This year’s presidential
election in the United States of America is different from previous
elections in many respects.
One is the ethnic factor which has surfaced since one of the
presidential candidates is an African American (a term commonly
preferred over Black American due to its connection with Africa which is
regarded as the origin
of African Americans).
Afghanistan
remained a country frozen in time, just like it was during the whole
1990’s.
It is the first time in US history
that a black senator has gone so far up in the American political
hierarchy and drawn so much attention worldwide. Barack Hussein Obama, a
black senator from Illinois
meets John McCain, a white senator from Arizona, in 2008’s US
presidential elections. From an Afghan’s perspective, the most important aspect of this
year’s election is the war policies which these two candidates are
willing to adopt. That is what interests us and all Afghans and that
is what we will discuss.
United States have waged war (in their own terminology
”liberated” would be a better word) against two countries during the
Republican president George W Bush’s two terms in office stretching from
2000 to 2008. These countries are Afghanistan and Iraq. The war in these
two countries have cost US thousands of its soldiers and billions of its
tax payers’ Dollars. It is therefore not amazing that the war
question is one of the key issues in this year’s elections.
While the Republican candidate John
McCain holds a conventional policy of staying in Iraq “as long as
needed”, the Democratic candidate Barack Obama wants a withdrawal of US
troops from Iraq within 16 months. When it comes to the future strategy
in Afghanistan, here too the candidates propagate different approaches.
John McCain doesn’t seem to have a clear strategy on how to deal with
the increasing insurgency in Afghanistan and his war policy is very much
focused on how things go about in Iraq. Barack Obama on the other
hand, is willing to shift the focus from Iraq to Afghanistan where
according to him the troops would do more good.
US invaded Afghanistan in Oct 2001
which resulted in the collapse of the Taliban regime and eventually the
government of Hamid Karzai through democratic elections.
But that is
pretty much all. Not much has since then been happening for rebuilding
Afghanistan. Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Afghanistan has been more
or less a forgotten land.
Afghanistan has had promises and actually received billions of Dollars.
The US politicians and the entire media world turned
from the mountainous Afghanistan and paid all attentions towards the
land of black gold. Afghanistan remained a country frozen in time, just
like it was during the whole 1990’s. For the first time since the invasion, a presidential candidate is
realizing the importance of stability in Afghanistan and its direct
consequences for the rest of the world. Barack Obama has over and
over again indicated that he will withdraw troops from Iraq and put all
the necessary energy on Afghanistan which is the real issue here. What
are US troops doing in Iraq anyway?
Afghanistan has had
promises and actually received billions of Dollars. But it is still hard
to point out the improvements since not much has actually happened. One
simple but symbolically significant issue is the electricity. In the
country’s capital Kabul, where all the political and commercial
activities are clustered, electricity is always a pleasant surprise, let
alone all the other necessary urban infrastructure like clean water
supply, gas, roads, means of transport etc.
One of the reasons is that
donating money is not always the solution. Political and military
support, more troops, winning the hearts and minds of local people by
building and protecting hospitals, schools, NGO’s, creating job
opportunities weigh much more in stabilizing the country than merely
donating Dollars.
In other words, Afghanistan
needs an integrating approach where many constructive measures need to
be taken simultaneously and in different sectors. Only then a
noticeable change is likely to arise.
We at Safis Web think that it
is better for the whole world in general if the White House is resided
by a Democratic president and in particular for Afghanistan where the
Republican policy has done only harm and not much good so far.
That is why, Safis Web has
decided to take a clear stand in the US political debate and support the
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. We would also like to
urge all Afghans residing in the USA to use their right to vote and
elect Barack Hussein Obama on 4th of November.
Important note: Safis Web stands for equal rights and brotherhood
among all Afghan ethnic groups. We consider Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and
other minorities as our Afghan brothers. Those with extreme and racist
ideas are not welcome to our site.
