Editor,
Our anguish began when we left Afghanistan to fend for itself after the expulsion of the Red Army in 1989. The U.S. abandonment caused a power struggle, and ultimately the country’s authority was left in the hands of the most revolting tyrants in Afghanistan.
So, I must say with great honor that it is an incredible sight, perhaps overdue but nevertheless incredible, to watch our armies fight against right-wing religious fanatics after the 1980s debacle. We should be proud that America has the opportunity to play a role in this fight against totalitarianism.
It was correctly stated in Muhajir Salam’s letter on Friday that the number of troops makes no difference in the success of coalition forces in Afghanistan, just as it made no difference in Iraq. The real problem is our strategy. One failed strategy is the fact that we burned and destroyed the only crop produced in that country (opium), when we should be buying it in order to
produce pain medicine. It is easy to see that these economic woes are directly connected to the success of the war in Afghanistan.
It was a shame to see Salam try to cite polls and use populism to defend his position after stating that the U.S. is a “so-called democracy.” If we are not a democracy, why raise the point of consensus? The cited poll numbers that Salam used in his letter, released by CNN, came after the two deadliest months for U.S. troops since the liberation commenced, and the major slip in support was amongst Republican voters.
Using polls that reflect a nation mourning for the loss of 48 servicemen is nasty and a repulsive attack, no matter how you look at it. And it is interesting to see a pacifist, as Salam apparently is, agreeing with the chauvinist, isolationist tenets of the Republican Party.
The use of the term “games of death” is another cheap and disgusting example of slander for those fighting against a culture of death imposed by the Taliban and
al-Qaida forces. While Salam humiliates and disgraces himself in that manner, the real leftist revolutionaries in Afghanistan (i.e. workers unions, women fighting for universal suffrage, the people fighting for free and fair elections) put their lives on the line every day against the disgusting religious right that wants nothing more than to impose a failed theocratic state and blame all the problems that it causes on outside forces.
Salam may be proud to hold his sadomasochistic position, and that’s fine, but don’t say, “Nothing short of an act of God will help us now.” You would sound a bit more intelligent saying, “Help me now.” Please don’t pervert terms of solidarity like “us” the way you pervert the fight against barbarism. As far as hoping for an act of God, wasn’t it God who placed the Taliban and al-Qaida there in the first place?
Jose L. Flores
UNM student
