(Afghani) Elders Warn of Popular Revolt

[tekisui]

KABUL // Tribal leaders from southeastern Afghanistan have called on the government and its US allies to change their tactics or risk facing a mass uprising.

The elders and clerics from Paktika province said air strikes, house raids and arbitrary detentions are alienating the population. If they are not stopped, the kind of resistance experienced by the Soviets could soon develop.

“During the time of the Russians all the people raised their hands and said they wanted jihad. Right now there are a few provinces doing this,” said Sayed Abdul Hai Hashimi, an elder. “But if the government and the Americans keep arresting our teachers and religious people it is the end of the line and there will be no other way for us. We will have to start jihad.”

Paktika has been the scene of intense fighting this year. The US-led coalition frequently sends out press releases detailing its operations there, including a recent one in which eight militants linked to the senior Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani were said to have been captured.

However, elders are so enraged at what is happening in the province that dozens of them have come to Kabul in an effort to meet the president, Hamid Karzai.
Mr Hashimi demanded that the government and its allies consult them when they want to detain any suspected members of the Taliban or al Qa’eda. Air strikes must also be halted.

“This is the worst situation that we have faced in Paktika,” he said. “The Russians were very good compared to this. They were not wild like the Americans.”

Violence has surged dramatically in Afghanistan this year. More than 260 foreign troops have already died, up from 232 in the whole of last year.

more at link: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081126/FOREIGN/647788803/1103/ART

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A good article, worth the read.

[eridani]

1. Winning friends and influencing people in Afghanistan

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21312.htm
Several Afghans I spoke to (all Tajiks) showed me evidence of their damaged cars and told how US convoys will simply plough through traffic jams to create their own fast lanes, bumper bars crushing and shunting to the side any vehicles trapped in their path.

When they take to the open road, the drive so slowly as to cause huge jams in their wake, but if you attempt to overtake their convoys you will be shot at. They do exactly the same in Iraq.

At one point we were kept to 20 mph on an open stretch of road on the outskirts of Kabul where we could have expected a clear run.

A local traffic cop told me he was so sick of these actions but it seems that the American military, and those tagging on in their wake - the ubiquitous Blackwater and other private security firms - are impervious to the wanton destruction and hatred they cause.

“They are above the law and I am powerless,” he told me.

<snip>

And then there are the Afghan women, those amazingly strong, resilient females who have been horribly betrayed by George W Bush and Tony Blair who continue to justify the invasion of Afghanistan “to liberate the women”.

I can tell you, with the exception of a few, there are no career women emerging from the rubble in Kabul or elsewhere in Afghanistan.

One told me: “I hated the Taliban. They killed two of my uncles. The Americans have now murdered 16 of my cousins, now ask me who I hate more. I wish the Taliban were back.”