 to date
Unlike the jihad in Iraq,
which successfully managed to start an inter-Muslim civil war,
the jihad in Afghanistan
has had little success since liberation.
These fascist scum may fight on for years, though.
-
Opinion survey, 2004
- 65 percent approve of the US.
13 percent approve of the Taliban.
This would make Afghans far more pro-US than Europeans.
As Tony Allwright notes,
"I don't think any other country would give a 65% approval rating
to America, probably not even Americans."
-
Opinion survey, Jan 2006
- 81 percent of Afghans said al-Qaeda is having a negative influence in the world.
- 90 percent have an unfavorable view of Osama bin Laden.
- 88 percent have an unfavorable view of the Taliban.
- 82 percent of Afghans supported the American war on Afghanistan.
- As Richard Waghorne
points out:
"The liberation of Afghanistan - surely one of the most just wars in history
- was opposed by something like 40 percent of Irish people."
- 83 percent of Afghans have a favourable view of the U.S. military.
- 79 percent approve of the U.S. military
"conducting operations to capture or kill al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan."
- 81 percent have a favorable view of the US.
- 82 percent approve of women in Parliament.
- 83 percent said their country is heading in the right direction.
- 66 percent of Afghans
believe Pakistan
is still supporting the Taliban
and allowing it to operate.
- 63 percent of Afghans have an unfavorable view of Pakistan.
-
Poll, Dec 2006:
- 75 percent of Afghans believe their quality of life has improved since the fall of the Taliban.
- 70 per cent say they are "grateful"
rather than "unhappy" with the presence of Nato troops in the country.
- Just 5 per cent expressed support for Taliban fighters.
- Just 11 per cent expressed support for jihadi fighters from other countries.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, inauguration, December 7, 2004:
"Whatever we have achieved in Afghanistan
- the peace, the election, the reconstruction, the life that the Afghans are living today in peace,
the children going to school, the businesses,
the fact that Afghanistan is again a respected member of the international community
- is from the help that the United States of America gave us. Without that help, Afghanistan would be
in the hands of terrorists
- destroyed, poverty-stricken, and without its children going to school or getting an education.
We are very, very grateful, to put it in the simple words that we know, to the people of the United States of America
for bringing us this day."
- And he's no CIA-chosen puppet.
He got 4.4 million votes in a free election - a whopping 55% of the vote.
He speaks for a lot of Afghanis
- the ones who in fact, if given the chance,
will make something of their country.
- news
- politics
(and here
and here)
- human rights
(and here)
- women
(and here)
- Human rights campaigns
- Human rights reports
- Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
- Womens Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan
-
Liberal Democratic Party of Afghanistan
- Religious freedom reports
-
Afghanistan election, Oct 2004
- An actual free, democratic election!
With women voting!
-
The Afghan Miracle:
Why isn't this stunning U.S. success appreciated?
by Charles Krauthammer, December 10, 2004.
".. against all expectations, Afghanistan is the first graduate of the Bush Doctrine
of spreading democracy in rather hostile places. A success so remarkable and an end so improbable
merit at least a moment of celebration."
- Victor Davis Hanson,
November 19, 2004,
on the left's sour reaction to Afghanistan's liberation.
Yes, it's early days, and there's a long way to go.
But why does it seem as if the left doesn't care
about the progress Afghanistan has made?
"Western feminists, homosexual-rights advocates, and liberal reformists
have never in any definitive way expressed appreciation for the Afghan revolution
now ongoing in the lives of 26 million formerly captive people. They never will.
Instead, Westerners simply now assume that there was never any controversy,
but rather a general consensus that Afghanistan is a "good thing"
- as if the Taliban went into voluntarily exile due to occasional censure from
The New York Review of Books."
Afghanistan is now ranked as "Partly Free"!
- The Taliban have been defeated,
and
the war removed a direct threat to the west.
So the war is already a success.
- Whether Afghanistan itself can become a truly free country is another matter.
How free Afghanistan can become will be constrained by its traditional culture.
One would have to say that anything "Partly Free"
in Freedom House's rankings would be a clear victory.
-
Afghanistan is now rated
"Partly Free"
by Freedom House!
The toughest job in re-building
Afghanistan and Iraq is to ensure that democracy
and modern freedom replace
the backward, traditional tribal and religious laws.
This may be impossible, I know.
The pessimists and isolationists may be right.
The Afghans may not be ready for freedom.
We may have to wait decades, or even centuries, before Afghans are ready for the modern world.
I hope this isn't true.
Even if it is true, the war was still worth it for many other reasons.
A pro-West Islamic state is still a major victory
over a pro-terrorist Islamic state.
But it is a much bleaker scenario.
I don't believe it's true, and it's far too early to give up now.
The struggle isn't over yet.
What I and others said when Abdul Rahman was threatened with death:
- Bush and Hamid Karzai, you've got to stop this now,
if you want neo-cons like me to keep supporting you.
