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The warlords casting a shadow over Afghanistan

They are brutal, bloodthirsty – and becoming increasingly influential in Afghan politics.

By Patrick Cockburn

Gulbuddin Hekmetyar, Faryadi Zardad and Mohammad Qasim Fahim

GETTY/PA/GETTY

Gulbuddin Hekmetyar, Faryadi Zardad and Mohammad Qasim Fahim

One of the most feared of the Afghan warlords, Faryadi Zardad, was notorious for robbing, raping, torturing and killing travellers on the road between Kabul and Jalalabad. He kept a savage assistant in a cave who would bite and rip the flesh of his victims; other captives were murdered or imprisoned until they died of their sufferings or bribes were paid for their release.

Uniquely among the warlords of Afghanistan, many guilty of actions similar to his own, Zardad is in prison for his crimes. In 1998, as the Taliban overran Afghanistan, he fled to Britain on a fake passport. He was running a pizza restaurant in south London in 2000 when he was unmasked by the BBC, and in 2005 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Britain.

Zardad must consider himself exceptionally unlucky. Other warlords, who were once his comrades in arms, are now part of the political elite in Kabul, prominent members of the government or multimillionaire owners of palatial houses in the capital.

At the time Zardad was torturing and killing at his much-feared checkpoint at Sarobi on the Kabul-Kandahar road in 1992-96, he was a valued military commander in the forces of Gulbuddin Hekmetyar, the leader of the fundamentalist Hizb-e-Islami party.

Rockets and shells fired into Kabul by Hekmetyar's soldiers devastated the city and killed thousands of people before it was captured by the Taliban. More recently, Hekmetyar's forces, who are particularly strong in Logar province just south of the capital, have been fighting as allies of the Taliban.

But in the latest twist in Afghan politics, in which leaders switch sides and betray each other as swiftly as any English duke in the Wars of the Roses, Hekmetyar is reportedly about to start negotiations to join the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai. Under a power-sharing deal, his party would supposedly fill several ministerial posts and governorships in return for abandoning the Taliban. He himself would go into exile in Saudi Arabia for three years at the end of which the US would remove him from its list of "most wanted" terrorists.

A deal between Hekmetyar and President Karzai's government is not impossible, although a government spokesman has denied it. The Taliban have made plain in the past that they neither like nor trust him. It was in opposition to warlords such as him that the Taliban first arose in 1994.

If Hekmetyar's party does enter the government, its members will find themselves surrounded by many familiar faces. Just before Mr Karzai went to Washington to see President Barack Obama last week, he neatly divided the opposition, and almost certainly ensured his re-election as President, by selecting as his vice-presidential running-mate Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a powerful Tajik former warlord.

Human Rights Watch protested that General Fahim had the blood of many Afghans on his hands, but President Karzai stressed his courageous role in the war against the Soviet occupation.

Though Mr Karzai is increasingly unpopular because of failing security across Afghanistan and the extreme corruption of his government, he is likely to win re-election easily because he has co-opted the warlords who are Afghanistan's main power-brokers. Frequently denounced for being weak and indecisive, Mr Karzai, never a warlord himself, is again showing his skill in dancing between the rain-drops of Afghan politics.

US criticism of his rule, which reached high volume a few months ago, has died away because Washington sees nobody who can replace him. Unfortunately for Afghans, the political landscape of their country gelled at the time of the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 and has not really changed since.

One reason the Taliban had been able to conquer most of Afghanistan in the 1990s, aside from the support of Pakistan, was by taking advantage of a popular reaction against warlords. Zardad ruled only a small area, but far more powerful rulers were just as cruel and corrupt as he was. Much of northern Afghanistan was ruled by the Uzbek general, Rashid Dostum, who had been part of the Communist regime and commanded a powerful army. The Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid once arrived to interview him in a fort overlooking his capital of Mazar-e-Sharif. Noticing bloodstains and scraps of flesh in the muddy courtyard he asked the guards if they had slaughtered a goat. They explained that an hour earlier General Dostum had punished a soldier for theft. "The man had been tied to the tracks of a Russian-made tank," records Mr Rashid, "which then drove around the courtyard crushing his body into mincemeat, while the garrison and Dostum watched."

At the time of the terrorist attacks on the US in 2001, warlords including General Dostum and General Fahim were fighting for their lives or were in exile. But within hours of 9/11, the US was looking for local allies to provide the ground troops which, backed by US airpower, advisers and money, would overthrow the Taliban in Kabul.

