What about Bin Laden and
Mulla Omar?
While the US no longer cares the Afghan people want
answers
Translated from the original Dari-Persian by Omaid Weekly
staff, following is a poignant editorial printed in a recent issue
of Payam-e-Mujahid, a popular weekly published inside Afghanistan.
As told in tales of old, there was war in the land. The people
saw a man standing atop the highest mountain with a plentiful supply
of poison-tipped arrows. And they witnessed him shoot, in turn,
arrows at one warring side and then at the other. The people asked
the mysterious archer, "What side are you on?" To which
the archer replied, "I am but a slave obligated to liberate
these arrows. I am after my own interest and I am on neither
side."
While in the last ten years Afghanistan has seen a bitter
retelling of this tale, we thought the scenario would change when
the Taliban and al Qaida destroyed the World Trade Center — the
symbol of the might of a world superpower. Unfortunately, the
current situation is yet another chapter of this woeful tale.
Military operations ensued, and with the vital aid of
Afghanistan's national resistance force the Taliban and al Qaida
were brought down. Now, while little time has passed, and remnants
of the Taliban and al Qaida still breathe and are regrouping, we see
the arrows of that archer being propelled against the other side in
the form of maleficent rhetoric.
Now, the talk is about "warlords," the "abuse of
human rights," and so on. And this process has gone so far that
[Herat governor] Ismail Khan — a premier resistance leader and
mujahid who steadfastly fought against the Taliban, experienced
torture in Taliban prisons, and after the past year's victory has
brought complete peace and initiated reconstruction in his region
— is being likened with Toran Amanullah, a well-known Taliban
commander and currently one of the few remaining lieutenants of
Gulbudin Hekmatyar. In fact, some have gone beyond drawing
comparisons, calling for the replacement of Ismail Khan with the
Hekmatyar henchman.
The overt and silenced actions of the United States and the
international alliance with regard to Taliban leaders tells a
disturbingly familiar tale.
The people say, "Why doesn't the United States mention Mulla
Omar? Why haven't they found him? Or is it that the Americans do not
want to capture the brutal Taliban leader?" The people ask the
United States, "Why do Taliban leaders and ministers live
secure and peaceful lives in Uruzgan, Qandahar and Pakistan? Why
haven't you, at the least, spoken to them for the sake of getting
information? These individuals have vital knowledge about Osama bin
Laden, al Qaida, terrorist bases and planned attacks. Bin Laden was
a Taliban patron and yet no Taliban was a member of al Qaida? In
essence, aren't the Taliban and talibanism a branch of al Qaida and
terrorism? Did Bin Laden live in isolation or in a void while in
Afghanistan?! Al Qaida is an organization and a movement, not a
small collection of rowdy militants gathered under a sincere
religious interest or the weight of Bin Laden's propaganda. Why is
the United States satisfied with imprisoning Taliban and al Qaida
foot soldiers while letting the leaders, tacticians, and theorists
roam free and unfettered?"
These questions and issues have spawned certain thoughts and
concerns in the minds of the people of Afghanistan, and it's best
for the United States and the international alliance to take notice.
Some remark in jest: "Bin Laden and Mulla Omar are having
tea with the Americans" and if that's not the case, then, at
the least, most Afghans think it is true. "The Americans don't
really want to capture Bin Laden and Mulla Omar" since with the
ISI [Pakistan's spy agency] at the service of the United States,
this would prove a viable task. It seems this scenario continues to
play out and the people of Afghanistan await the next scene of this
tragic show.
Concluded in our next issue...
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