Dear brothers and sisters, October 22, 2009;
Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmathullahi Wa Bharakhathuhu.
Bush launched the attack on the Taliban demanding that the Taliban surrender Osama Bin Laden for plotting the 9/11 attacks. Taliban refused and the war started. Then on the start of Ramadan, the Taliban abandoned Afghanistan claiming that they do not want the Afghan population suffer during the Month of Fasting. From the sworn testimony of Ms. Sidel Edmonds it transpires that the CIA was interacting with Al-Qaeda even until 9/11. This prompted us to write
Earlier based on information that quite a few workers in the nation building projects in Afghanistan were Taliban during night and civilians during the day we wrote:
Now, what do we make of this information?
===
August 13th, 2009
“In the past there was a kind of feeling that the money all came from drugs in Afghanistan,” said Holbrooke, according to media reports. “That is simply not true.”
...The degree of cooperation and coordination between the Taliban and aid workers is surprising, and would most likely make funders extremely uncomfortable.
One Afghan contractor, speaking privately, told friends of one project he was overseeing in the volatile south. The province cannot be mentioned, nor the particular project.
“I was building a bridge,” he said, one evening over drinks. “The local Taliban commander called and said ‘don’t build a bridge there, we’ll have to blow it up.’ I asked him to let me finish the bridge, collect the money — then they could blow it up whenever they wanted. We agreed, and I completed my project.”
In the south, no contract can be implemented without the Taliban taking a cut, sometimes at various steps along the way.
===
The development of Japan and Germany after their defeat in World War II was used as a model by the Bush administration to do 'nation building' in Afghanistan and Iraq. This experiment of 'nation building' while securing the place has been a failure. Japan and Germany were rebuilt after their armies surrendered; not during the period when the armies were fighting.
The correct lesson to learn from the case of Japan and Germany is that security must be established before nation building can begin. We need to apply the same in Afghanistan too.
===
October 22, 2009 12:21 am
He says we can't defeat the Taliban without turning the Afghan population against us, and our "victory" would simply create and displace new terrorists. He estimates the fight would cost us at least $3 trillion.
===
America cannot afford to spend $3 trillion on Afghanistan alone. Neither can we afford to escalate the Afghan war by increasing the troops there.
The correct strategy would be to help form a good government in Afghanistan with the whole population participating in the run off to be held soon. We suggest that the Taliban be persuaded to participate. Let the Taliban persuade the population to defeat the incumbent Hamid Karzai and thus get a share of power in the next administration. As the Taliban do not like corruption [which is against Islam] a government with the participation of the Taliban would be free of corruption.
As we support democracy, we must support the Taliban if it indeed forms the government following the democratic process. For those who claim that the current democratic process is unislamic, we state:
The current democratic process is unislamic precisely because the contestants covet power. The rest of the process -- of finding out the will of the people -- is indeed Islamic.
Any Muslim ruler can conduct a referendum on his rule and step down if the population says so. Such a referendum is indeed Islamic.
Coming to Afghanistan, the run-off could be considered a referendum by the current ruler -- Hamid Karzai -- to seek the approval of the population to continue or to step down. The only difference is there is an alternative candidate. Thus all those Afghans who do not want Hamid Karzai to continue should participate and vote for the other candidate. Taliban has an opportunity to remove the current government and install another with their support. Once the Taliban share power they could expect the West to spend on reconstruction of Afghanistan through them.
We appeal to the West to see victory in the final outcome -- a developed Afghanistan -- rather than on the intermediate steps. They might like to win the war in Afghanistan and then reconstruct Afghanistan. Even though it might be possible it would take a number of years and trillions of dollars. In the interest of world peace, welcoming the Taliban to participate in the coming run-off assuring them that their participation in the next government would not be opposed would enhance the prestige of the West rather than diminish the same.
We hope the nations involved in the conflict in Afghanistan would use the available channels to bring the Taliban on board now and usher in a change for peace.
Kindly forward this mail to all your friends in West so that they could persuade their governments to go for peace.
With prayers to Allah Subhana Wa Taala,
Your brother,
Mohideen Ibramsha
Was Salaam