Another perspective.
#reply-16566938
Osama has hijacked an entire nation and as his cult power in the streets grows, not
only aspires to hijack our entire religion, he threatens as well to hijack the entire
future of 1.8 billion Muslims on this earth.
Osama Bin Laden in 1996! A rich kid on the new terrorist block, educated well and
sophisticated in his ways. Osama is in sharp contrast to Mullah Umar, a rustic,
brought up by a stepfather, ignorant of the world outside Afghanistan, in fact
outside of Kandahar. In awe of Osama, Mullah Omar was ripe to be "cultivated",
it seems Osama did exactly just that, pandering to Mullah Omar's ego by raving
about his "holy" qualities, proclaiming him as the "Chosen One". To strengthen
the bonds, he married Mullah Umar's sister, marrying his own son to Mullah
Umar's daughter. He took control of Mullah Umar's personal protection, using
Arabs almost exclusively as a form of Praetorian Guard. He stroked Mullah
Umar's ego as well as his fears. Every time the world accused Osama Bin Laden of
terrorism, this "western lie" further strengthened his standing as "a Muslim
among Muslims". History is replete with such instances, the most famous being
Rasputin.
The Taliban fluctuated between extremism and moderation when they came to
power, their radicalization into absolute obscurantism began only after 1998 when
Osama acquired almost absolute power in Kandahar, engineering what amounts to
a palace coup. About the only ones left with some independence to air some dissent
were the old Mujhahideen commanders like the late Governor of Jalalabad,
Mullah Rabbani (who died of cancer in March), most were commanding field
troops: far away from Kandahar. The Talib technocrats controlling the centres of
power and administration are mostly from Kandahar, some like Foreign Minister
Mullah Mutawakil have not even seen the Afghan war.
Mullah Umar, and by extension Osama Bin Laden, has complete control. This
absolute authority of Mullah Umar is tailor-made for Osama Bin Laden to exploit,
to radicalize Islam at will and make his distorted version official (and in doing so
distort the western world perception of Islam). He has cleverly and neatly
dovetailed anti-Americanism into religious protest.
Ikram Sehgul on origins of present post Russian withdrawl Afghan war...
Assuming the war with the Soviets would be a long drawn out one, CIA funded
many of the Madrassahs through the ISI in the 80s as a future source of recruits.
The Soviets packed up from Afghanistan far earlier than anticipated, Talib
detachments with the various Mujhahideen factions went home or back to the
Madrassahs to continue their education. Pakistan did not really try convincing the
Americans about their post-war responsibilities. Having seemingly defeated a
Superpower by themselves, the then ISI bosses did not want the US to disturb their
vision of a crescent of Pan-Islamic Countries. This naked individual ambition has
contributed to the problems of this region today, the perpetrators still hiding behind
"Islamic" garb and unbridled rhetoric as a convenient smokescreen. Only too
happy to oblige, the Americans abdicated as paymasters in further financing the
war or the peace to follow. Our then military rulers were not unduly worried, after
all the Muslim world, led by the rich Arabs, would move in with massive funding, or
so they thought! The net result, no post war plan for Afghanistan, arrangements for
economic aid and/or political rehabilitation, even in the pre-planning stage.
During the Junejo civilian interregnum, the Foreign Office took Afghanistan back
from the ISI and signed the Geneva Accords, but Gen Zia frustrated his own
"civilian experiment" by unceremoniously showing PM Junejo the door in 1988.
The ISI were then trapped into attacking Jalalabad, a vain attempt at obtaining
military glory on the cheap, sending others to their death for "the cause". Maj
Talat, an ISI cover officer in Kabul, had gone to Jalalabad to arrange for the burial
of Bacha Khan (Wali Khan's father) who wanted to be buried there. The large
movement of troops and heavy equipment he saw on the road to (and in) Jalalabad
alarmed him enough to flash a message to HQ ISI.
