- The new coalition in Westminster is parsing all the words
about Afghanistan and coming up with a very different interpretation, says
Eric Walberg
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- The movement to "get the troops out now!" has
found unlikely converts in the form of the Conservative-Liberal Democratic
coalition in Britain . The election campaign suggested nothing new could
be expected from any of the parties on Afghanistan , despite the fact that
over 70 per cent of Britons want the troops home.
- http://ericwalberg.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=253
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- So eyebrows were raised with the news that Afghan President
Hamid Karzai was Prime Minister David Cameron's first visitor at Chequers.
They went higher still when Foreign Minister William Hague made his first
foreign destination Kabul , where he called for the withdrawal of troops
as soon as possible.
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- Accompanying Hague, Tory Defence Secretary Liam Fox seconded
the new approach, saying, "We have to reset expectations and timelines.
National security is the focus now. We are not a global policeman. We are
not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th
century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests
are not threatened."
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- Britain 's new coalition government also announced it
would reduce the defence budget by at least 25 per cent as part of massive
cuts across the board to try to save the bankrupt British economy.
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- Cleverly taking advantage of the electorate's revulsion
with the war, Hague's bold call for withdrawal was no doubt sparked by
Karzai's address at the US Institute of Peace last week, where he once
again predicted an extended US commitment to Afghanistan that would last
"beyond the military activity right now into the future, long after
we have retired, and perhaps into our grandsons' and great-grandsons' -
and great-granddaughters' - generations. This is something the Afghan people
have been seeking for a long, long time." Clearly, unlike the unborn
great-granddaughters of Afghans, the Brits want no part of any such plans.
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- The only way withdrawal will be possible, of course,
is if accommodation is reached with the Taliban. So it is no surprise that
<http://ericwalberg.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=247>talk
of peace talks continues to make headlines. What was referred to by Al-Jazeera
as the second meeting between Taliban and Afghan government officials hosted
by the Maldives (a Muslim statelet that actually issues visas to Afghans
on arrival) took place last week. It was organised by Feroz and Jarir Hekmatyar,
the son and son-in-law of Gulbadin Hekmatyar, an Afghan warlord and leader
of the insignificant Hezb-e-Islami party.
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- Karzai was rumoured to be unhappy that the talks are
taking place, but nonetheless sent observers. Hekmatyar sent a delegation
to Kabul for talks in March, clearly trying to use the opportunity to upstage
the main Taliban opposition.
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- Qari Zia-ur-Rehman, a Taliban commander in Kunar province,
told Pakistan's The News, "The reports of negotiations between the
Islamic Emirate and Karzai regime are bogus and no leader of the Islamic
Emirate is engaged in talks with the puppet administration in Kabul,"
reiterating that the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of foreign
troops from Afghanistan was a precondition for any peace talks. He explained
that Karzai is using such talks as a ruse to convince the US that he can
divide the Taliban and negotiate them into submission. Former Pakistani
Inter-Services Intelligence director Hamid Gul asks, "How can Taliban
hold talks with a government which has never been recognised by them?"
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- Western officials were not present at the non-talks though
the US State Department said it was aware of them. "We continue to
support efforts by the Afghan government to open the door to those Taliban
who abandon violence and respect human rights of their fellow citizens,"
US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley droned.
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- The meeting comes ahead of a grand jirga of Afghan tribal
and community leaders, to be hosted by Karzai, which will demand the insurgents
lay down their arms and accept asylum in another Islamic country from where
they can negotiate with the Afghan government. The jirga, already postponed
twice, is scheduled for 2 June and will last only three days. No representatives
of the Taliban are due to attend.
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- There is little incentive for the Taliban to cave in
to pressures to disband, visit sunny Maldives or retire to even sunnier
Saudi Arabia . Kabul MP and former presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost
last week called for NATO troops to evacuate Kabul to avoid further civilian
casualties. The call came two days after a suicide bomber rammed a convoy
of NATO forces in Kabul , killing 12 civilians and six foreign soldiers,
including visiting Canadian Colonel Geoff Parker. But if NATO troops can't
function in Kabul - the only part of the country the Karzai government
"controls" - when can they function?
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- After the NATO campaign in <http://ericwalberg.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=230>Marja,
it is once again in Taliban hands in all but name. As the Taliban launch
their spring offensive, talk is of the Taliban "surge" as opposed
to the would-be NATO one. NATO casualties have been increasing at an alarming
rate, with the year's NATO toll 215. The number of British troops killed
and wounded in Afghanistan has more than doubled compared to last year.
The 200,000 rupee bounty Taliban fighters are awarded for each NATO soldier
killed is paying off.
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- Another Canadian officer, Daniel Menard, is to direct
this summer's NATO <http://ericwalberg.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=242>campaign
in Kandahar and Panjwaii, where troops from the Royal Canadian Regiment
will take the lead. "This conflict is our D-Day," boasted this
colonial representative of Queen Elizabeth II, great-great-granddaughter
of Queen Victoria , who presided over the British invasions of Afghanistan
in the 19th century. In his obscene comparison between the liberation of
occupied France in WWII and the US occupation of Afghanistan , Menar added,
"The first guys on the beach here are the Canadians."
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- But the Canadians are very much high-and-dry after their
base in Kandahar came under heavy attack three times in the past week and
as they solemnly hoist the flag-draped coffin of their unfortunate guest
Colonel Parker aboard a jet for Canada. To expect that they and the Karzai
government will prevail is a fantasy which surely no one any longer believes.
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- None of the 130,000 foreign troops has any understanding
of Afghanistan 's culture and traditions, or even speaks one of the local
languages. Their only communication with locals is through the barrel of
a gun. Only six per cent of locals polled support the current Kandahar
offensive. Afghans can only take pride in repelling these unwanted invaders.
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- As if a sign from Allah, Hague and British media idol
David Beckham had their flight to Kandahar diverted mid-air to Helmand
province, when the Kandahar airport came under attack. Rather than Karzai,
it is Bashardost, the angry British troops and their mounting body count
that Cameron and Hague are now heeding, and it is about time.
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- ***
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- Eric Walberg writes for <http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/>Al-Ahram
Weekly You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com
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