DEMAND CIVILIAN SOLUTIONS FOR AFGHANISTAN!
After eight years of U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan, violence and instability still prevail. The military approach to Afghanistan is not succeeding; further application of American military force will not bring stability to the country or security to our own.
With over 90 percent of U.S. funding in Afghanistan directed toward military purposes, non-military strategic options are not being pursued. The problems facing Afghan society are economic, social and political in nature, and require economic, social and political solutions. The U.S. can play a more constructive role in Afghanistan by engaging civil society than by waging war.
Congress should begin debate on civilian alternatives to a failed military-based approach to bringing peace and security to the region, starting with Congressional hearings.
Who really believes that we are there to uphold the rights of the downtrodden women of that country? Whatever fabrication they can hook us with! As horrible as the lot of these women, and young boys, is in this hellhole, the wars have only intensified their suffering!
Who really believes that we are there to uphold the rights of the downtrodden women of that country? Whatever fabrication they can hook us with! As horrible as the lot of these women, and young boys, is in this hellhole, the wars have only intensified their suffering!
PT.1 ~ More Troops + Afghanistan = Catastrophe
Here's Why Obama Is "Gravely Concerned" About Pakistan
Andrew Bacevich is a professor of International Relations & History at Boston University. He has written several books, including The Limits of Power: The End of Military Exceptionalism and The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. Thomas J. Barfield is a professor of Anthropology at Boston University and the President of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies. Robert Pape is a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. He is the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. Carl Conetta is the Co-Director of the Project on Defense Alternatives. Faiysal Alikhan is the Founder of the Foundation for Integrated Development Action. He chairs Pakistan’s International Chamber of Commerce Commission on Customs and Trade Regulation. Stephen Kinzer is a foreign correspondent, writer, and the author of several books, including Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. | Shukria Barakzai is a member of the Afghan parliament and helped draft Afghanistan’s constitution. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aina–E–Zan (Women’s Mirror), a weekly newspaper for women in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dr. Ramazan Bashardost is Afghanistan's former Planning Minister, a current member of parliament and an Independent candidate in the upcoming Presidential Election. Mohammad Osman Tariq is president of the pro-democracy group the National Council for Peace and Democracy in Afghanistan. He was a Mujahid commander and fought against the Russians in the Soviet-Afghan war. His recent publication Tribal Security System in Southeast Afghanistan is available here. Ruslan Aushev is a retired Lt. General in the Russian Army and is Chief of the Committee of Russian Afghan Veterans. He is a former president of Ingushetia. Anand Gopal is Afghanistan Correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. |
PT 2 ~ Rethink Afghanistan: Pakistan: "The Most Dangerous Country"
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PT 3 ~ Rethink Afghanistan: The Cost of War
| Andrew Bacevich is a professor of International Relations & History at Boston University. He has written several books, including The Limits of Power: The End of Military Exceptionalism and The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. Dr. Ramazan Bashardost is Afghanistan's former Planning Minister, a current member of parliament and an Independent candidate in the upcoming Presidential Election. Linda Bilmes is co-author of New York Times bestseller The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. She is a full-time faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she teaches budgeting, applied budgeting and public finance. Bilmes is widely considered one of the leading experts in US budgeting and public finance. She has held senior positions in government, including Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of the US Department of Commerce, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration, and US Representative to several high-ranking commissions. Pratap Chatterjee is managing editor of CorpWatch, which investigates and exposes corporate violations of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption around the world. Pratap is also an investigative journalist and producer. He is the author of Iraq Inc.: A Profitable Occupation and The Earth Brokers. | Jo Comerford is executive director of the National Priorities Project. National Priorities Project is a research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels. Carl Conetta is the Co-Director of the Project on Defense Alternatives. Anand Gopal is Afghanistan Correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. Lawrence Korb is a Senior Fellow at American Progress and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Defense Information. Dr. Korb served as assistant secretary of defense (manpower, reserve affairs, installations, and logistics) from 1981 through 1985. Dr. Korb has written 20 books and more than 100 articles on national security issues. Ahmed Rashid is the author of Descent Into Chaos, Taliban. Rory Stewart is the Coalition Deputy Governor of Maysan and Dhi Qar. Chief Executive of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. Author of The Places in Between. Fellow of the Carr Centre at Harvard University. Winslow Wheeler is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Director of the Straus |
PT 4 ~ Rethink Afghanistan: Civilian Casualties
Not for the squeamish
| Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of KPFK Radio’s Uprising, a daily drive-time morning public affairs program in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. She is also Co-Director of the Afghan Women's Mission, a non-profit that works in solidarity with Afghan women. Erica Gaston is a human rights lawyer representing DC-based human rights NGO CIVIC in Afghanistan for the last year. | Ann Jones is a journalist and author of a number of non-fiction books about her research into women's and humanitarian issues, including Kabul in Winter. She has also written and taken photographs for a number of publications including National Geographic Traveler, Outside and the New York Times. Robert Pape is a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. He is the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. |
PART FIVE ~ Bombs will kill women in Afghanistan
Self immolation is a method of suicide by lighting oneself on fire. According to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, self immolation has never been such an epidemic in Afghanistan as it is today. This is one fact that leads people to the sobering reality that our efforts in Afghanistan have done nothing for the vast majority of women there.
