[R-G] 'Margolis on Why Afghanistan is a Martyr Nation'

[Anthony Fenton]

http://embassymag.ca/page/view/margolis_book-10-29-2008

  Margolis on Why Afghanistan is a Martyr Nation
by Jeff Davis
Published October 29 2008 	

American Raj: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim  
Word

By Eric Margolis

Key Porter Books

400 pp. $32.95

American-born journalist and author Eric Margolis has for decades  
reported from the world's warzones, including extensively from  
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

His new book, American Raj: Resolving the Conflict Between the West  
and the Muslim World, looks at the current state of relations between  
the West and Islam.

Here is an edited transcript of a conversation Embassy had with Mr.  
Margolis last week about Afghanistan, the Taliban and Canada's role in  
that shattered country.

Do you think we are in a long war with Islam?

"No, I don't. The world of Islam and the West are certainly at  
loggerheads now, but it's not an irreversible trend, it's not  
inevitable and it can be ended.

"In my view, from 50 years experience in the region, it is all about  
politics and resources. It has nothing to do with religion, aside from  
a few loud-mouth Muslim fanatics.

"What there is is a scattered movement across the Muslim world,  
unconnected but all over the area, to try and kick Western influence  
out of the Muslim world.

"Westerners don't realize it, but the West exercises an imperial  
control over much of the Muslim world.... We rule the Muslim world  
just the way the British ruled India. That's why my book is called  
American Raj, raj being the imperial rule.

"What we call terrorism is actually the natives fighting back, what  
the British used to call the 'cost of empire.'

"The anger in the Muslim world is not, like Bush said, because they  
hate what we believe. Freedom. That's bullshit. The anger is directed  
at what the West has been doing for the last 150 years...and at  
specific political questions starting with Palestine."

Where does Afghanistan fit into all this?

"The U.S. had reason to go into Afghanistan after 9/11 because it  
believed Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks....

"The Taliban, which was a religious anti-communist movement founded to  
stop the rape of women, banditry and the drug trade, sheltered Osama  
Bin Laden because he was a hero of the Afghan war, wounded six times  
in action. [The Taliban] refused to turn him over to the U.S. until  
they issued a proper extradition request showing legal proof of why he  
was guilty. The U.S. refused. They just attacked Afghanistan.

"The U.S. needed a target for its anger, and that became the Taliban.  
They couldn't find anyone else."

And Canada?

"The U.S. dragooned it allies into the war. [Former Liberal deputy  
prime minister] Sheila Copps told us on TVO. She said the White House  
called and said 'Send troops to Afghanistan or Iraq, or don't ship  
anything across the border.' It was that kind of crude pressure.

"To make a long story short, Canada was dragged into this war for  
trade reasons. It had to be sold to the Canadian public as nation  
building, protecting battered women. Something I call armed social  
workers."

Armed social workers? Does anyone in the Muslim world buy that?

"Nope. It's absolute nonsense.

"The Taliban were regarded as hillbilly boors and backwards  
primitives, which is what they are. They're Pashtun tribesman. They're  
wild and crazy guys. They're very fierce and they love to fight, but  
they don't mistreat women any worse than other peoples there do, like  
the Uzbeks or Tajiks, for example, who are our Western allies.

"There are all kinds of barbarities that go on in that part of the  
world, yet all we focus on is the Taliban.... So the Taliban was  
demonized and really taken out of context. They used to be our freedom  
fighters.

"Most Canadians would be shocked by the behaviour in that part of the  
world, but everybody's like that. That's the point I am making. You  
know, this is not munchkinland. This is not Switzerland. These are  
wild tribesman in one of world's most backward countries."

You describe Afghanistan as a martyr nation. Why?

"Poor Afghanistan. Invaded by Soviets in 1979, it's almost 30 years  
now that that country has been at war. The Afghan people have suffered  
just unspeakably.

"In the rest of the Muslim world there is great anger. When I say  
martyr nation, they see Afghanistan as being martyred by outside  
powers. It's a small, tiny, weak Muslim country that only wants to be  
left alone. Yet these rapacious foreign powers, first the Soviets,  
then the U.S., descended on it."

You're a military historian. Can the West hold Afghanistan?

"No. One of my maxims is 'never fight a war against people who live in  
the country you are fighting in.' Eventually they know you're going to  
go home. The Afghans are very happy to fight for 100 years. They  
really enjoy fighting.

"We can bomb the crap out of Afghanistan, as we're doing. It's really  
a terror campaign. Any village that's accused of harbouring Taliban is  
bombed by the U.S.

"We may be able to hold the area, and beat down resistance, but long  
term, I don't see any stability there.

"The idea, of putting in a puppet government, like they're trying to  
do in Iraq, that will follow Western dictates, I don't think will be  
successful."

jdavis at embassymag.ca