A video is doing rounds on the social media of Afghan children throwing stones at some vehicles stated to be American. Some of us are thrilled with jingoistic write ups and with limited or pseudo knowledge claiming another empire bites the dust or the country being the graveyard of empires.
Which empire has become a graveyard? London, Moscow and Washington are glittering. If there's a graveyard it is Afghanistan. We sit in our cosy homes applauding the ghairat of Afghans. Most of their rentier warlords sit in Pakistan, Iran, India etc fighting proxy wars and destroying their own country and having their own youth killed at industrial scale. These warlords have earned huge money through acting as proxies, drug/weapon smuggling and taxing an ignorant and poverty ridden community. Imagine Tajik weapon smugglers supplying weapons to the Taliban smuggled from Central Asia.
As I would drive through the Afghan countryside during my visits to various cities there, my heart would break to see the poverty and misery of the common people. Two scenes have become indelible; one night as I was driving over to a diplomatic function in temperatures touching minus 12 degrees centigrade, I saw a 8 - 10 year old boy sitting on the icy road shivering and crying. I asked the driver to stop and inquire. The boy a street beggar had not collected enough money that day to buy bread for his family. I could not hold back my tears. I gave him 200 rupees to go home and buy bread. The relief on the child's face I will never forget. At the diplomatic function I saw the warlords sipping the choicest drinks both alcoholic and non alcoholic. The other was a boy of similar age in snow covered Kabul selling toilet rolls outside Pul e Khashti mosque.
All the Afghan warlords, regional and extra regional powers are all partners in this crime being committed on the Afghan people for the past almost two centuries. I can only pray that these proxies in Afghanistan and their backers elsewhere realise their crime and stop fighting.
courtesy Saad Muhammad
Which empire has become a graveyard? London, Moscow and Washington are glittering. If there's a graveyard it is Afghanistan. We sit in our cosy homes applauding the ghairat of Afghans. Most of their rentier warlords sit in Pakistan, Iran, India etc fighting proxy wars and destroying their own country and having their own youth killed at industrial scale. These warlords have earned huge money through acting as proxies, drug/weapon smuggling and taxing an ignorant and poverty ridden community. Imagine Tajik weapon smugglers supplying weapons to the Taliban smuggled from Central Asia.
As I would drive through the Afghan countryside during my visits to various cities there, my heart would break to see the poverty and misery of the common people. Two scenes have become indelible; one night as I was driving over to a diplomatic function in temperatures touching minus 12 degrees centigrade, I saw a 8 - 10 year old boy sitting on the icy road shivering and crying. I asked the driver to stop and inquire. The boy a street beggar had not collected enough money that day to buy bread for his family. I could not hold back my tears. I gave him 200 rupees to go home and buy bread. The relief on the child's face I will never forget. At the diplomatic function I saw the warlords sipping the choicest drinks both alcoholic and non alcoholic. The other was a boy of similar age in snow covered Kabul selling toilet rolls outside Pul e Khashti mosque.
All the Afghan warlords, regional and extra regional powers are all partners in this crime being committed on the Afghan people for the past almost two centuries. I can only pray that these proxies in Afghanistan and their backers elsewhere realise their crime and stop fighting.
courtesy Saad Muhammad