In a couple of months warlords, many from the main opposition grouping, the Northern Alliance, were the new rulers of Afghanistan. Few of them now wear uniform, but they have held power ever since. General Dostum has gone into luxurious exile in Istanbul after a murderous assault on a Turkoman leader, but he remains influential among his followers and owns a fine pink palace in the famously wealthy Kabul neighbourhood of Sherpur.

Aside from Hekmetyar, most of the other warlords no longer exercise power through their private armies, but through a mafia-like control of jobs, security services, money, contracts and land.

Mr Karzai has experience in keeping them divided by giving each a big enough cut of the cake to make sure that no credible replacement for himself as President ever emerges. Had Zardad played his cards a little differently, and chosen his place of exile more carefully, he might now be looking forward to profitable government employment in Kabul.

Gulbuddin Hekmetyar

*Nicknamed "Engineer" he is a former prime minister of Afghanistan and a rebel military commander in the anti-Soviet war. He is wanted by the US for his links to Bin Laden.

Rashid Dostum

*Born into a peasant family in 1954 the burly Uzbek and former plumber has a reputation for ferocious brutality. Changed sides numerous times and once backed the Taliban.

Faryadi Zardad

*Former Mujahedin leader, aged 45, ran a violent milita that robbed, abducted and killed travellers. He fled to Britain, ran a pizzeria and is now in prison.

Mohammad Qasim Fahim

*On America's "most wanted" list of terrorists, he is one of the most notorious warlords with, according to Human Rights Watch, "the blood of many Afghans on his hands".

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The "Good Fellows" of Afghanistan !
[info]drug_baron wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 02:32 am (UTC)
And they are the allies who will bring democracy and women's rights to Afghanistan ?

With friends like these................. !

Are they running the rendition camps for the allies ?

What a lovely bunch of chaps; these good fellows would adorn any tea party.

Wherever the US treads, "good fellows" flourish
[info]findempire wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 08:28 am (UTC)
Who gave the world the Cosa Nostra? That's right, the Yanks, when they invaded Sicily. They took such a shine to the lupo-armed thugs that they used them to murder hundreds of peasants protesting against the oppression of the Sicilian land-owner-mafia-bosses. Called them "communists" of course, to make it look good.

Who gave the world the Russian mafia? The Yanks, who gave their wholehearted support to the arch-criminal Boris Berezovsky and his sockpuppet Boris Yeltsin, who together tore robbed the USSR blind and smuggled the loot abroad, killing any who stood in their way, including the American author of this book that exposed their mind-blowing crimes. Now Berezovsky is called a "businessman" or even a "dissident" and from his Mayfair mansion, uses British libel laws to bully and silence anyone who reminds us of who he really is.

Who violated the UN charter to give the world the narco-human-trafficking state of Kosovo? The Yanks, who else, who saw in the KLA bandits kindred spirits, reminiscent of their injun-killing, privateering, stagecoach-robbing forefathers.

Who turned Somalia into a pirates' den? The Yanks, who installed the chief of the Puntland pirates, Abdullahi Yusuf, as their stooge-president in Mogadishu.

And now they are giving Heymatyar, who killed 50,000 in Kabul and razed the city with CIA-financed guns and rockets, a chunk of Afghanistan so that he will stop killing NATO troops and closing off NATO's last escape route through Uzbekistan.

How comforting it must be to the families of the 10 French soldiers Hekmatyar killed to know that they died in order to enable his return to power and greatness. How comforting it must be to the families of the 4 Brit servicemen who bought it 2 days ago in Helmand to know that they made the ultimate sacrifice in order to ensure that the Taliban does not take the country away from narco-trafficking thieves, murderers, torturers, and rapists.