Despite this, politicians, military leaders, and sadly even some misguided American feminist groups continue to use the plight of women in Afghanistan to justify more spending, more troops and more war. People who care for the people of Afghanistan have got to see this for what it is. Women never benefit from bombs and bullets.
When the U.S and its allies chose to put the Karzai regime in place, they conveniently overlooked the fact that it is overrun with the same patriarchal attitudes toward women as the Taliban. During my recent trip to Afghanistan, I saw the crushing poverty that Afghans must endure. A few brave women from RAWA and the Afghan Women’s Mission pointed out in a recent article that the military establishment claims that it must win the military victory first and then the U.S. will take care of humanitarian needs. But they have it backward. Improve living conditions and security will improve. Focus on security at the expense of humanitarian goals, and coalition forces will accomplish neither. The first step toward improving people’s lives is a negotiated settlement to end the war.
Share this video and help your friends and family to see what is really happening to women in Afghanistan. Refuse to accept the line that we must stay in Afghanistan to protect the women of Afghanistan. Help us get people to Rethink Afghanistan.
Orzala Ashraf serves on the Board of Directors of the Afghan Women’s Network and is the founder of Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA).
Ann Jones is a journalist and author of a number of non-fiction books about her research into women’s and humanitarian issues, including Kabul in Winter. She has also written and taken photographs for a number of publications including National Geographic Traveler, Outside and the New York Times.
Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of KPFK Radio’s Uprising, a daily drive-time morning public affairs program in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. She is also Co-Director of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a non-profit that works in solidarity with Afghan women.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is the first non-American journalist to be awarded the prestigious Livingston Award and the youngest recipient of the One World Media broadcast journalist of the year award in the United Kingdom. She has produced and reported for major networks in the United States and Britain including CNN, PBS, Channel 4 (U.K.) and the Discovery channel.
Kavita Ramdas is the President and CEO of the largest non-profit organization in the world exclusively funding women’s human rights, the Global Fund for Women.
Anand Gopal is Afghanistan Correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and The Wall Street Journal.
Fahima Vorgetts is Director of the Afghan Women’s Fund and serves on the Board of Directors of Women for Afghan Women.
Shukria Barakzai is a member of the Afghan parliament and helped draft Afghanistan’s constitution. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aina–E–Zan (Women’s Mirror), a weekly newspaper for women in Kabul, Afghanistan.
PART SIX ~ How much security did $1 trillion buy?
The war in Afghanistan is increasing the likelihood that American civilians will be killed in a future terrorist attack. Part six of Rethink Afghanistan brings you three former high-ranking CIA agents on the record to explain why. There is no “victory” to
The war in Afghanistan is increasing the likelihood that American civilians will be killed in a future terrorist attack. Part six of Rethink Afghanistan brings you three former high-ranking CIA agents on the record to explain why.
There is no “victory” to be won in Afghanistan.
Help build a movement
to change this misguided policy.
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