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The war in Afghanistan is also affecting neighboring Pakistan and creating huge controversy in terms of its cost and, more importantly, whether it is winnable. Although opinions vary, those who doubt that the war can be won seem to be gaining ground.
Afghanistan is a sectarian and unmanageable country. Foreign powers including the Soviet Union and Britain failed to control it. The country has not changed much since those days.
The enemy is elusive and the situation on the ground erratic and unpredictable. Recurring terror attacks like the recent one in Khost province that killed seven CIA operatives, and the ever increasing human carnage in neighboring Pakistan is proof of the growing might of terrorists. In fact, the escalating insurgency in Pakistan, a nuclear country, is cause for fear that its nuclear weapons are not safe.
Is the goal of the United States to contain terrorism or oppose organized Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan? If the fight is to contain fundamentalism, then winning the war in Afghanistan alone is not likely to achieve it.
Skeptics should only look at the unrelenting and vicious terror activities as well as the outright defiance spreading not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also in Yemen, Somalia, Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and many other countries, including the United States.
Clearly, there are innumerable signs that the conflict is spreading – like the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound transatlantic flight on Christmas Day last year.
The United States believed it had found a willing partner in the Yemeni government that would support the deployment of U.S. troops in the country to fight Islamic militants. But the Yemeni government has reportedly rebuffed the idea for fear of losing local support.
Religious fundamentalism is not new; it has existed since the birth of religion. Although the supposed theme of every religion is to guide people to lead a noble life, human society has experienced enormous oppression, suppression, violence, crime and war in the name of religion.
Muslims have had their share of religious violence, and the present situation is no different. But blaming only the Muslims is morally wrong. How could one justify what Israel is doing to Muslims in the Middle East?
Every act of terrorism is a serious crime. But if society overlooks one and punishes the other it only intensifies the violence. This is precisely the case with Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.
Islam, as a world religion, certainly deserves respect. Yet the Muslim community feels that the affluent West treats it unjustly. The Arab-Israeli conflict has kept that feeling alive. Muslims believe that the creation of Israel and the atrocities committed by that country are a big conspiracy by the West to suppress them. They also believe that the Iraq and Afghan wars, initiated by the United States, are part of the same conspiracy. Religious fundamentalists take advantage of this public sentiment to create havoc and spread terrorism.
Since the United States promotes and preaches human rights, why has it failed to help the Palestinian cause? Muslims and others find it most difficult and painful to see and accept the sufferings of their fellow brethren in Palestine and blame the United States for the present tragedy and its unequivocal support of Israel.
After many years of armed struggle, the Palestinians agreed to live peacefully with Israel within the internationally recognized pre-1967 border of Palestine. But Israel steadfastly refused to compromise and continues to thumb its nose at world opinion by brutally suppressing the Palestinians, using U.S. weaponry.
The best case for the Palestinians has probably been made by former U.S. president and Nobel peace laureate Jimmy Carter, who argues in his book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” that Israel’s continued control and colonization of Palestinian land has been the primary obstacle to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East.
The Israeli blockade of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents in the past year as a collective punishment has drawn international condemnation and even allegations of war crimes. This action openly provokes Muslims to resent the United States, which refuses to intervene and stop Israeli atrocities.
The United States supports Saudi Arabia, an autocratic country with no democratic rights, while it refuses to recognize the democratically elected Palestinian representatives of Hamas in Gaza.
Both the United States and Israel once supported Hamas in Gaza as a counter to the Fatah movement. On the other hand, many believe that Saudi Arabia is sponsoring fundamentalism by providing financial help to religious schools in Pakistan and other Muslim countries.
Many Muslims also believe that the main purpose of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was to protect the U.S. oil supply. They have plenty of facts to justify their claim that the United States is driven by economic greed. They look at situations in Darfur, Congo, Myanmar and other countries where the United States has failed to prevent atrocities or promote democratic rights.
Muslims also question the U.S. policy of allowing Israel to hide its nuclear weapons and maintain its own, while rallying its Western allies to prevent Iran from obtaining the same. Ironically, U.S. success against Iran would depend entirely on the cooperation of China and Russia, which might not be forthcoming, as they too have their own global agendas to pursue.
The present generation of educated Muslims is getting impatient with U.S. prejudices and is effectively using the Internet to communicate.
Islamic fundamentalists are successfully indoctrinating young people to resort to violence in the name of jihad. If core issues are not addressed, even if the United States wins the war in Afghanistan it may not dampen the resistance of young Muslims around the world. Rather, it is likely to embolden them to embrace new and more dangerous terrorist tactics.
As violence begets violence, it would be impossible for the United States to monitor, occupy or control every Muslim militant country in the world.
Although the United States is a superpower, it seems to be losing its grip on economic power. The country has yet to recover from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Its unemployment rate is hovering around 10 percent, the federal debt has surpassed US$7.5 trillion, and the federal budget deficit was US$1.4 trillion in 2009.
Other emerging economic powers are now preparing to compete and check U.S. hegemony. In fact, the U.S. is unable to impose its will on the world community. Nor can it suppress Islamic fundamentalism or its spread by military might alone. It clearly needs to reassess its overall foreign policy if it wishes to rein in the fundamentalists and remain an important international player.
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism is a problem for the Muslim populace as well. But they will not fight it with true conviction unless the United States changes its attitude toward Muslims and corrects its past mistakes.
A speedy and just settlement of the Palestinian crisis would be a good start, followed by a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and a winding down of the Afghan war as fast as possible. Unless it plays its cards right, the consequence of its military exercise in Afghanistan will be just as futile as the war in Vietnam.
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(Mahfuz R. Chowdhury is a professor of economics at C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, New York. ©Mahfuz R. Chowdury.)