So this is what lies under the vague rhetoric of Obomber's "Afpak policy:" Massacre civilians from the air and let criminal/terrorist scumbags rule the country.
Re: Wherever the US treads, "good fellows" flourish
[info]ahmadshah1944 wrote:
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 at 09:32 pm (UTC)
As an Afghan I blieve Fahim, Saiaf, Hekmatyar and Khalili are responsible for the massacre of the people of Afshar and killing of 65000 Kabuli's during their power as rulers of a part of Kabul city when another criminal Rabani the president was. Zardad was a creul and blooddrinker person. Thanks God he is in prison in the UK. But Zardad worked under the command of Hekmatyar. Therefore Hekmatyar is also responsible for what Zardad did. Dostum was involved in the crimes of the regime of Rabani but the history of his criminal acts goes back to the communist ear. Since 30 years he commits crimes. His last crime was steeling the remains of the maasgraves in Dasht-e-Laili last year. All these criminals are good friends of Karzai. It is right that Karzai divide them to rule but he buys the silence of warlords in exchange of giving them the public money, public political and military posts and limiting the rights and liberties of the people of Afghanistan. In order to defeat warlords, the Afghans should get rid of Karzai for ever from Afghan politics. The shadow of warlords will disapeair one the shadow of Karzai is removed from Afghan politics. Obama administration will make a big mistake if ther secret support goes to Karzai.
F. Ahmad
Fahim
[info]kparta wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 03:40 am (UTC)
Fahim fought against the tools of foreign interference in his homeland. He was no sick sycophant like Hematyar and Zardad - and most of the opposition and slanders against him are politically motivated. What kind of 'Warlord' assures vast number of votes ? And he is not nor was he ever on Americas "most wanted list". Mr Cock your credibility is put into question when you side more with your dogmatic obsession to seek out warlords in all players of Afghanistan - including genuine popular credible partisans. It can be argued that it was the removal of so called 'warlords' like Fahim and Ismail by ethnocentric Karzai - have allowed the Taliban and Hekmatyar to make a come back. Herat is in shambles today - because of the removal of Ismail Khan - why do you not cover that ?
Re: Fahim
[info]findempire wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 08:58 am (UTC)
Ismail Khan was generally considered a good provincial governor but he refused to give Kabul a cut of his customs revenues and was also pro-Iran because he was doing so much business with that country. Karzai hated him because Khan wouldn't give him the time of day, which made him look even more ineffectual and weak than he was, and the Yanks hated him because he spoke well of Iran. After the Yanks let Karzai send troops against Khan, Herat went down the toilet, as evidenced by the recent aerial massacre of 247 civilians in revenge for a devastating Taliban attack there against US & Karzai forces.

Fahim is a totally different kettle of fish. He is a common criminal, like all the rest of the northern warlords. To quote Seymour Hersh:
The United States' continuing toleration of warlords such as Fahim and General Abdul Rashid Dostum?an alleged war criminal and gunrunner who, after being offered millions of dollars by Washington, helped defeat the Taliban in the fall of 2001?mystifies many who have long experience in Afghanistan. "Fahim and Dostum are part of the problem, and not the solution," said Milt Bearden, who ran the C.I.A.'s Afghan operations during the war with the Soviet Union. "These people have the clever gene and they can get us to do their fighting for them. They just lead us down the path," Bearden said. "How wonderful for them to have us knock off their opposition with American airplanes and Special Forces."


The narco-warlords' popularity means nothing. Even the fabled "lion of Panshir" Massoud was a turncoat crook like all the rest of them. The "lion of Panshir" made a deal with the Soviets in 1983 and stopped fighting them and they gave him guns, which is why the Yanks let the Taliban defeat him. Here's what, according to a UN worker, makes a popular leader in Afghanistan:
"the old people say, 'Hamid is a good man. He doesn't kill people. He doesn't steal things. He doesn't sell drugs. How could you possibly think he could be a leader of Afghanistan?'"

Re: Fahim
[info]kparta wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 01:29 pm (UTC)
To quote more western journalists,whom base thier work on second hand sources - like Symour Hersh - and to quote rawa - and to quote a UN worker about Hamid and his supposed popularity - is to fail to understand Afghanistan - as if they have such a great record of getting Afghanistan ! You hit them on the head when they say things you do not like - but use it to further your own fixed views regarding the people within Afghanistan. Essentially you are an arguer for the Taliban.


Massoud indeed forced the soviets to sign a ceasefire in the Panjshir - time bought which he used to intensify the war outside Panjshir in the north..... a ceasefire which the soviets eventually saw was a failure and ended. The other parties never had the might to first stay in Afghanistan all through the wars and to make the soviets pay such a heavily toll that they are forced to sign a ceasefire with them.

The Taliban were indeed proxies of the US - as were the previous Hekmatyar crew - and still both are - and yes the US disliked Massoud - for he was not under their control - and independent minded. You are not even worth talking to about Massoud.