The large garrison at Samarkhel having surrendered earlier, HQ ISI was on a high
and not listening. A majority of the hard core Mujhahideen veterans of the Afghan
War were decimated. Has anyone ever enquired about this bloody debacle and the
man responsible? Ahmed Shah Masood, veteran of many "private" cease-fires
with the Soviets, kept his Tajiks out of harm's way and struck a deal with
mercenary Uzbek Rashid Dostum, whose "Jumbish" militia (from Mazar-i-Sharif)
was already in Kabul propping up Najibullah, to take control in Kabul, de-facto
seat of government. The Mujahideen had literally fallen apart, fighting each other
as fiercely as they had fought the Soviets, the commanders becoming warlords in
the territories they ruled over e.g. Ismail Khan became Governor Herat; Mullah
Naqib, Kandahar; Mullah Rabbani, Jalalabad etc. Lesser commanders simply
became brigands, blocking roads and imposing "taxes" at will. Absolute
lawlessness ruled the land, rape, loot and pillage became the order of the day.
The new Afghan Armed Forces became an amalgam of elements of the Soviet
trained Afghan Army and lateral entries from the Afghan Mujhahideen. Most of
those inducted were Tajik and Uzbek loyalists of Defence Minister Ahmed Shah
Masood (the actual man in power), this alienated the majority Pashtuns. Holding
the major cities and the military bases around the country, Masood abandoned the
countryside to the Mujhahideen-turned-bandits. The withdrawing Soviets left a
vast surplus of defence material, particularly tanks, fighter aircraft, helicopters
and ammunition of all kinds, greased and packed in crates.
With Masood increasingly hostile, his troops stood by as a mob set the Pakistan
Embassy on fire, the Benazir Government in 1994 mandated the ISI to help the
traders secure a route for Central Asia through Kandahar and Herat to Turghundi.
Unwittingly Ms Benazir acted as a midwife to the birth of the Taliban. A convoy of
Pakistani trucks was intercepted by the local Mujhahideen Commander in Hilmand
alongwith the accompanying ISI operatives. When the Governor Kandahar Mullah
Naqib expressed his helplessness, ISI requested Mullah Zakiri, who was in
Quetta, for help. A small group of Talibs led by a relatively obscure religious
preacher Mullah Umar, who had lost an eye during the Afghan War, freed the
convoy. Welcomed as saviours, the Talibs replaced Mullah Naqib. Hundreds of
Talibs from all over rushed to join the Talibs in Kandahar.
With Kandahar in their control Mujhahideen from the other factions and even
entire units of the Armed Forces defected to the Talibs. The world could not
believe that these country yokels, now known as the Taliban, could handle
sophisticated weapons. They concluded these were Pakistani skilled personnel
despite the fact that Soviet origin equipment (except for MI-8 helicopters) is not in
use in Pakistan. For their own individual selfish purposes some ISI officers, started
the myth that Pakistan created the Taliban, this damaged Pakistan no end. True
that Pakistan has been giving money and material support, far cheaper than to
have refugees costing many times more for their upkeep.
The Taliban restored law and order by clearing the roadblocks of all bandits and
disarming everyone not in the new militia. Fed up of years of lawlessness and
atrocities, the population welcomed the cleanliness of Taliban governance.
Provinces fell without firing a single shot when the local commanders came over to
the Taliban side. Fully 90 percent of those called Taliban were not Talibs and have
never been Talibs, many have never been to any school or Madrassah. The
Taliban ultimately took over control of Kabul in 1996 from Masood, his forces
withdrawing to the safety of his native Panjsher Valley. Masood was brave but
parochial in looking only after the Tajik interest.
This myopic vision created anarchy in all of Afghanistan except Kabul, a set-piece
environment for takeover by the Pashtun-dominated Taliban. Mazar-i-Sharif
changed hands a couple of times before Rashid Dostum fled.
By consensus, the Taliban chose Mullah Umar as their Supreme Leader,
Amir-ul-Momineen. While the seat of government remained in the capital Kabul,
Mullah Umar rules by edicts from Kandahar, a very centralized system alien to
Islamic governance, where once policy is enunciated, a fair amount of autonomy is
given to the Governors. Modern communications has made this over-centralization
work, disrupted hopelessly now by the targetted US attacks on communications
and logistics centers. |