If this man dies, then what is the point of re-building Afghanistan?
- Trial of Christian mocks U.S. sacrifices
- "Over the past four years, 300 U.S. troops have given their lives to
drive the Taliban and al-Qaida from power in Afghanistan.
... The trial of Abdul Rahman is a rank insult to their memories."
-
Tell Afghan court belief is no crime
- "Canadian troops have died in Afghanistan helping to oust the Taliban regime, to free 28 million people from tyranny and to restore democracy.
...
Canada did not come to the aid of Afghans ..
to install a backward, illiberal regime where people can be sentenced to hang
for their religious beliefs."
- America should at least threaten to withdraw its support for the government:
- Former Italian President says
Italy should withdraw their troops
unless
Abdul Rahman is freed:
"It is not acceptable that our soldiers should put themselves at risk
or even sacrifice their lives for a fundamentalist, illiberal regime".
- German opposition politician says
Germany should consider withdrawing too:
"if Afghanistan does not quickly modernize its legal system,
Germany must think over its help for Afghanistan".
- Charles Adler says
Canada should withdraw their troops and their support
if he is killed.
Canada should send one message to the government of Afghanistan:
"We Canadians are not prepared to shed one more drop of blood to support your government
if the sword of your government draws the blood of Abdul Rahman."
-
I agree.
America should threaten to withdraw its protection of the Afghan government
if Abdul Rahman is not freed.
The Afghans have got to learn that sick laws like this have consequences.
-
A good suggestion:
Send in a U.S.
special forces
unit, bust the jail,
and get the guy out of the country.
- Pro-war hawks, who supported Afghanistan's liberation,
are outraged:
- An Affront to Civilization,
says National Review, one of the very strongest supporters
of Bush and Hamid Karzai in the world.
"Conservatives in this country have been admirably willing to accept the compromises
and frustrations that come with President Bush's attempts to reform recalcitrant parts of the world.
The judicial murder of a Christian convert by a government that exists only on the basis of
American power and good will, however, would be intolerable."
-
No faith in Karzai's new democracy
by Michelle Malkin, another tough War on Terror supporter:
"This is a watershed moment in the post-September 11 world.
The Taliban are out of power. Yet an innocent man sits in jail
in an ostensibly moderate Muslim nation praying for his life
because he owned a Bible and refuses to renounce his Christian faith."
- Tony Perkins:
"President Bush should immediately send Vice-President Dick Cheney
or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kabul to read
Hamid Karzai's Government the riot act.
Americans will not give their blood and treasure to prop up
new Islamic fundamentalist regimes."
- Mark Steyn:
"You cannot ask Americans or Britons to expend blood and treasure to build a society
in which a man can be executed for his choice of religion."
- Bush and Hamid Karzai, you've got to stop this now.
Forget Afghan sensibilities.
Worry about the American street.
The "American street" will never forgive you if this happens.
Pessimism - If Afghanistan becomes a regular Islamist state, should it be abandoned?
Should America really withdraw its support for the Afghan government
if things go wrong?
- Let us be clear:
If Afghanistan becomes a standard heretic-persecuting Islamist state,
it would be a major victory for Islamism
in this war.
It will prolong the war,
and postpone the day when the Islamic world is at peace.
-
Should Afghanistan then be abandoned?
Should America really withdraw?
Not necessarily. Abandoning Afghanistan prematurely will most likely lead to even worse
Islamists taking over, and it becoming a terrorist base.
Abandoning Afghanistan prematurely would be an
even bigger victory for Islamism
in this war.
- If Afghanistan becomes a heretic-persecuting Islamist state,
it should not necessarily be abandoned.
But it then becomes realpolitik.
Realpolitik deals may still be done with unfree
Afghanistan to hunt for Al-Qa'ida.
But Afghanistan will no longer be a real ally,
only an ally of convenience, to be abandoned when it is no longer useful.
The idealism will be dead.
"Look, he has a Bible!"
says the Islamic fascist judge
Ansarullah Mawlazezadah.
Brave allied troops died for this?
Picture credit
Associated Press.
I am using this picture
of a non-repeatable historical event
for the purposes of illustrative comment and criticism
on a personal, non-profit, political commentary site.
Many other political blogs do the same.
I am not sure if this
constitutes
fair use.
If not, please contact me
and I will remove it.
Optimism - Let us not give up too early
Let us not be too pessimistic, though.
Let us not give up too early.
Afghanistan is freer now than it has ever been in history,
and the movement is continuing all in the right direction.
If regular peaceful elections and a diverse press can continue for decades,
the culture war will follow,
and the fundamentalists will eventually lose.
Let us see the Abdul Rahman case as part of the long struggle within Afghanistan.
The struggle isn't over yet.
Next (after Afghanistan):
Iraq
Return to Islamic Fascism page.