Fahim is no sycophant like Hekmatyar - Taliban and Zardad - and he is no criminal - a whole bunch of allegations against him - as to why he is building so many buildings in Kabul - from the money he received from whomever - at least he is building something - instead of shelling Kabul endlessly like Hekmatyar or torching the homes of hundreds of thousands of people like the Taliban. The people against Fahim are against hi - not because they are clean and morally righteous - but because they have an ethnic agenda - that agenda which they applied to Ismail Khan aswell.

Ismail Khan was no puppet of IRAN either - he was removed partially at the behest of Iran - whom is paying Karzai hundreds of millions for influence on such matters - Karzai duly appointed a Hazara Shiite governor - whom together with Afghan Mellatis have been working to destroy all the semblance of progress in that province - shutting down over 200 factories and bringing corruption and bribery - and drugs and insecurity - dolling out land to countless Hazara and Pashtun - all of it out of spite against Tajik Ismail Khan.

People are not stupid - Heratis will eventually rise up and smash the schemes of their enemies - as will the people of the north and Kabul.... no matter how much propaganda is pumped out against them and their leaders.


Liberation of Afghanistan
[info]drug_baron wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 05:09 am (UTC)
Ever since the liberation of Afghanistan, there has been 500% increase in drug trafikking into Europe and America.

The "Goodfellas" of Afghanistan are doing a roaring trade, it is only a matter of time that the "Afghan Poppy" will tarnish everyone's life in one form or another. Amazing how democracy can increase the narcotic trade.

Wasn't there a famous phrase about "Something being the Opium for the masses"; well it looks like it is already here !
THESE TALEBAN/ISLAMIST MONSTERS SHOULD BE PUT ON TRIAL IN THE HAGUE INSTEAD! PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE!
[info]nooraza wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 06:35 am (UTC)
So disgusting that power-maniac Karzai! I am ashocked by such revelation, but thank you Independent & Mr. Cockburn! Don't people understand, these monsters will not only rule Afghanistan if given a chance, but in alliance with other terrorist islamist groups like Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood etc. and supported by the vile Iranian regime, they will go on constructing an absolute brutal racist, sexist, fascsist and sadist dark-age Islamist Empire. Such is the biggest threat since the Nazi days! These Islamist monsters are already on the way, conquering South-East Asia by infiltrating and influencing Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia's Islamic groups, particularly through Pakistani extremists posing as migrant workers or Afghans posing as Pakistani migrant workers.
Re: THESE TALEBAN/ISLAMIST MONSTERS SHOULD BE PUT ON TRIAL IN THE HAGUE INSTEAD! PEACE WITHOUT JUST
[info]findempire wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 11:20 am (UTC)
Nooraza, you're blowing air as usual. Why don't you just STFU and stop embarrassing yourself?

Islamists ALREADY rule Kabul and Islamabad, thanks to the Yanks. The Yanks' valued, nuke-armed, military-aided ally Pakistan is an Islamic Republic that exports state-sponsored Jihadi terrorism and hosts Osama, if you haven't heard, just as is Saudi, the country that sends suicide Al Qaeda bombers into Iraq and bankrolls the ISI's Jihadi terrorists.

The Yanks not only printed the Jihadi schoolbooks with which the Pak ISI brainwashed the Taliban in their madrassas, they graciously hosted the Taliban in Houston to sweet-talk them into signing a pipeline deal. When the "carpet of gold" didn't work, they gave them the "carpet of bombs," using Osama as an excuse.

Now it's Richard Holbrooke who's talking to the murdering Jihadi terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Do you actually believe that Karzai has any shred of power or authority whatsoever besides what the Yanks give him? There is nothing that he can do on his own and this sick, perverted alliance with Hekmatyar is entirely the fruit of Obomber's "Afpak strategy."

Holbrooke reaches out to Hekmatyar


By Syed Saleem Shahzad

The recent meeting between a deputy of Richard Holbrooke, the United States special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and an emissary of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), is by all accounts a landmark move in the United States' stated aim of involving militant groups in ending the conflict in Afghanistan.

