Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Other Afghan Women: Endless killing turned women against occupiers who claimed to "help"
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/the-other-afghan-womenEntire branches of Shakiras family tree, from the uncles who used to tell her stories to the cousins who played with her in the caves, vanished. In all, she lost sixteen family members. I wondered if it was the same for other families in Pan Killay. I sampled a dozen households at random in the village, and made similar inquiries in other villages, to insure that Pan Killay was no outlier. For each family, I documented the names of the dead, cross-checking cases with death certificates and eyewitness testimony. On average, I found, each family lost ten to twelve civilians in what locals call the American War.
This scale of suffering was unknown in a bustling metropolis like Kabul, where citizens enjoyed relative security. But in countryside enclaves like Sangin the ceaseless killings of civilians led many Afghans to gravitate toward the Taliban. By 2010, many households in Ishaqzai villages had sons in the Taliban, most of whom had joined simply to protect themselves or to take revenge; the movement was more thoroughly integrated into Sangin life than it had been in the nineties. Now, when Shakira and her friends discussed the Taliban, they were discussing their own friends, neighbors, and loved ones.
Some British officers on the ground grew concerned that the U.S. was killing too many civilians, and unsuccessfully lobbied to have American Special Forces removed from the area. Instead, troops from around the world poured into Helmand, including Australians, Canadians, and Danes. But villagers couldnt tell the differenceto them, the occupiers were simply Americans. Pazaro, the woman from a nearby village, recalled, There were two types of peopleone with black faces and one with pink faces. When we see them, we get terrified. The coalition portrayed locals as hungering for liberation from the Taliban, but a classified intelligence report from 2011 described community perceptions of coalition forces as unfavorable, with villagers warning that, if the coalition did not leave the area, the local nationals would be forced to evacuate.
In response, the coalition shifted to the hearts-and-minds strategy of counter-insurgency. But the foreigners efforts to embed among the population could be crude: they often occupied houses, only further exposing villagers to crossfire. They were coming by force, without getting permission from us, Pashtana, a woman from another Sangin village, told me. They sometimes broke into our house, broke all the windows, and stayed the whole night. We would have to flee, in case the Taliban fired on them. Marzia, a woman from Pan Killay, recalled, The Taliban would fire a few shots, but the Americans would respond with mortars. One mortar slammed into her mother-in-laws house. She survived, Marzia said, but had since lost control of herselfalways shouting at things we cant see, at ghosts.
This scale of suffering was unknown in a bustling metropolis like Kabul, where citizens enjoyed relative security. But in countryside enclaves like Sangin the ceaseless killings of civilians led many Afghans to gravitate toward the Taliban. By 2010, many households in Ishaqzai villages had sons in the Taliban, most of whom had joined simply to protect themselves or to take revenge; the movement was more thoroughly integrated into Sangin life than it had been in the nineties. Now, when Shakira and her friends discussed the Taliban, they were discussing their own friends, neighbors, and loved ones.
Some British officers on the ground grew concerned that the U.S. was killing too many civilians, and unsuccessfully lobbied to have American Special Forces removed from the area. Instead, troops from around the world poured into Helmand, including Australians, Canadians, and Danes. But villagers couldnt tell the differenceto them, the occupiers were simply Americans. Pazaro, the woman from a nearby village, recalled, There were two types of peopleone with black faces and one with pink faces. When we see them, we get terrified. The coalition portrayed locals as hungering for liberation from the Taliban, but a classified intelligence report from 2011 described community perceptions of coalition forces as unfavorable, with villagers warning that, if the coalition did not leave the area, the local nationals would be forced to evacuate.
In response, the coalition shifted to the hearts-and-minds strategy of counter-insurgency. But the foreigners efforts to embed among the population could be crude: they often occupied houses, only further exposing villagers to crossfire. They were coming by force, without getting permission from us, Pashtana, a woman from another Sangin village, told me. They sometimes broke into our house, broke all the windows, and stayed the whole night. We would have to flee, in case the Taliban fired on them. Marzia, a woman from Pan Killay, recalled, The Taliban would fire a few shots, but the Americans would respond with mortars. One mortar slammed into her mother-in-laws house. She survived, Marzia said, but had since lost control of herselfalways shouting at things we cant see, at ghosts.
A long read, hard to excerpt, but worth digging into, if only to remind ourselves how different the reality was from what we were told, and what some hoped might happen.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 621 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (8)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The Other Afghan Women: Endless killing turned women against occupiers who claimed to "help" (Original Post)
WhiskeyGrinder
Sep 2021
OP
Yeah well war sucks...we should have killed Bin Laden and those Taliban leaders who
Demsrule86
Sep 2021
#1
Demsrule86
(68,355 posts)1. Yeah well war sucks...we should have killed Bin Laden and those Taliban leaders who
helped shelter him...and not invaded. Also, what about Saudi Arabia? They were involved and were given a pass for oil I suppose. A terrible war is now over and I am glad. I see the news including MSNBC is still saying...the '1000's of Americans trapped' bull shit. Biden did the right thing.
Elessar Zappa
(13,650 posts)2. Glad we're outta there.
And to think, the media wants us to stay there forever, creating orphans and widows for eternity.