AFGHAN ELECTION GOES TO RUN-OFF

So what difference does it make to Afghans?

Both candidates are more corrupt than one another

The war in Afghanistan stinks: The land is still illegally occupied by the imperial powers that got no regards for the people of Afghanistan.

80,000 innocent Afghans killed + 222 young British Boys lost their lives

Resistance Groups have permanent bases in 80% of Afghanistan

The sooner it ends, the better

Simon Jenkins said that “the Afghan war has no real bearing on western security and is merely cover for the western politicians to avoid confronting their past mistakes”. True, perhaps the Nobel peace prize could at last vindicate itself. Perhaps Obama should have refused to continue the slaughter in Afghanistan and accept that it is time to go home and earn his award.

The American, British and French pressure finally subdued the Afghan President Hamid Karzai to accept a runoff in Afghanistan's disputed election. Hamid Karzai has realised that without listening to his masters there is no any other way out except to accept their decision for rigging the elections. The other important point which the west intentionally does not want to mention is, the vote rigging of Abdullah Abdullah. Did he not steal any votes? Common, he is a professional thief from Northern Alliance. Stealing has become his profession since 19982.

The Afghan people are tired of the west for imposing imperial ideas and western style of democracy which no one wants. I am very sure the turnout for the second round will not be even 15 %. There will also be concerns over the security situation - and there's no guarantee that there won't be a repeat of the fraud, which seriously marred the first round of voting. Afghanistan is not an independent country and it is taken from poor Afghans by the imperial powers. The west once promised us reconstruction, employment, jobs, hospitals and above all democracy, human rights and of course the very popular western slogan (women rights). Afghanistan does not need elections and troops, what it needs are resources. You guys should recall your broken promises which were made to Afghans in 2001 just prior to the illegal occupation of our land. The United States and its junior partner in crime the United Kingdom promised to re-build Afghanistan, create employment, hospitals, education, schools, roads, security and stability. Unfortunately as always, rather than fulfilling your promises what you have given Afghans are B52, F16, killed their loved ones, destroyed their houses, ruined their future, snatch their country away from them and have turned the whole region into a battle zone.

On one side the foreign occupiers talk about peace but on the other side you are sending another 40,000 more troops. For the local Afghans it does not make any sense. Did the illegal occupation of Afghanistan by US and UK make the world any safer? No- it makes the world a more dangerous place and in fact more innocent Afghans and young innocent British soldiers have been killed. No Afghans have travelled from Afghanistan and attacked any western country but instead the west came there and attacked Afghanistan and started a vicious war against poor but proud Afghans. So now the west have decided that Karzai should be stripped of outright win and Afghanistan should be continued to be occupied and run by the imperial powers the way they want to run it.

No matter who wins the next round and become the President, it will make no difference to the people of Afghanistan under the current circumstances. The future government will still be dominated by Warlords, Drug Lords, Corrupt Ministers, Security Commanders, Rapists, Thugs, and most importantly people who are War Criminals, wanted for the Killing of poor Afghans, but yet are the close friends of the US, UK and its Allies. They will still be in the next Afghan Parliament and will do dirty deals with them at the expense of poor Afghan people.

More innocent Afghans and young innocent British soldiers will die for the lies and sins of Bush, Blair, Obama, Osama, Brown and Mullah Omar. Afghanistan belongs to Afghans and only Afghans should be allowed to decide their own future and no one else have the right to choose our destiny.

Mohammad N Asif

President, Scottish Afghan Exiles

Exiled Afghan Journalist

Mohammad N Asif took part in a public meeting organised by the SSP at Edinburgh Unversity. He asked for an immediate withdrawal of all the foreign troops from Afghanistan. Please click here to see the full story.
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1403327?UserKey=

THE GREAT GAME: DISCUSSION
Mohammad N Asif was invited by Tricycle to take part in a live audience debate with other politician and experts on Afghanistan. To see the full details please click here.
http://www.tricycle.co.uk/current-programme-pages/special-events/the-great-game-discussions/

Mohammad N Asif  invited by Bristal Stop the War Coalition to speak on Afghanistan at at Stop the War Public meeting. To see the details please click here.
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/690654

Mohammad N Asif taking part in Scotland Stop the War Nation Conference in Glasgow. To see further details please click here.
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1049&Itemid=144

Mohammad N Asif was invited by the Greater Manchester Stop the War coalition to speak to a public meeting. To see the details please click here.
http://www.manchesterstopwar.org/reports-activities/483-stop-the-spread-of-war-to-pakistan-meeting-thurs-july-9th.html

