Teaching the Uncivilized - the Afghan people and their enemy -





	"When you're wounded and left,
	On Afghanistan's plains,
	And the women come out,
	To cut up your remains,
	Just roll on your rifle,
	And blow out your brains,
	And go to your Gawd,
	Like a soldier."

Rudyard Kipling
(a souvenir of the Anglo-Afghan wars)




A MORAL CODE OF THE PATHAN PEOPLE

excerpt from EL PAÍS SEMANAL, Madrid (24/02/2002)
English version: Wolfgang Wiesner

The Pathan people are subject to an age-old moral code, the Pashtunwali, a tribal law that had been applied by the Taliban in its ultimate consequences. Now, in the aftermath of U.S. bombardment, the Pathans are facing the challenge of governing Afghanistan. ...

The Pathan people never willingly accepted any borders, especially when imposed by others. Today, it is believed that there are at least 20 million Pathans, on a territory extending within the borders drawn by the British in the 1890s and comprising regions that count among the most undeveloped and less governable of our planet. That region, sometimes called Pashtunistan, had been estimated by the British as the ultimate border of British India, their most important colony. Over there was the kingdom of Afghanistan, a mosaic of ethnic groups, since 1747 governed by Pathan kings. While expanding their empire to the northwest of India, the British experienced various confrontations with Pathan tribes without succeeding in subduing them. They invaded Afghanistan on two occasions in 1839 and 1878. Both incursions ended in a disaster. Finally, in 1893, the British understood that, even if they could not win over that region, they could use it as a very efficient buffer between British India and the Russian Empire. ...

In Peshawar, I met with Lateef Afrida, the leader of a Pathan tribe. He told me that his father, two of his brothers and two of his cousins died in tribal disputes. "Nowadays", he assured me, "if the Pathans have a family quarrel, they are blowing each other with mines." Such fightings make part of Pathan life, but they disappear when facing an external threat. The Pathan people have a saying: "I fight against my brother. My brother and me fight against our cousins. We and our cousins fight against the enemy." As I was frequently told, it is partly due to the common enemy that the Pathan people supported the Taliban. They fought against the Soviet Union when being occupied by them. They fought for power among themselves and against the leaders of other ethnic groups when the Soviet troups fled. When the Taliban came to power in the midth of the 1990s, the Pathans recognized them as brothers belonging to the same tribe. Now, when being attacked by the United States, the Pathans are ready to back their defense. Due to Wazir Afridi, there are 50.000 men in his district who declared themselves ready to fight. "The whole region", he tells me, "is backing the Taliban, their Pathan and Muslim brothers."

el texto original se encuentra aqui !



	Excerpt from an interview with General Tommy R. Franks, 
	commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, published
	by TIME on march 4, 2002:
	T: Do you think he (Osama Ben Laden) is dead or alive ?
	Franks: I guess my personal inclination right now is that
	   he is alive because I have not seen someone deliver me
	   the DNA or deliver me whatever.
	T: How many troops does the U.S. have in the region (i.e.
	   all Middle East) ?
	Franks: ... Right now we have about 60.000. In Afghanistan
	   the number is about 5.000.
	T: Are U.S. troops in more danger now than when they were 
	   fighting an organized Taliban force ?
	Franks: It's just as dangerous if not more dangerous today.
	   Yes, there is considerable danger inside Afghanistan to
	   all coalition forces.
	T: As warlords fight for prominence, does the U.S. risk
	   being drawn into a civil war ?
	Franks: ... On the day of (president) Karzai's inauguration
	   ... one of the opposition group leaders, with whom we
	   had worked earlier in the fight, walked up to me from
	   across the room, hugged me and said, "Who do you want
	   me to fight now ?" That's instructive, because there's
	   a lot of that inside Afghanistan.

        AL-JAZEERA TV, Qatar, reporting (01/05/02):
        U.S. army wary of Afghan troups after threatening gesture
        of Karzai government. ...... Recent news from Afghanistan



Für deutschsprachige Leser, hier ein Auszug aus den Erinnerungen des
Diplomaten Dr. Werner v. Hentig, der während des ersten Weltkriegs
Geheimverhandlungen mit dem Emir von Afghanistan führte.



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