In a recent report, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said that nearly half of children aged between 7 and 17 years old – 3.7 million – in Afghanistan are missing out on school due to ongoing conflict. According to a latest UNICEF report, the ongoing conflict and worsening security situation across the country, combined with deeply engrained poverty and discrimination against girls, have pushed the rate of out-of-school children up for the first time since 2002. (Ref: BBC Persian)
Comment:
Although a number of Western institutions and columnists, including some U.S. militarists, have critically written about the U.S.-NATO war in Afghanistan and have recommended various solutions for the current dilemmas, while, in fact, it is the U.S. and its strategies that intentionally caused Afghanistan to be faced with such a harshly dreadful situation. As a matter of fact, it is due to the inherent rascality of Democracy that allows each individual and every institution to express their aspirations, write critically and recommend solutions. Whereas, the U.S. government and its leaders, without an in-depth consideration of its vast contradictions, lead the status quo in different parts of the world based on long-term strategies developed by its different institutions.
Moreover, Afghan people have not only been struggling with the problem of education, but also they have been experiencing shocking crises since the U.S. and NATO occupation of Afghanistan, as they might not have imagined of this situation even in their daydreams. Recently, the Human Rights Watch released its 49-page report titled “No Safe Place”. Indeed, nowadays, there are no safe places anywhere in Afghanistan except for the U.S. and NATO forces bases.
If the very basic need of people, such as “security”, is not fulfilled, then people will undoubtedly confront massive crises in all arenas of their life. On the other hand, new findings from the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics indicate that 9,000 tons of drugs were produced in the country, whereas the annual production of drugs did not exceed 180 tons before 2001.
Moreover, if the production of narcotics reaches that critical level, its cultivation, processing and smuggling will result in a crime economy in the country. Subsequently, the U.S. ambassador for Afghanistan, John R. Bass, has audaciously opened his mouth – whose tongue and teeth are stained with the people’s blood – calling Afghanistan as the base of origin and transit corridor for trafficking in persons and affirming this phenomenon as a great challenge for the country. John Bass, who has been known as ISIS mastermind, expressed this phenomenon as a ‘catastrophe’ during his speech on a Launching Ceremony of Afghanistan Network for Combating Trafficking in Persons (ANTCIP) in Kabul. Filled with extreme shamelessness, he addressed: “In a country where the law is not being enforced, its people become the victim of this phenomenon’’. He also emphasized that Afghan refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) in the country are more likely to suffer from this concern and actions need to be taken to protect their lives. However, Afghanistan has reached its 18th years of hosting these rascal occupation efforts which have imposed a human-made law over Afghans that is against the Afghan people’s beliefs and demands.
The colonial occupation attempted to do more than expected to deceive the public opinion and the world by releasing strange reports which even take the evil Satan by surprise. Of these, the general watchdogs of the State and Defense Departments as well as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have proposed a report to the U.S. Congress stating that the progress indicators are seemingly limited in Afghanistan – an adjustment to convince the Western taxpayers to keep funding American programs in Afghanistan for years to come.
To advance their war project in the region, they have endangered the lives of Afghan people with unprecedented poverty which has made it easier for all war lines to recruit soldiers. According to recent statistics released by the Central Statistics Bureau of Afghanistan, more than 54 percent of the population of Afghanistan was under the poverty line in 2016, which shows a 16 percent increase compared to previous year, 2015. Whereas such figures indicate the reality of Afghanistan from two years back, but the current condition is undoubtedly far worse than what the figures indicate.
The U.S. and NATO alongside their occupation of Afghanistan infused large amounts of money into Afghanistan’s markets which caused most Afghan individuals to become corrupt; as a result, they helped bring about corrupt capitalist gangs and submissive servants in Afghanistan to implement all their colonial plans with their support. The economic situation of the public is getting worse than ever after.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the U.S. government’s leading oversight authority on Afghanistan, in its recent report on Afghanistan said: The number of Afghan security forces, including the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the Afghan National Army (ANA), fell by about 10% over the past year, as for now this figure reached to 296,409 soldiers by January 31, 2018. The Afghan government controls only 56.3 percent of the districts and the remaining areas fall under the category of “exposed-to-conflict”.
Given above, the real situation is far worse. After poverty, people have been subject to prostitution, corruption, kidnapping, drug smuggling, discrimination, division and internal conflict. The U.S. air bombardment over armed opposition centers have exceeded its limit causing deaths of most of the civilians. Assassinations, terror, suicide bombings and explosions have peaked in the cities; intelligence agencies and contracting companies involved in the case of Afghanistan are competing with one another in this region. All in all, even minor signs of development in every arena of people’s life have been faced with absolute impoverishment, and incumbents from within the Palace – residing behind the concreted walls – give false hopes to the people while, in fact, they cordially support the occupation forces.
Consequently, it’s worth thinking and reflecting profoundly that we have got only two options; we either must work hard and fight nights and days against the instances that cause occupation and colonization of this Islamic land in order to save our people from such state of siege or we must give in to the commands of Western masters and help support the generational changing process, which is being commenced in our society, and never speak of our values at all. As a result, we may give in our destiny and consequences at the hands of our enemy like the forgotten Andalusia’s (Spain) destiny.
Saifullah Mustanir
Director of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Afghanistan