The Afghan Dilemma

[unhappycamper]

The Afghan Dilemma
by César Chelala
Published on Sunday, August 1, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

On learning that he was from Afghanistan I asked my Afghan taxi driver his opinion about the situation in his country. "Americans don't get it," he said. "They are not going to succeed in Afghanistan. My father was a warlord who fought the Russians, so I now the situation there," he told me. And he added, "I have a lot of respect for the Russian soldiers, who fought us fiercely. But I don't have the same respect for the coalition soldiers who always overprotect themselves. They don't seem to understand that we have fought for centuries against foreign occupation to my country, and we have always succeeded."

In 2001, U.S. writer Philip Caputo offered a unique insight into the Afghan psychology. He had spent a month in Afghanistan with the mujahedeen as a reporter, during the Afghans' decade-long war with the Soviets.

At some point in the 1980s, he was accompanying a platoon of mujahedeen who were escorting 1,000 refugees into Pakistan. They had to cross a mountain torrent on a very primitive bridge, consisting essentially of two logs laid side by side. In front of him was a 10-year-old boy separated from his family, his feet swollen from several days of barefoot marching.

When Caputo realized that the boy was terrified thinking that he could fall into the rapids below, he carried him to the other side. With the help of his interpreter he found the father and handed the boy to him. The father, rather than thanking him slapped the boy in the face and poked Caputo in the chest, shouting angrily at him. Caputo was obviously shocked.

He asked his interpreter about the boy father's reaction and the interpreter explained to him, "He is angry at the boy for not crossing on his own, and angry with you for helping him. Now, he says, his son will expect somebody to help him whenever he runs into difficulties."