Angry
Afghans burn U.S. Pastor Terry Jones in effigy: Is there
beyond
Quran burning behind this outbreak of popular anger?
The Frontier Post,
Pakistan
Message to
America: This isn't Really About Pastor Terry Jones
"The
protestors were raising slogans against the Americans, which is understandable
given that the wicked profaner was an evil American pastor. But notably, they
were also screaming slogans for all occupiers to leave. … The U.S.-led
occupiers would do well to understand that Afghan patience with their
occupation has run out."
EDITORIAL
April 4, 2011
The Frontier Post - Pakistan - Home Page
(English)
Violent protests in
Afghanistan against the desecration of the Holy Quran by a wicked American
padre have put the U.S.-led occupiers - and the Afghan regime - in a quandary.
A severe backlash by the country’s conservative polity wasn’t all that unexpected.
What seems to have flummoxed the occupiers is that protests broke out in places
like Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat and Kabul. These are places that President Hamid
Karzai has selected for the first transfers of security responsibilities from
coalition forces to the Afghan army and police.
The U.S. and Karzai are therefore
in a tizzy, and in their jitters both are saying things that contradict their
own often-repeated assertions about the pacification of Afghanistan. For
example, they contend that these demonstrations have been incited by the Taliban.
That is tantamount to a confession that the Taliban are still a force to reckon
with and not on the run, as their military commanders have been claiming ever
since their troop surge. If they were correct in their assertion, then such a
protest in a place like Mazar-i-Sharif, the lair of ruthless and rabidly
anti-Taliban warlord Abdul
Rashid Dostum’s, and in Herat, a redoubt of Ismail Khan, another similarly-disposed
warlord, speaks volumes about the Taliban’s persistent influence.
That alone is a resounding
corroboration of the latest U.N. report that almost 70 percent of the country
is under Taliban control. Still, the occupiers would do themselves, Afghans and
the region a lot a good, if they would interpret these demonstrations
correctly.
The protestors were raising
slogans against the Americans, which is understandable given that the wicked
profaner was an evil American pastor. But notably, they were also screaming
slogans for all occupiers to leave, and even reportedly tried to besiege bases
of coalition forces. That is apart from fatally attacking the U.N.'s Mazar-i-Sharif
facility.
This is a manifestation of
the growing resentment on the part of the Afghan people against continued
foreign occupation. And it would be major blunder of the occupying militaries
and their political bosses not to take note of this reality.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Historically, it's an
established fact that Afghans, by temperament a fiercely independent- people,
are intolerant of foreign occupation. This is something the Americans and
British should know from experience. It was this Afghan propensity that the
Americans tweaked to give a bloody nose to the Soviet occupiers and to avenge
their humiliation in Vietnam. Certainly, if at great cost in lives and blood
Afghans valiantly fought for their independence under Soviet occupation, they weren't
likely to have turned into lambs under the U.S.-led occupation. Their passion
for independence has not dwindled nor has their fighting spirit diminished.
The British know this very
well from their
own Afghan wars, when as an imperial power they were engaged in a fierce
and bitter regional rivalry with Czarist Russia. At the time, they even
captured Kabul and stationed a garrison there to illicit imperial awe for over
two and a half years. But when the Pashtun Afghans struck, they drove Britain's
imperial army out of Kabul and chased it down to Torkham, mowing down its
officers, soldiers, political officials and their families one by one all the
way. Only a single survivor [Dr. William Brydon]
lived to tell the dreadful tale to the British royals, their India viceroyalty
and the world.
The U.S.-led occupiers would
do well to understand that Afghan patience with their occupation has run out.
There is no point in having their military commanders wave around engineered
opinion polls showing that three-fourth of Afghans support their prolonged
occupation. This serves only to offset snowballing public disenchantment with
the Afghan war in the West, where about two-thirds of Americans are opposed.
Indeed, it would be very wise
of America's military commanders to put their full weight behind recent moves by
their own leaders to seek a political solution involving peace talks with
Taliban and other insurgent groups. They must know - foreign armies have never won
in this inhospitable land. Sooner or later, all have kissed defeat. And this
isn’t going to change. So instead of hankering for a win in an unwinnable war,
they must seek a political way out. In that alone lies the good of all - theirs
as well as the Afghans and others.
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Asia Times, Hong Kong:
True Spark of Protests: Possible U.S. Release of Taliban
Daily Jang, Pakistan:
Afghan Security Situation Worsens After Quran Burning
The Star, South Africa:
South African Muslims Prevent a 'Bible Bonfire'
Sotal Iraq, Iraq:
Muslim Clerics Must 'Render Unto Caesar What is Caesar's'
Jakarta Post, Indonesia:
The Ground Zero Mosque, Jewish People and Indonesia
News, Switzerland:
Moderates in 'Radical Headlock' Over 'Ground Zero Mosque'
La Nacion, Chile:
Extremists and the Media Put World on a Hair Trigger
Folha, Brazil:
Xenophobia is Again in Fashion Around the World
Financial Times Deutschland:
West Must Halt Downward Slide Since 9-11
El Mercurio, Spain:
The 'Neo-Nazi' Campaign Against President Obama
El Mundo, Spain:
Beck and Palin Search for Mythical 'Paradise Lost'
Der Standard, Austria:
In Despair Over Democracy - Both America's and Ours
National Post, Canada:
U.S. Democracy Suffers 'Death By Talk-Show Host'
La Jornada, Mexico:
Beck and the New U.S.-Right: 'Like a Horror Movie'
Iraq News Agency, Iraq:
Sarah Palin: The 'Seductress' of the American Election
Die Tageszeitung, Germany: Let's Punish Pastor Jones By Looking Away
Folha, Brazil: Pastor Jones Takes Journalists for a Ride
Der Spiegel, Germany: Daughter of
Terry Jones Asks
Dad: 'Papa, Don't Do It'
Der Spiegel, Germany: Jones
Condemned By His
Ex-Church in Germany
Telegraph, U.K.:
Can One Idiot
Really 'Threaten World Peace'?
Telegraph, U.K.:
9/11 Quran
Burning: What U.S Law Says
Daily Star, Lebanon:
Quran Burning a Threat
to America and the World
Rheinischer Merkur, Germany:
Cordoba House: Let it Be a Triumph of Tolerance
ABC, Spain:
Cordoba House: The 'Impossible Mosque'
ABC, Spain:
The Mosque Near Ground Zero: A Case of Insensitivity
La Opinion de Zemora, Spain:
Cordoba House and 'Hussein of Yankeeland'
Guardian Unlimited, U.K.:
The Poison Behind the Ground Zero Mosque Furore
The Telegraph, U.K.:
The Depressing
Debacle of 'Ground Zero Mosque'
BBC News, U.K.:
Mosque Dispute Exposes Obama on Two Sides
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US April 4, 7:56pm]