Re: <nettime> The people in Afghanistan

[cisler <cisler@pobox.com>]

> From: gita@yorku.ca
> What baffles me is this: If the original posting was meant to point
> at the American activist groups and their seemingly contradictory
> stance, why did the subject read "Afghan women"?

I attended the benefit thinking I would hear much more from Afghan women
than from their American activist sponsors. They did have some common goals,
but there was more of a cultural and historic disconnect that a common
gender and frequent use of words like 'peace' and 'solidarity' did not
bridge at that particular gathering.

 >So one of the 
> strategies currently followed is to let the Afghanis fight the
> Afghanis, and, of course, it's pretty clear who is going to win the
> war and with whose support.

Many Afghanis who oppose the Taliban/Al Quada  don't want American/coalition
involvement. The Northern Alliance wants arms, not American troops. Here's a
piece from the ABC News interview with Abdul Haq, former commander of
Mujahidden who retired to Dubai to run a cybercafe(!) but came back to
Pakistan to work for change in Afghanistan. The Taliban killed his wife and
kid in 1999 while he was away

<Haq is the best-known former commander to emerge yet and he has the
blessing of the exiled  king.

The biggest obstacle Haq says would be an American attack.

"If they just go bomb, kill, shoot these people that have nothing to do with
that, this will make many people upset," he said. "And you will create
thousands of bin Ladens. My advice to the  U.S. government is let the
Afghans to do it." >

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsTonight/WTC_abdulhaq_011004.html

> North American mainstream public is busy outpouring their patriotism
> in tears of mourning and revenge, and most activist groups are busy
> countering the (now unappologetically open) racism and the direct
> attacks on civil liberties here at home,

There are all kinds of people and groups in the U.S. countering the many
anti-Arab/Sikh/Muslim episodes: from the President, the First Lady, mayors,
corporate media, and average citizens, and activist groiups.   As for the
civil liberties, groups on the right are allied with groups on the left in
fighting this (in Congress, at least). I would not say that the activists
are the vanguards in this respect.

the scenario unfolding in
> Afghanistan goes unnoticed.  The Northen Alliance's track prior and
> on the way to their retreat to the north has been well documented.
> There are reports and images of their attrocities on the website of
> the Revolutionary Alliance of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA, who, by
> the way, neither profess Islam nor insist on being model American
> citizens even though they go on Oprah's show to collect support) at
> http://www.rawa.org.

I would not say it's unnoticed. RAWA's web site was overloaded (but
hopefully not electronically disturbed by some theater group) from the
interest people have shown.  I counted over a dozen articles or interviews
in mainstream media listed in their site, excluding a very powerful
interview with 'fatima' a 23 year old RAWA member, in the Oct. 8 Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,565099,00.html

Steve Cisler
4415 Tilbury Drive, San Jose, CA 95130
cisler@pobox.com   
http://home.inreach.com/cisler
(408) 379 9076

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