<(Dostum) encourages women to live and work freely, as well as music, sports, alcohol, and allows for people of other religions>
So, General Dostum and the other Afghan warlords we fund, train, and arm, they are supporters of freedom of expression, an improvement over the Taliban, helping Afghanistan Progress toward democracy and liberalism?
I'm tempted to "do a Bilow". I'm trying to resist, but I just can't stop myself......
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! LOL!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
The crimes of pro-American thugs are always "alleged", no matter how overwhelming the evidence.
Dostum operates with impunity, because none of the investigations are allowed to interview witnesses freely (in areas Dostum controls), and none of the murderers has been arrested, much less tried or punished. And probably never will be, as the available evidence suggests the mass murderers include U.S. Special Forces.
Similarly, whoever beat to death those prisoners in American custody at Bagram Air Base, they also have impunity. An investigation that continues forever, without ever bringing anyone to justice, is the functional equivalent of impunity.
The evidence on our Afghan warlord buddies:
...Commanders loyal to General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord who later became Hamid Karzai's deputy defense minister, had painstakingly negotiated the surrender of the Taliban from Kunduz and Qala-i-Jhangi....Dostum guaranteed the lives of all 8,000-plus POWs. "Both British and American military officers were present" at the surrender deal, says Doran...According to eyewitnesses, U.S. Special Forces supervised--some say orchestrated--the systematic murder of more than 3,000 captured Taliban soldiers in November 2001...
216.239.33.104
"They crammed us into sealed shipping containers," a 24-year-old survivor, Irfan Azgar Ali, told the Guardian. "We had no water for 20 hours. We banged on the side of the container. There was no air and it was very hot. "There were 300 of us in my container. By the time we arrived in Shiberghan, only 10 of us were still alive."
guardian.co.uk
“Killing You is a Very Easy Thing For Us”:
Human Rights Abuses in Southeast Afghanistan hrw.org
Ms Jahangir detailed how civilians continued to be killed, jailed, tortured and intimidated by warlords. rawa.fancymarketing.net
"People are saying, what's the US thinking? Why would they return these criminals to power? It's a recipe for another 9-11." awakenedwoman.com
Cable television services in the Afghan capital, Kabul, have been temporarily closed following a ruling by the country's chief justice....Mr Shinwari said he had issued the order against cable TV after dozens of complaints about un-Islamic programmes....The country's top legal figure has also spoken out against the co-education of boys and girls...(BBC News, 1/21/03)
Human Rights Watch has documented how commanders in Jalalabad and Gardez - places where the U.S.-led coalition continues to cooperate and work with local military forces - have threatened journalists with death for publishing candid reports about local security problems...Ismail Khan, the governor of the western province of Herat, has continued to stifle local media. Last month, his security personnel arrested and beat a radio journalist... rawa.fancymarketing.net
If you don't like that evidence, or don't think those sources are credible, you can easily find lots of similar findings, elsewhere. The evidence is abundant and overwhelming. What we are supporting, is not a "lesser evilism". Nothing "lesser" about it.
And, because we are not supporting the ideals we say we stand for, because we routinely ignore the ideals in our own Declaration of Independence and Bill Of Rights,in the conduct of our foreign policy, most of the world sees us as no better than Al Queda. See the Pew polls for proof of this: people-press.org We have to stand for something other than thuggery in the service of naked self-interest, or we will lose this war. |
