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POLS 2000 – Lecture 8

Afghanistan: Canada’s Longest War

Responsibility to Protect

  • As we saw last lesson, Canada claims a responsibility to protect people whose governments are not protecting them
  • What are the limits of sovereignty? When does a state give up its right to sovereignty? Why do certain states nominate themselves to be the judge and jury in these questions?
  • Should we protect the US people now that they have elected Donald Trump?

Responsibility to Protect

  • If we were going to invoke the R2P in the United States, we should have already done it by now:
  • At least 3000 Black people were killed by police during the tenure of Barack Obama
  • 2.5 million mostly Latino people were deported by the government of Barack Obama
  • Tens of thousands of people in the Middle East were killed by the US military under Barack Obama
  • Indigenous protestors at Standing Rock were recently attacked by militarized police

Responsibility to Protect

  • Needless to say, nothing has gotten better since the rise of Trump, and much has gotten worse…

Protecting the Empire

  • The R2P doctrine seems not to be about protecting people, but about a protective ideological blanket around decisions to invade other countries
  • It builds from the myth of Canada’s peacekeeping past, to justify contemporary interventions to support Canadian capital
  • See documentary, “Myths for Profit,” linked in last weeks lesson

Afghanistan and Empire

  • Of course, the most prominent case of the new Canadian militarism is Afghanistan, occupied in 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks
  • Afghanistan didn’t launch the attacks, but the U.S. claimed that Afghanistan was responsible for “harbouring” the attackers

Afghanistan and Empire

  • Canada joined in the invasion, but Prime Minister Chrétien did not tell the Canadian public until months later, when troops were already there
  • When Canada announced it’s participation, it claimed that it was part of the avenging of the 9/11 attacks, but over time the tone shifted, and Canada increasingly said it was helping Afghanistan by promoting democracy

The Forgotten History of Afghanistan

  • The transition from the Cold War into the “War on Terror” era is perhaps best understood through the tragic history of Afghanistan
  • Afghanistan was a small feudal kingdom with a traditional Islamic cultural heritage, considered only marginally significant in the Cold War
  • It was largely under the sway of Britain or Russia (and later the U.S.) until the 1950s, when Prime Minister Mohammed Daud began to modernize the country

The Forgotten History of Afghanistan

  • After the monarchy re-asserted its power, Daud joined forces with the growing Communist Party, and in 1973 they overthrew the monarchy and established a modern government
  • The Communist Party intended to separate church and state, remove the powerful feudal landlords, and implement gender and tribal equality

Daud’s Betrayal

  • But once Daud was in power, he turned on the Communists, having previously been assured support from the old Afghan elite and the United States
  • Daud immediately tried to eliminate the Communist Party, but he underestimated their popularity and strength

The Victory of the PDPA

  • In 1978, the Communist Party (PDPA) seized power with support from the majority in the country (but against the wishes of the elite classes, especially in rural areas)
  • The new government proceeded to re-distribute land to the people, abolish the bride-pricing system, and create a national literacy program
  • Contrary to popular belief, Afghanistan in the 1970s was more liberal than it is today

Kabul’s 1970s

Kabul’s 1970s

Kabul’s 1970s

U.S. Intervention

  • But the prospect of Communist success in Afghanistan was unhappy news in Washington, so the U.S. began funding and training soldiers to destroy the new Afghan government
  • But who would fight against the popular new government? Newly liberated women? Working people who finally had some support? Farmers who had just been given land?

U.S. Intervention

  • No, the only forces likely to fight against the new government were the former elite, conservatives, committed to a repressive version of Islam
  • So the U.S. trained and funded a paramilitary force made up of right wing (fundamentalist) Muslims, called the Mujahideen (which translates as “holy warrior,” which today we describe as “jihadist,” though that isn’t a real word)

Recognize that face?

