Video Viewing Follow-up

Hello All,

First, don't forget that Helen Horn is screening the movie tonight (Wednesday) at the Women's Center at OU from 4-5:30. I believe there might be one or two other viewings around town as well. And here's the website:

http://rethinkafghanistan.com/ -- This website includes excerpts from the film, enough to give you a good idea of its overall thrust.


We had a good group together for the Rethink Afghanistan video last night, preceded and followed by good conversation regarding what's going on with U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and what we might try to do to end the war.

Bob mentioned a few things and followed up with an email to me; I'll share those with you.

1. The book that I referred to a number of times is this: Malalai Joya, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice. She has recently been interviewed on Democracy Now and Grit and a number of other places. She is promoting her book, a wonderful analysis of what's been going on in Afghanistan and the courageous part she has played.

2. We were talking about the importance of remembering that there are many good people carrying on the struggle out there (one way to avoid the overwhelming sense of hopelessness against global imperialism and militarism), and Bob suggested reading this speech by Paul Hawkens:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/23-2

You can also go to http://futurenet.org, go to the "search" engine at the top right of the home page, type in Paul Hawken, and click. That should bring up Hawken's fine speech to a university graduating class. Here's one paragraph from the speech.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages,campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.


3. There is a group in town, People for Peace and Justice, that meets at UCM (United Campus Ministry). Bob, would you send me more info or just reply-all for everyone? You can obtain information about PPJ by emailing either rodnip@hotmail.com, or dhhorn@core.com

I want to mention that I think overall the movie is very powerful and provides important information and voices speaking out against this Bush/Obama war. I am uneasy, though, with the movie's conclusions or "solutions," which to me seem to be yet another NGO-style imperialist intervention with a happy face in the name of bringing Western "development" to the people of Afghanistan. In the end, the movie is an important critique of military intervention but then offers other, more "liberal" or "progressive" forms of intervention. Having said this, however, I am glad that the Athens community is seeing it and I hope more and more people do. Maybe I'll write a review someday.

Bob pointed out that the film tends to oversimplify the complex situation in Afghanistan by suggesting that the whole problem lies with first, the Taliban and second, U.S. military attempts to squash the Taliban. The movie rarely if at all mentions the war lords in the rest of the country that are supported by the U.S. govt, including Karzai. Leah, I believe, pointed out the important distinction the movie makes, however, between the Taliban and Al Qaida. Al Qaeda is not a factor in Afghanistan anymore, as attested to by a number of commentators in the film, including a clip of an interview with General Patreous. The film is focuses on the war being waged by US/NATO against the Taliban, largely made up of varous Pashtun tribes, especially those who represent the most mysogynist and religiously fundamentalist orientations. Their focus is on efforts to control of their parts of southern Afghanistan, with the goal perhaps of regaining control of the whole of Afghanistan someday. But the film misses the point that much of the rest of the country is controlled by warlords and drug lords, some large and some not so large. But many of these characters are equally as bad as the extremist Taliban. The US/NATO has sided, implicitly, with the warlords who dominate the Afghan Parliament and figure importantly in Karzai's cabinet. The Karzai government is considered one of the most corrupt in the world. Malalai Joya - and others - make this point clearly. While the US/NATO support one "criminal" group or groups against another extremist group, the Taliban, the ordinary people of the country, especially children and women suffer. This is a no-win situation for the Afghan people and unsurprisingly a growing percentage of them want the occupying troops to leave. You can get a sense of mysogynist attitude that increasingly pervades the central government from this quote from the website Rethinking Afghanistan.

"A recent report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Silence is Violence, disclosed that rape is not even a crime under the laws of Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan....However, a woman who reports a rape to the authorities will find that sex outside of marriage is a crime, and she will probably be convicted of that crime unless she can produce four male witnesses that corroborate her claim that the sexual intercourse was not consensual. If imprisoned, she may find herself at the mercy of detention facility officials who 'are said to have forced femal detainees into prostitution....If she manages to avoid punishment from the legal system, cultural mores (not Taliban decrees) often dictate acceptable resolutions of the conflict between her family and that of her assailants, including: killing both the victim and the rapist, forcing the victim to marry the rapist, or giving girl(s) from the rapist's family to the victim's family as compensation for lost honor....Readers might recall the international outcry in response to the passage of a law by the Afghan national government enshrining a husband's legal right to demand sex from his wife four times a week - essentially, legally protecting rape. Under intense pressure, the law was changed. Now, rather than legalizing outright rape, the law makes it legal for husbands to starve their wives until they submit to sexual intercourse."

The discimination against girls and women is horrible but just one aspect of the law, government and conditions that the US/NATO are implicitly aligned. The film Rethinking Afghanistan also deals with the extreme poverty afflicting 80% of the societies, some made refugees by the violence (including violence from US forces, especially from their bombers and drones). But the film does not capture well how the Karzai government itself and the power brokers who control many or all of the provinces outside of Taliban-controlled provinces, are just as bad as the Taliban.

One more point. The US has played a prominent role over the past 3 decades in creating both the Taliban and the warlords (of the former Northern Alliance). It is an truly mad situation, which certainly should not be compounded with yet more US troops and private contractors.

Arlene suggested that we meet at their house some time to talk about Cuba, including ways to visit the country. (Bob, can you send me Arlene's email address? Thanks) George, Arlene and I and some friends visited Cuba way back in July of 2000. This was pre-Bush time. We really don't have good information on how Americans can visit Cuba. A better source of information may be United Campus Ministry here in Athens. At the same time, we would be willing to share some of our experiences during the one week we spent in Cuba. I have extended notes on some aspects of our visit. If you are interested I can send them out.
If I'm forgetting anything from the conversation, please add your own comments. Let's keep the conversation going, including those of you who couldn't make it last night!

Maybe we should have a reading group to talk about Malalai Joya's book. What do you think? Ohio Link offers a few copies (not Alden itself--maybe we can have them get it). I would be interested in meeting to discuss her book.

http://www.amazon.com/Woman-Among-Warlords-Extraordinary-Afghan/dp/143910946X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257333774&sr=8-2



Thanks again to Helen Horn for initiating our meeting and viewing.

In solidarity,
George