This disgusting Yank maneuver is entirely in character and is reminiscent of Petraeus's "Awakening councils" in Iraq, where the Yanks paid and armed Sunni insurgents and got them to switch sides, then bragging that it was their "surge" that stopped the violence. Similarly, when Saddam's forces cut off their supply lines and pinned them down outside Baghdad during the 2003 invasion, they bribed the Republican Guard generals and flew them off to a new life of luxury in the US in exchange for telling their troops to abandon their positions and go home.
YOU SUPPORTER OF THESE BARBARIC ISLAMIST THUGS SHOULD BE ONE TO SHUT UP!
[info]nooraza wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 04:12 pm (UTC)
Such insanity! Imagine, how dare you asking me to shut up when it's you who are speaking bloody nonsense as usual! Excuse me, in the west, there is freedom of speech especially by a woman! Why don't you go and live in those most barbaric Taleban/Islamist land if you support them so much! Islamists like you have no compassion, kindness, nor rational understanding of what human rights actually mean!
Re: YOU SUPPORTER OF THESE BARBARIC ISLAMIST THUGS SHOULD BE ONE TO SHUT UP!
[info]copycat7 wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 06:46 pm (UTC)
I found the post above by "findempire" full of factual infomation rather than any emotional content. Where you derive the words "islamist" "barbaric" "lack of compassion and kindness etc from i have no idea. Oh i forgot, you are obviously one of those islamaphobic BNP caveman mentality retards with nothing in the slightest bit intellectual to say whilst having to rely on the usual meaningless demonisation of muslims drivel you puke up at every oportunity. If the article was about car insurance you would probably find a way to plug your antimuslim biggotry. I really resent having to share a planet with people with a level of thinking as primative as your own. If you cant stretch your tiny mind beyond anything but spreading the polotics of fear and hatred of others then do the world a favour and just shoot yourself.
COPYCAT, YOU PRIMITIVE ISLAMIST LOVETO THREATEN VIOLENCE TO WOMEN/GIRLS DON'T YOU?
[info]nooraza wrote:
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 at 06:55 am (UTC)
@copycat:"...do the world a favour and just shoot yourself".

Sickening, these dark-age Islamists always using words of violence to threaten any woman/girls speaking up! Go back to your caves and live with those criminal fascist and prinmitive barbaric Taleban//al-Qaeda/Islamist male monsters, who only know how to abuse women/girls as sexual slaves or animals!
'WE' support these guys!
[info]damnthestupid wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 07:17 am (UTC)
ok...not us, but our politicians.

It makes a mockery of their claims to want to establish democracy & freedom in Afghanistan; by supporting these mad dogs?

Exactly the same as when the US/UK/EU supported Osama Bin Laden for all those years so the Russians would be defeated in Afghanistan.

And we all know how that particular mad dog reacted - turned round and bit the master first on 9/11 and continues ever since.....

We need to really act with more morals when we get involved in other countries or best not get involved at all.
anti war
[info]123kids wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 07:44 am (UTC)
I can see, all UK newspapers are nowadays against the war in Afghanistan and stay in Afghanistan. but you (Westerners) should know that if you take your troops out. you must be waiting for them in your own borders and you have to forget about your interests in middle east and around the world.

therfore, you better think a bit your future, before writing anti war articles about afghanistan.
Re: anti war
[info]lkdamo wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 03:43 pm (UTC)
Ye, pro war articles are much more fun.
Re: anti war
[info]copycat7 wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 06:52 pm (UTC)
....Said the right wing retards who are clearly permanently stationed on all left wing newspaper comment sections to keep the polotics of fear and islamaphobia alive and well.
we have Karzai Brothers running the businesses,
[info]famulla wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 10:30 am (UTC)
The warlords casting a shadow over Afghanistan
Ever since the liberation of Afghanistan, there has been 500% increase in drug trafficking into Europe and America. There is no liberation yet. There is fighting as many die daily.
Let me read this correct.
There are warlords who do not want to give up the reign to anyone as they are reaping the cash from the crops. Then there is USA that need this drug but keeps the eyes shut and says, ?We want to destroy these crops." Then we have Karzai Brothers running the businesses, and there many in UK.
What is the story?
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
The Three Afghan Amigos!
[info]mind_molder wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 12:59 pm (UTC)
Interesting bunch... I would hate to be a lunch guest! I woundn't know whether i was the guest or the main entree.This is the unfortunate reality of modern day diplomacy... association with the lesser evil to accomplish a greater ( temporary) good. Sadly one of the great laws of life what goes around comes around has been ignored. This country will not change unless the principles by which they govern do.
[info]lkdamo wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 04:25 pm (UTC)
I find it shocking that Mr Cockburn would imply that the only reason the Americans have not replaced the President of Afghanistan is because they can't find another muppet to replace him with.

