Pashtun Identity: a reponse to Shaheen Buneri

Many thanks for your kind words. We have an unfortunate tendency in the West to sort people out into Good Guys and Bad Guys. There are no good guys in this equation: it is sad to realize now many good people are in prison or dead, just because they stood up high enough to get shot at. Pakistan and Afghanistan are hopelessly corrupt messes: the only time these people are ever at peace is when some horrible dictator has his foot firmly on everyone's necks.

The Pashtun chieftains are not interested in Al Qaeda, which was mostly a band of rich Arab foreigners. They only gave AQ shelter because of the Pashtunwali code of honor.

The Taliban is another story entirely. Baitullah Meshud is consolidating power, as I mentioned in a previous diary. Apropos to nothing, Bill Roggio is now in Iraq, doing the needful, you can follow him on Weekly Standard's site as well, I hope he gets much press.

But back to the Taliban: drug money is simply flooding in, the Taliban can literally outspend us in Afghanistan. We need a goddamn Surge in Afghanistan, not that we shall get one. At this rate, I foresee the Taliban returning to power, this time far more capable and dangerous. AQ be damned, they're pikers compared to the condottieri of Baitullah Meshud. Training a few miserable NWF corps, Jesus Christ, the Taliban has been battle hardened, and has successfully staved off every attempt to get to Mullah Omar.

As for knowing anything about what's going on, I've given up on thinking Newsvine gives a @!$%# about quality. I hope Shaheen sticks around, in terms of the significance of what he writes, he's about the best we've got. I write mostly for the few people who do give a damn about this stuff. The rest of these lunkheads can pound sand, it seems the more significant the writing, the lower the odds of it making an impact. Calvin clearly doesn't give a damn about it.

Well, I'm not "denigrating" the NWF paramilitaries, but I've seen this in Guatemala, the patrullos civiles. They can go one of two ways: corrupted by the insurgency, usually by threats to the family, or two, into the ground. Don't take a knife to a gunfight, and don't fight an insurgency without planning to keep the ground you take.

Taking on Baitullah Meshud requires a lot more than a few lonely guys with old Moisin-Nagant rifles, who only took the job for the money.

The money isn't necessarily in Afghanistan. These days, the heroin goes north, into the Stans. It used to go through Iran, some still does, for it's a long border and the smugglers are astute, but Iran's hell on smugglers. Quite a bit goes into Pakistan, but that's mostly for Pakistani consumption. It's easier to move into the Stans.

Once in the Stans, it moves toward Europe and Africa, especially to Nigeria, under the guidance and supervision of various criminal entities. Nigeria is emerging as the new French Connection: it's totally corrupt, and airport security especially so. Nigerians and especially the Lebanese of Lagos, who run everything in that gigantic Mos Eisley of a port city are the primary couriers. Enough legitimate commerce comes and goes from Nigeria to camouflage the heroin trafficking.

The money seldom moves far: large-scale weapons sales are seldom conducted in cash. Often heroin is the currency.

We have been waging an off-the-books drug war in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia for decades.

Heh, the Afghani is the currency. Are the South American cartels as dangerous as the South Asian cartels? That's a tough one to answer. They're both destabilizing the governments of the countries they're in: they're cash-rich, they corrupt good government, they murder their enemies. Many of the dynamics are the same, but ranking them? I'm not up to that challenge.

Not for all the world would I offend you, but it is Pashtuns who exist on both sides of the heroin debate. I would argue there is no such thing as Afghanistan: it is the creation of the colonial powers that fought there long before the Americans arrived. Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires.

The USSR came to set up a proper Communist state, and the USA saw the opportunity to revenge itself for Vietnam. Afghanistan never existed: there was Kabul and everywhere else. The Pashtun clans allied themselves variously for and against the Communists, Hekhmatyar has changed alliances at least seven times: that much I know. Taliban does equal Pashtun: that much is beyond argument.

Afghanistan cannot be a unified country. Far too many forces operate against unification. The Pashtuns, as you know very well, will kill each other given half a chance. The tribes of the Panjshir Valley have no love for the Pashtuns, either.

