Thursday, October 21, 2010 | Iowa State Daily | OPINION | 5A
Afghanistan
Don’t expect success against Taliban By Youssef.Hanna iowastatedaily.com
A
fghan president Hamid Karzai conďŹ rmed Monday that his government has been holding talks with the Taliban, according to Voice of America news website; news that was praised by Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy to the region. While this news sounds optimistic, the question is, why would people expect these talks to be a success? Why would Taliban stop ďŹ ghting and agree to be replaced with a democratic system? If we learned something from history, it is that no political system was ever replaced by another system willingly. When a political movement or system is substituting another one, regardless of whether the new system is liberating the people from a previous dictator or is a replacement of one dynasty of dictators with another one, the new system has to completely eliminate the previous system. For instance, Louis XVI
and his supporters were executed because there was no possible way they could be part of the new government in France established by the French Revolution, whose intention was to get rid of the monarchy lead by Louis XVI and his predecessors. Some people might argue that the U.S. has been ferociously ďŹ ghting Taliban for the last nine years in Afghanistan, so maybe after all this ďŹ ghting Taliban is ďŹ nally convinced to give up. The U.S. recently launched an offensive in Kandahar based on this hope. The bet is that the Kandahar operation, backed by thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars, will break the mystique and morale of the insurgents, turn the tide of the war and validate the administration’s Afghanistan strategy‚ which should allow withdrawal of troops to happen as planned to be in July 2011. It seems that the Kandahar offensive was a success, as the negotiations are now on their
way, and everything seems to be going according to the plan. Then what is the problem? Well the main problem is U.S. troops, sooner or later, are leaving Afghanistan. For all the wars whose goal was to substitute one political system with another, the leaders of the new systems were eliminating the old systems leaders and supporters only to stay and rule the conquered land. This by no means is happening in Afghanistan. First, the Taliban are not eliminated; in fact, Taliban is gaining more grounds in Afghanistan. In November 2007, the London-based Senlis Council, estimated that the Taliban maintained a permanent presence in 54 percent of Afghanistan, and continued to exert inuence on regions outside the central government’s sphere of control, predominantly in southern and eastern provinces. By December 2008, the Taliban had expanded its sphere of inuence to 72 percent of the country. In May 2009, 97
percent of Afghanistan had substantial Taliban activity. Secondly, the pressure imposed on the Taliban caused by the crackdowns of U.S. troops on the insurgents supposedly causing the leaders to give up and agree on peace talks are eventually going to end when the troops leave. There is absolutely no guarantee the now supposedly suppressed Taliban will ďŹ nd anyone to suppress it after the U.S. leaves. So, if you read more news in the future about peace talks with Taliban, or maybe that Taliban signed peace treaties or even that no more bloodshed is happening in Afghanistan, you may rejoice that the military inquisition has come to an end and the American troops will ďŹ nally come back home; but hold off on celebrating that the job is done. You may hear soon after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops that Taliban, with no one in Afghanistan to stop them, have once again become rulers of Afghanistan.
Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, has announced talks between his government and the Taliban have taken place, and ofďŹ cials have praised this announcement. Ultimate success over the Taliban, however, is improbable. Courtesy photo: Wikipedia
Letters
Representation of atheists was ill-informed, unjust
Letters to editor inaccurate about satellite voting facts
In response to the article “Can’t we all just get along?â€?, I ďŹ nd it hard to believe that readers could take this seriously. Naming three people the author considers atheists and spouting off death counts doesn’t convey anything, except that these dictators massacreda lot of innocent people. The author says these mongrels suppressed religion to control people, and that may be. Anyone who has considered mass movements and cults will know that these entities deny knowledge and dissent. But to claim that messages freely expressing a counter-current idea to blind acceptance express hatred, and to equate these messengers with three notorious dictators, seems farcical. Anyone could list notorious people, but such arguments are implausible for the reason that the author chose an inďŹ nitesimal proportion of the atheist populace. This is the wornout argument.. If one considers, say, the fact that most scientists are or have become atheistic/antitheistic, it stands to reason that there must be
Three misstatements have been voiced or implied lately in letters-to-editor and at Friday’s League of Women Voters legislative forum. First, we’ve repeatedly heard about “union halls� as voting places, but Auditor Mary Mosiman and representative Dave Deyoe know that there has never been a union hall in Story County used for satellite voting. In fact, I haven’t met anyone who even knows of a union hall in our county, let alone public voting during a scheduled union meeting — but there will be voting at two churches while religious services are going on. Second, Alex Tuckness said in a letter that Story County asked the evangelical churches to serve as satellite voting sites. That is not true. The Story County auditor’s own website shows which sites petitioned and asked to serve as satellite sites, and which were “established at the discretion of the Auditor.� Cornerstone Church and Stonebrooke Church both petitioned to be satellite sites and are the only two sites that asked for voting during regular Sunday service times. It is this
Jason Lupoi, graduate student in chemistry a certain level of intellect amongst them, that they have thought out these viewpoints and employed the scientiďŹ c method to weigh all evidence, or lack thereof. I ďŹ nd it amazing that these believers, who consider things to be result of a sky-fairy, actually consume science’s medicines and consult doctoral advice — products of the evolution of science — and still claim they want to reach heaven as soon as possible, and leave this behind. They use science, and discredit it when the agenda or explanation doesn’t ďŹ t their beliefs. Or, they stretch out an already-thin argument, claiming some god created scientists and gave them their abilities. These scientists have just gone astray. Without showing empirical evidence — and not just claiming everything should be accepted on blind faith — authors who write prose such as “Can’t we all just get along?â€? cannot expect a rational mind to take it seriously.
Susie Petra which is the most disconcerting. Both Tim Gartin and Karen Sevde said publicly at Friday’s forum, that they signed the petitions, so Tuckness’ claim that the county asked both churches is invalidated by both Mosiman’s website and by both candidates; Gartin being an elder at Cornerstone. Third, Auditor Mosiman has said she cannot legally change voting time at the churches. However, the Secretary of State’s election director has said that Mosiman has the legal right to decide the day and time of satellite voting. So, moving the time from regular church services to a time which clearly protects the separation of church and state, is within her purview. Let me add that Cornerstone’s site selection certainly is not geographically suitable as a voting site for the general public. But its selection most certainly helps a speciďŹ c congregation.
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