Stones Without Tears

DECEMBER 2001 - As Kandahar falls, crumbling against forces that are far too powerful for those armed inadequately and fired by a warped sense of righteousness, another bloodbath looms ahead, in spite of reassuring noises of civility. Mr. Rumsfield’s press conference on Thursday night left ominous questions up in the air.

In the three months since the towers came down, the battle for the glory of the western way of life, light vis. darkness, freedom vs. terror and so on, has been waged relentlessly by the US, its allies and the media. While the Taliban are despised, the brutes that they were, there is concern over the pounding of a relatively defenceless country. An over kill by a superior power. Because the victims are at best, an uncivilized and thereby expendable community and at worst, a rag tag bunch of religious zealots who cannot be trusted under any circumstances, the concern exists perhaps in the hearts and minds of people, who are otherwise silent spectators to the horror of America’s new killing fields – except these are quite, quite barren. Here and there, a few raised voices, but everywhere else, there is compromising silence.

The coalition forces are not taking any prisoners. They are neither equipped to house or monitor them and they are presumably under tacit orders to kill them rather than imprison them. Many of the images that have been beamed out, have brought home a vision of hell on earth. Look at the imagery of man at his worst and cruelty beyond belief. Death is easy to accept in Afghanistan because it is so commonplace. This is the testing ground of man’s bestiality. What the Russians did to the Afghans years ago and surely what the Afghans did to the Russians, is one part of this sad story. What the Northern Alliance – the good guys as of this morning, did to the Afghans for four long years, is now conveniently being swept under large Afghani rugs. The truth about them is not very nice. The Taliban, the last sorry bunch of bigots did full justice to their charter of hate and revenge and the stories are far too many and nauseating to deserve repeating. Now they are being killed whether they fight or surrender. Good vs. Evil.

However, there is a difference. All the great actors who played on the Afghan stage, were dubbed barbarians, sans culture or civilization. The Russians were stereotyped to be the big brutes and ruthless killers. The natives, were – well natives and they were half savages on their best days and degenerate animals on all other days. But the forces of freedom, light, decency, honesty, fair play and democracy that descended into Afghanistan were supposedly flowing with the milk of human kindness. Led by men led who practiced the great value systems that sustain mankind, they were ostensibly in this windswept land only to set someone else’s house in order and lay the framework of good and peaceful governance leading to prosperous times. It was however wishful thinking to assume that these forces of goodness would actually respect human life. Those who thought so, were naïve. One of the early pictures that came out of Afghanistan was that of an American soldier, loaded with enough gear and paraphernalia to look like a Martian robot. Pipes jutted out from everywhere, harnessing and straps all around, guns, ammo and more technology wrapped around and velcroed to the anatomy, secure and self contained, a veritable war machine capable of wreaking havoc. This apparition was going to take on dusty, unwashed, wild-eyed and desperate natives, who were armed with guns that would look more at home in museums than combat. The conclusion was more than obvious even then. But what has unfolded, is horrific. One CIA operative is killed and that brings tears to the western eyes, but what about those mutilated bodies lined in trenches and thrown into gutters? What about those gunned down in Qila-I-Jangi and Mazar-e-Sharif? Aerial bombing on a makeshift jail while the liberators stand and observe? There is much out pouring of sympathy for the three soldiers who have laid down their lives for truth, motherhood and apple pie but the estimated 600 who have been butchered, find no mourners in the world.

Donald Rumsfield was quick to announce last month that it would be most unfortunate if the foreigners working with the Taliban were allowed safe passage out. In other words, a good Afghani or in this case, ‘foreigner’ is a dead foreigner. No two ways about it, because this is a war and America should show no moderation. In other words, kill and leave only bodies behind. What’s morality got to do with it? The chilling comparison some newspapers in the US made to the killing of 50,000 people in El Salvador by US-supported murder squads, made no difference four days later as a systematic slaughter was carried out at Qila-I-Jangi. The show was watched by the coalition troops but they were ‘unable’ to prevent the slaughter. What happened to those men who laid down their arms is now common knowledge. There is no remorse by the US and its allies. Instead, people like Ralph Peters exhort the authorities to show no restraint to the prisoners because ‘this is a killing hour and we must rise to it.’ When important people say things like that, what chances of survival do half dead and starving prisoners have? This is a war to the end and the Afghans who are not with the forces of sunshine, have no option but to die. In all this, everyone has very conveniently forgotten Article 3 of the Geneva Convention. What Geneva and what Convention is more like it. The NA is a bunch of wolves in wolves clothing. They have let their new friends do all the donkey work and only shuffled in, once the enemy had been more or less, wiped out. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have demanded impartial enquiries into the mass killings, but these have been rejected by the US and Britain.

The weather will kill many Afghans this winter. Hunger will claim its grisly share as well. Yet others will die of diseases, accidents and of course the fighting that continues. But there is little humanity around when the time comes to eliminate the enemy. This is a revenge strike for what happened in America. Nostradamus prophesied rivers of blood flowing. He obviously meant Afghanistan. As surely as the sun rises tomorrow, the killing will start in Kandahar even when the fighting is over. To expect anything else from the good people who are the beacons of knowledge and integrity, is to expect stones to weep.