Our war in Afghanistan is not a pretext. In that lawless state, easily the world's most lawless state at present, the Pashtun government of Mullah Omar gave sanctuary to terrorism, and we were entirely justified in removing it. The Pashtuns continue to harbor Mullah Omar in their ranks. You may skip over the Authorization business, who gave Osama bin Ladin sanctuary after every other government in the world had expelled him? You know the answer as well as I: the Pashtun government of Mullah Omar.

Many Pashtuns like yourself, people of education, and may I take this opportunity to commend you on your remarkable command of the English language, are a tiny minority within the Pashtun world. The Pashtuns practice Deobandi Islam, the most backward and repressive form of that great religion, and it is Deobandi Islam which guides the Taliban.

I do not lump all Pashtuns into the camp of the Taliban, but the Pashtun have been feuding horribly among themselves for many centuries. Because they cannot unite under reasonable leadership, they are obliged to turn to their enemies in the PPP for any mandate at all. When will the Pashtun at last cease their feuding? When will they stop blaming everyone else for their problems? The Deobandi Pashtuns brought down the wrath of the USA on their own heads,

I will not agree with all this talk of the Heart of the Pashtuns. I love the Pashtun people, they are a noble and decent people, they are singers and poets, their women are beautiful and their hearts are strong, but they are proud and make too many excuses for their own backwardness. While Pashtun kills Pashtun, it should not surprise you that outside forces would connive with one side against the other. The Pashtun became the unwitting servants of the ISI, and died by the thousands fighting a war which was not theirs. Screaming "Allah-u ahkbar", they ran like stupid children into the guns of the USSR. The Pashtun were led around by the nose by the ISI, not the CIA.

Al Qaeda was the creation of an Palestinian named Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, not an American. It would be Imam Azzam who wrote the first fatwa against the USSR's occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Osama bin Ladin came to Afghanistan, answering the call of this fatwa. It is strongly suggested the Bin Ladin family was also involved in the 1979 attack on al-Masjid al-Haram, the chief mosque in the Muslim world. Do not commingle the American involvement against the USSR with the fataawa of Imam Azzam. They simply fought the same enemy, as the ANP and PPP now find themselves in bed together in NWFP.

The Pashtuns have never, ever lived in peace, with anyone. For thousands of years, they have been their own worst enemy, servants and soldiers, fighting in the armies of foreigners, killing each other with inventive cruelty. I do sincerely hope the Pashtuns escape the cycle of violence which now divides them so bitterly, and it will be men of good will like you who will tell us the story. Please continue to write for Newsvine: your input is valuable beyond words to tell, Shaheen.

Thank you again for your response, Shaheen. Yes, the Pashtun people live in a tribal society: those who love each other must speak honestly. May I urge you to consider another tribal people, the Kurds of Iraq, as an example for the Pashtuns. These Kurds have taken advantage of American involvement to rebuild their society. Things are not perfect in the world of the Kurds, but they are improving in ways the Pashtun people could benefit by studying.

Al Qaeda was not the creation of the USA. Even during the war against the Communist regime, they were not under American control. Al Qaeda was a minor part of a much larger struggle, so small we missed them. Al Qaeda was an odd little organization. To our lasting harm, we simply didn't pay attention to them. The Americans backed Ahmed Shad Mahsood of the Panjshir, a Tajik. Mahsood and Burhanruddin Rabbani were mujahideen we liked better than the Taliban, but the ISI made sure all the money went to the Pashtun Taliban.

At no point did the Americans have any other agenda than to remove the Communists from Afghanistan. When America does something, my friend, you must remember how ignorant Americans are: never call something a Conspiracy or a World Agenda which can also be explained as Stupidity. How many Americans take the trouble to read Persian ghazal or learn the finer points of Pashtun grammar?

A handful of CIA agents in Pakistan never had control of that war. A man cannot buy friends and America can't buy victories. America did not pay attention to Afghanistan after the Communists left. At any rate, we could do nothing. Even the ISI couldn't do much about the Taliban once they were in power. Pakistan can do nothing about the Taliban inside now: I would urge you to consider how much less America can do.

