The remaining 7,500 are military personnel providing support and logistics. The truth of the matter is that the troops are predominantly American and British. Of course the assault has a military objective. The ostensible goal is to seize a major Taliban stronghold in Helmand province. A day before the offensive, British commander Lt. Col. Matt Bazeley said, “We are going into the heart of darkness.”This explicit statement reveals the kind of basis Westerners use in Afghanistan to build their “framework of legitimacy.” Bazeley described the location they will attack to capture Taliban as the “heart of darkness.” The British commander is reinforcing outdated “Orientalist” discourse while looking us straight in the eye. We have been listening to this story over and over again ever since imperialism began. The white man from the West mobilizes to save the non-Western “from darkness” and “leads them to enlightenment.” Classic or new, imperialists always have noble missions.
America, whose real purpose in Afghanistan is known by everyone, and now NATO forces are portraying an entire country that has hosted some of the biggest civilizations in history and has produced great philosophers and scientists as a “dark pool.” The West thinks the world does not realize it when it commits a crime by invading a country and uses propaganda to manipulate people into thinking that they are making these major sacrifices just to be able to “save Afghan women from violent men” and “to liberate the Afghan people from the tyranny of the Taliban.”
Whenever the media reportson a US or NATO-led offensive, it immediately shows images of Afghan women wearing the burqa or Taliban militants whipping innocent people. The media makes it seem that the Afghan people have been taken hostage by the terror of Taliban militants. But the number of civilians killed by occupying forces is now in the thousands. In the most recent assault, a house filled with 12 civilians was blown up. So does America and NATO truly want to liberate Afghanistan or save its people from terror? This is just a simple argument used as a means for propaganda. Americans are not hesitant to admit what the real goal is. While the offensive was still under way, US Vice President Joe Biden made an announcement pointing to the dimensions of “America’s AfPak strategy.” In an interview with Larry King on CNN, Biden said, “Pakistan is my biggest worry, not Iran or Afghanistan,” and added: “[Pakistan is] a big country. … It has nuclear weapons that are able to be deployed. It has a real significant minority of radicalized population. It is not a completely functional democracy in the sense we think about it. If they continue on the path of nuclear weapons … then I worry what that does … what pressure that puts on Saudi Arabia, on Egypt, on Turkey.”
America and NATO’s presence in Afghanistan is a clear indication of the double standards the West has against the Muslim world. The West, in particular the US, holds up its right fist but then punches with the left. On the one hand, US President Barack Obama is saying they are searching for ways to establish dialogue with the Muslim world and that they want to extend a hand of peace and friendship, but on the other they continue to occupy Afghanistan, disparage Islam and Muslims over the Orientalist portrait they created, and cover up their true intentions of wanting to break Pakistan into pieces just as they did Afghanistan.
There is no justification for the damage and killings that NATO forces have caused in Afghanistan. If the West, namely America, wants to establish dialogue with the Muslim world and secure global peace and tranquility, it must first withdraw its forces from the AfPak line.