The Mujahideen

  • Yes, Osama Bin Laden (later the architect of the 9/11 attacks) was trained and armed by the United States, to terrorize the popular communist government of Afghanistan
  • The Mujahideen fighters created havoc in Afghanistan, prompting the communist government to ask the Soviet Union for support
  • The U.S.S.R. invaded to fight against the Mujahideen, but the war was a disaster

The Mujahideen

  • Soviet soldiers were unhappy and public opinion was against the war
  • Meanwhile, the U.S. spent over $5 billion to ensure that the Mujahideen would win, drawing fighters from across the region, especially Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
  • The Afghan communists faded in strength, as people grew weary of the war, and when the U.S.S.R. fell apart in 1989, the Mujahideen quickly conquered Afghanistan, though not until after more than 1 million Afghans had died

Afghanistan in the 90s

  • Victorious, the Mujahideen now had to divide up Afghanistan between them, which proved difficult
  • They all agreed that the country should be conservative and Islamic, but they disagreed about which of them should be in charge
  • These U.S. agents now fought amongst themselves for power, while the U.S. watched from the sidelines

Afghanistan in the 90s

  • The brutal civil war ended with a victory for the Taliban faction in 1996, who ruled with U.S. support
  • The Taliban invited their old friend Osama Bin Laden back to the country to use it as a base for Al-Qaeda, his post-war organization

Political Islam

  • To recap: the U.S. was instrumental in building the fundamentalist Islamic organizations (the Mujahideen, Taliban, and Al-Qaeda) in order to defeat popular leftwing forces in the Middle East
  • The irony, of course, is that these organizations grew resentful of the United States and launched terrorist attacks against it, which makes sense given that the United States (not the Soviet Union) is the primarily foreign power occupying the Middle East

The Taliban

  • The Taliban ruled Afghanistan as a vicious and conservative dictatorship, until 2001, when the United States and Canada invaded the country and placed a different set of conservative Islamic leaders in power
  • The invasion was a response to the 9/11 attacks in New York City, orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden, but the many Afghan civilians killed in the war may wonder why they were punished for the actions of a U.S. agent gone rogue

Afghanistan Today

  • Afghanistan today remains mired in horrific and ceaseless violence, an ongoing quagmire in the terrifying “war on terror”

Civilian Casualties

  • In just the first few months of the invasion in 2001, hundreds of civilians were killed by military strikes, and thousands more were killed indirectly (starvation, displacement, disease resulting from the chaos of the attack)
  • This was no surprise: it had been widely predicted by human rights and aid organizations, but these warnings were ignored

The Resurgent Taliban

The Resurgent Taliban

  • In fact, while the Taliban continue to be described as a “jihadist” movement, the reality is that people support the Taliban for much simpler reasons: they provide some political and economic stability compared to the chaos and destruction of the NATO occupation
  • Many new recruits to the Taliban join in response to the behaviour of the occupying NATO forces

Promoting Democracy

  • Canada helped support “the development of free media in Afghanistan” spending $2.7 million on radio stations used to achieve “information dominance” to promote the occupation and the puppet Karzai government

  • In fact, the Canadian occupation was able to beam in radio signals from Kingston, ON, which sent anti-Taliban propaganda to young people in Kandahar

Promoting Democracy

  • Actually, Canada and NATO had no intention of creating genuine democracy in Afghanistan
  • “It would have been better to have allowed more organized structures, more political actors like parties… the result [of not doing so] have been an extremely chaotic parliament. We deliberately did this. To reinforce presidential position, you weaken the parliament…” – Daan Everts, former head of NATO in Afghanistan

SAT-A

  • NATO and Canada wanted President Karzai to have full authority, because that meant that NATO had full authority
  • Strategic Advisory Team-Afghanistan (SAT-A) was a group of Canadian military officers embedded in the Karzai government
  • The Karzai government (2002-2014) was installed by the occupation and never had popular legitimacy, it was considered by most Afghans to be a dictatorship propped up only by support from the occupying powers

SAT-A

  • This agency was the literal manifestation of Canadian power in Afghanistan, as SAT-A members dictated legislation to the Karzai government – how could it say no? Karzai depended on the occupation for his survival
  • SAT-A, for instance, helped write legislation giving powerful perks for foreign direct investment, so that companies could take advantage of the occupation to make profits Examples: Kilo Goldmines, Lockheed Martin, Canaccord Financial, SRK Consulting

SAT-A

  • No Afghans voted for SAT-A, in fact, over 90% of Afghans consistently said they were opposed to the entire Canadian presence in Afghanistan
  • SAT-A even wrote Hamid Karzai’s speeches when he came to Canada, as part of the Canadian military’s efforts to promote the Afghan occupation to Canadians

SAT-A and Democracy

  • No Canadians voted for SAT-A, in fact, it was kept outside of the reach of the Canadian government and was rarely discussed publicly
  • And yet, it was determining Afghan government policies, as part of a project to “promote democracy”

Liberator or Imperial Power?