America learns its geography from the war reporting. The Americans know, for instance, that Pashtuns live in several different countries. They know not all Pashtuns are Taliban. They know the Pashtuns returned from refugee camps in Pakistan, back to Afghanistan. They know names like NWFP, FATA, Baluchistan, Helmand, Tora Bora – oh Americans are learning. And we are fighting and dying for the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, against other Pashtuns who destroy the schools and clinics we build. That is our agenda in the world, especially in the Pashtun world. Is this wasted money? You say the USA is not developing educational institutions for us: that is exactly what we are doing, and it is the Taliban who dynamite the schools we build.

If the Pashtuns do not like bombs, they can start by discrediting the Taliban who destroy what we build in Afghanistan. We cannot solve your problems. It is time for Pashtuns to solve their own problems.

The operative question is: What does Pashtun mean to the Pashtun people?

You might be surprised to know many, many Americans are following this war intensely, for their children, friends, co-workers are fighting it. We are fighting for the rights of the Pashtun: I beg of you to let go of this idea of America the Great Enemy. We are not idiots, and we are not your enemy. When the USA invaded Afghanistan and drove off the regime of Mullah Omar, hundreds of thousands of refugees went back to Afghanistan. BlaiseP's Law of Refugees states: "you may tell the good guy from the bad guy in any fight by watching which way the refugees run. They run away from the bad guy and toward the good guy."

Our present president may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the American military and the American people support this war against the Taliban. Our blood is in the dirt of Afghanistan. While the Taliban dynamites the schools we build, murders those who work to better the Afghan society and murders Pashtun leaders who dare oppose them, you might think twice before calling our foreign policy completely misguided.

The Pashtun people themselves are sharply divided on the issue of the Taliban. While this division exists, America must forever be torn between viewing the Pashtuns as an oppressed minority and a deadly enemy. You probably know this proverb:

چه کلي دوه شي، د چغلو ښه شي

When the community feuds, the gossip has won.

As-salaam aleikhum, Mohammed Naeem... if I have given offense, forgive me. I deeply admire the Pashtun culture. Please read another article I have written on the Pashtun people, which covers many of the same points you make.

The Pashtun are Muslim, but practice a far more ancient and unwritten code of justice called Pashtunwali. We think of Taliban sharia as a strict, inflexible and horribly misogynistic system, and so it has become, but it was not always so. Given its head, Pashtunwali is astonishingly democratic, encompassing personal honor, personal responsibility, protection of the guest and stranger, swift justice, and romance.

Yes, romance! For all this talk of their horrible treatment of women, the Pashtun concept of love beggars anything in the West. The Pashtun sing the Persian ghazal, a poetic form, from the Persian word gazelle, the dying scream of this delicate animal. The closest I can come to ghazal is the Browning Sonnets from the Portuguese, or some of John Donne's poetry. You must envision the most ferocious man on the planet, sadly singing of his isolation from the woman he loves, of the wilderness within himself. The ghazal is heartbreakingly beautiful stuff, often deeply abstract and spiritual. The comparison to Donne is fairly apt.

The Pashtun people are, in my opinion, the one group of people the USA should have honored and befriended in the region. The Pashtuns have been oppressed horribly by every regime who attempted to control them. The Pashtun, like the Kurds of Iraq, have my utmost admiration, they are the best soldiers in the world. We have stupidly made enemies of the Pashtuns: the USA will not defeat them.

I am an American, and my family supports the first and only women's clinic in Kabul. We are not of South Asian origin, but I am amused and somewhat pleased you would make this mistake.

Har chata khpal watan kashmir de

I am sorry you feel this way. My viewpoint is a bit larger than what Americans see. I am writing in response to Shaheen Buneri, an excellent reporter in the region. I made that clear from the title. What is redundant about this article?

I am gratified to find Pashtuns reading this article, however little you may like it. Feel free to read more I have written about the Pashtuns here.

I am never so proud but what I can learn from someone. Please criticize this article, but be detailed in your criticism. Tasha kor.