The Horror of Afghanistan

During then-Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign, I cringed every time I heard him decry U.S. involvement in Iraq, only to raise his voice about righteously going into Afghanistan, crushing Al Quaeda, finding Osama bin Laden, and killing him. The violence in and of his words always haunted me, and still does, because it confirmed my suspicions that our country has to be involved in some kind of warfare in order to survive and thrive. It's a cold war mentality, which was already utterly ridiculous, gone further amuck! Evil is never solely outside ourselves. We as a nation can easily pinpoint when another country or agency is execrable, but we have a very difficult time discerning our own culpability and perniciousness.

Many thoughtful and well-meaning people recognize our mischief-making, imperialism, manipulation and intrusion into the affairs of other countries--how such actions greatly contribute to the way the United States is characterized by other countries. If we are honest with ourselves, we would also understand the relationship of cause and effect or the interplay of means and ends. Violence or retaliation against another nation may sometimes be justifiable, according to some, but it is never perpetrated in a vacuum. The attack against the United States on September 11, 2001, was not prosecuted simply because the people were mad, i.e., crazy. I was not merely because their fanaticism "caused" them to do such a heinous crime. They struck a symbol, in their estimation, of Western imperialistic hegemony. It was stupid, wrong, and inhumane. The egregiousness of their acts that day can never be condoned. The acts could not gain the attention of the world and satisfy the goals of the Muslim rebels. But it was and is the choice of the U.S. government and its people the manner in which they would respond. Thus far, in my opinion, we have chosen wrongly and unethically.

I would like to lift up an individual who I believe could be a model for the Arabic, Muslim, and Western worlds: namely, Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Khan was a member of the Pathan people, many of whom live in Afghanistan. In recent centuries, the Pathan people were considered to be aggressive, violent, and vengeful. Khan gravitated towards the nonviolent revolution being conducted by Gandhi in India, and he became a loyal pupil, taking up the mantle of peacemaking by organizing a nonviolent army of 100,000 men. These nonviolent Muslim Pathans, "Khudai Khidmatgars," committed their lives to the cause of freedom and human dignity. They not only renounced violence, but also surrendered their tack of revenge and retaliation. Khan believed that nonviolence was an ennobling and empowering force that could truly transform lives both individually and collectively. His concern for humanity and peace is likened to that of his mentor, Gandhi, as well as to Buddha, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr., St. Francis, and Mother Teresa.

The life of Badshah Khan ("badshah" means "king") compels us to recognize that people can change despite deeply ingrained proclivities. There is no excuse. The United States does not have to insist upon a perpetual search for bin Laden in order to make the world attribute to us super-powerful resolve and revenge. We can focus on more constructive endeavors, many of which would be domestic in nature, to rebuild our reputation as a leading nation that cares for those who are unhealthy, impoverished, and disempowered. Also, we can take measures, many of which would require better policing, in essence, to ensure our borders are protected. In addition, we could develop a more honest way to market, if you will, the positive things our government and its people are doing, so that the world community would be apprised of them.

The first step would be to withdraw from Afghanistan. We can use those excess military coffers to approximate the vision briefly alluded to above--something that will eventuate into the best possible society.