  • If this what Afghanistan needed? Was Canada promoting democracy in Afghanistan?
  • Afghanistan now has a semi-functional government, which mostly governs on behalf of foreign powers, and which now partly includes the Taliban, who were brought back to power to help stabilize the Karzai/Ghani regime (though this alliance shifts often)

Democratic Afghanistan

  • Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, and over 70% of the country lives in extreme poverty
  • In order to secure support from the old Afghan elite, the Karzai government (under the guidance of SAT-A) brought back laws that allow men to rape or starve their wives if they refuse sex
  • (The new President, Ashraf Ghani, worked for the World Bank before joining Karzai’s government)

The Detainee Scandal

  • To make matters worse, Canada was directly implicated in the torture of Afghans who had been detained by Karzai’s police or the military occupation
  • When the Canadian parliament was set to discuss the matter, Stephen Harper closed (prorogued) the house to avoid questions

Torture in Afghanistan

  • As you know from reading Sherene Razack, Canada’s participation in torture and other forms of extreme violence in Afghanistan are not simply about “extracting crucial information”
  • They are part of the colonial mentality that lies at the heart of Canada: a state that imagines itself to be “better” than the people it purports to “save”

Torture in Afghanistan

  • These are U.S. soldiers, but Canadian soldiers also took part in torture:

Torture in Afghanistan

  • “Canadian military police officers have also recently come forward to raise concerns that many Afghans taken prisoner by Canadian troops were innocent farmers or workers and not members of the Taliban or al-Qaida. Last year, La Presse newspaper reported that Canadian military police conducted the surprise raids on detainees in their cells, roughing up prisoners in the process. The aim was to create a climate of high tension, which in turn could prompt detainees to provide information. But the tactics terrorized the prisoners so much that some urinated or defecated during the raids.” – David Pugliese, National Post, 2016
  • http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/out-of-control-canadian-military-police-terrorized-afghan-prisoners-in-kandahar-documents-indicate

Torture in Afghanistan

  • In 2016, Justin Trudeau was asked to open up an inquiry into Canadian torture in Afghanistan: he refused

Christie Blatchford’s Fifteen Days

  • Blatchford’s book is a perfect articulation of the new Canadian attitude, especially as it pervades the so-called “Afghan mission”
  • The book opens with a quotation from Rudyard Kipling, author of “The White Man’s Burden”
  • Did any passages stand out to you? I noted a few…

“We’re better than you”

  • A Canadian solder tells an Afghan: “…that’s bullshit. Because I’m better than you. We’re better than you.”
  • “Morally, you have to feel superior.”
  • “We’re in a country that is two thousand years behind. It’s like walking with people from National Geographic.”

Courage and Bravery

  • Blatchford’s account of the war is designed to show us the courage of the soldiers fighting it
  • It explicitly avoids any critical reflection on the actual war itself, except in the most over-the-top depictions of Afghans as either:
  • 1) savage bad guys, 2) inept allies, 3) ungrateful children 4) innocent victims who are thankful to Canada for saving them

Courage and Bravery

  • Blatchford: “Surrounded by out troops, I’ve never felt so alive”

Courage and Bravery

  • Fifteen Days won a Canadian book award and has sold infinitely more copies than the books that break down what is actually happening in Afghanistan
  • “This book will open your eyes to this brutal war and it is worthy of our brave young men and women.” – Don Cherry

Support the Troops!

  • Of course, when soldiers rappel from the rafters at the Leafs game, our job is to applaud their bravery and not question what they are actually doing in Afghanistan or anywhere else
  • Criticizing the war becomes “criticizing the troops” and to do that is to break a now sacrosanct social rule

“Liberated” Afghanistan

Next week:

  • We will examine Canada’s increasingly significant role in Haitian politics, most notably Canada’s participation in the overthrow of the legal and elected government of Haiti in 2004