Only the perverted would think that the mighty USA would interfere in the internal workings of a free and democratic state. It has never happened and will never happen.

I just wrote that for balance. :D
[info]copycat7 wrote:
Monday, 11 May 2009 at 06:59 pm (UTC)
Quote: "Only the perverted would think that the mighty USA would interfere in the internal workings of a free and democratic state. It has never happened and will never happen."

You are either the most nieve uneducated moron on planet earth or just born to lie through your teeth. Try reading "Hedgemony or survival" by Noam Chomsky. It details the 167 or so nations the USA has attacked in the past 50 years in an attempt to "spread democracy to the for corners of the planet" (G W Bush Quote). A glorious history of Americas foreign policy of "Globalisation" under a one world government.
What the?
[info]bontai wrote:
Wednesday, 27 May 2009 at 05:03 am (UTC)
Quote "You are either the most nieve uneducated moron on planet earth or just born to lie through your teeth. Try reading "Hedgemony or survival" by Noam Chomsky. It details the 167 or so nations the USA has attacked in the past 50 years in an attempt to "spread democracy to the for corners of the planet" (G W Bush Quote). A glorious history of Americas foreign policy of "Globalisation" under a one world government."

Now whos the uneducated one now,you do know that Iraq was the first war in which the US acted like an aggressor and that the US has only intervened after requist from a state. Now the Warlords is a hard subject to discuss for they are can help defeat the Taliban but can also fuel on Taliban support due to their techniques and past history of brutal rule. I personaly believe Massoud would of been the only ex Mujahedeen leader that I would get help from for his back ground of greed is low to non abundent and he has the support of many of the major minority groups while strong respect from the Pashtuns. His death is a cruel case of Osamas ability to destroy what hope a failing state had. I believe that Karzai is a weak leader and he needs to strenghen his grip of influence on the people give them hope not just in the Urban centres. Afghan people are strong people the Afghan future security gains which will occur in the next couple of years will lead to a weakning of Taliban influence and a major boost in rebuilding of major infastructure which will reboot the Afghan economy and socialy address the famine and suffering which is occuring.
Re: What the?
[info]questorjohnny wrote:
Tuesday, 16 June 2009 at 01:50 pm (UTC)
friends , first point is marshall muhammad qasim fahim is unrecognizable in nearly all of the comments i've seen here - with one or two very refreshing & needed exceptions - & if any of you take the calm time to think about it , what do you really know about this man ? anything other than the few "warlord" labellings WHEN the news media actually mentions his name , & especially now that afghan elections are in campaign ? i humbly wish more folk would take the time to learn much more about this former commander who worked for years in close harmony with the martyred afghan & universal human hero ahmad shah massoud - may his secret spiritus be protected ! - & , in my long & considered opinion can not even be mentioned in such notorious company as that of hekmatyr , dustam , zardad , bin laden , mullah omar & company ; please don't just beleaf me but study with an open mind & don't be afeared to go to french resources , written & on film , which do exist & thanks for the efforts , as if one is truly concerned by the subject & not just eager to hear one's own voice over the internet waves or repeat simplified & overly-inclusive lists of lies ! second point is , if you would have a real hope for the future of afghanistan , & beleaf like me that a man such as amir sahib massoud actually did have a noble vision of & very highly & universally human aspirations for his nation & all the peoples , then i suggest one study dr abdullah abdullah , a tadjik but this should not be the main point , a very close aide & confidant of a s massoud & the single person presently active in afghani politics whom i , a true & blue democratic human patriot , dedicated to being a man & not a destroyer , not only could but definitely would , were i an elector , vote for with both relish AND trust ; though whoever gets the "seat" , it's still gonna be hot undoubtedly for quite some time to come . sorry to have been so long , but i only seek to upset misconceptions from their places of possible prominence in each of our own "independant" thinking processes & , when conceivable , attempt a positive stimulation of free independant AND informed thought , & sign , with all my heart wishing the freshest&finest to all - your questorJohnny Gusto !
sorry
[info]1maia wrote:
Monday, 10 August 2009 at 10:11 pm (UTC)
to anyone from Afghanistan reading this. Plenty of us westerners do know what is happening and would stop it if we could. But, i've no desire to waste the rest of my life fighting the government and getting beat up by the police and not having a job or a life...so i don't do anything. But, sorry

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