Mohammad N Asif Invited by Stop the War Coalition in London to speak to a public meeting on Afghanistan. Please click here to see the details
.http://www.wandsworth-stopwar.org.uk/

Mohammad N Asif was invited to Leeds to take part in a public meeting on Afghanistan. Please click on the link below.
http://www.lcaw.co.uk/

Afghan Democracy Died

The funeral to be announced in September

Afghanistan witnessed the second presidential elections under the US led illegal occupation. Major challenges are awaiting any new president in the war-torn country that has so many unremitting problems: Chronic government corruption, insecurity, unemployment, poverty, lack of practical development schemes, and others. Majority of the Afghans believe that it's not viable to have fair elections under foreign occupation, and the US led occupation is the problem, not the solution, as it failed to achieve any real change into people's lives under US-backed president Karzai. While the election authorities are preparing to publish the first partial results from last week’s presidential election, but the small sample of ten percent may do little to resolve a dispute over the outcome. The August 20th election was marred by fraud, intimidation, violence and low turnout in many areas. The Electoral Complaints Commission says it is looking into at least 250 allegations of misconduct.

Gareth Porter in his current published article talked about the consistent and credible reports from the south, the southeast, Balkh and Panjshir Provinces that tell a clear story. Massive and blatant ballot-stuffing; the removal or invalidation of votes for rival candidates; complete overhaul of ballot-boxes; intimidation of witnesses and Independent Election Commission staff; systematic removal of the publicly displayed tally-sheets. Local IEC representatives are informally releasing figures that bear no relationship to observations on the ground and that are beyond the absurd. Fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election have compromised as many as one in five ballots, a UN official warned today , compounding fears that ballot-stuffing, intimidation and other irregularities could have a decisive impact on the vote.

He further elaborated that Afghanistan's presidential election has long been viewed by U.S. officials and its allies as a key to conferring legitimacy on the Afghan government, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his powerful warlord allies have planned to commit large-scale electoral fraud that could have the opposite effect. Karzai has been laying the groundwork for just such a contingency for many months. By all accounts, he has forged political alliances with leading Afghan warlords who control informal militias and tribal networks in the provinces to carry out a vote fraud scheme accounting for a very large proportion of the votes. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has brought a notorious warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum who killed 3000 Taliban prisoner of war. He is an influential backer out of exile just ahead of Thursday's presidential vote – a sign that old-style kingmaking continues to play a powerful role even as the country tries to move to a more modern form of campaigning. Karzai chose another war criminal Muhammad Qasim Fahim , the ethnic Tajik warlord who had been vice-president and defence minister in his government until the 2004 elections, as his running mate. In return for their support, he promised Hazara warlords Haji Muhammad Moheqiq who also killed thousands of innocent pashtuns and Karim Khalili that new provinces would be carved out from largely Hazara districts in Ghazni and Wardak provinces, as reported by Richard Oppel of the New York Times.

Observers found rampant distribution of multiple voting cards. During the third phase of registration, at least four incidents of such abuses in 85 percent of the centres. The voter registration staff was seen handing out cards even before applicants had been registered. In one case, the observers saw about 500 voting cards being given to a single individual. Another element in the Karzai scheme involves the registration of women without their actually being physically present, often on the basis of lists of names given to the registration officials. The list system for registering women was found in 99 percent of registration stations in Paktika province and 90 percent of those in Zabul and Khost provinces.

The Afghan Independent Election Commission announced that more than 10 provinces have no security. Therefore it will be very difficult to operate voting stations in these provinces because of security threat. Currently there are military operations in 65 districts. The Afghan Interior Minister admitted that the elections will not be held in all the 34 Provinces in Afghanistan. It will be impossible for ordinary people to attend voting stations in more than 10 provinces because of the security situation on the ground.

As for Abdullah Abdullah he should sit in a dark room and think for a moment about his past. How on earth he accuses Hamid Karzai of rigging the election where his own supporters forced the voters with Gun point in Balkh Province to vote for him. He should also look at his past where he was part , face and mirror of this corrupt regime for five years. He was the one defending this corrupt regime for years and made millions and filled his bank accounts.

Abdullah Abdullah should teach himself before he accuses others. He was part of the Northern Alliance led by the then war criminal Ahmad Shah Masood. His criminal gang who still occupy important positions was responsible for the killing of 56,000 innocent citizen of Kabul from 1992-1996. His past is very dark and bleak where his group (Northern Alliance) raped, tortured, abducted and murdered political rivals for the control of the capital city. Apart from killing the innocent citizens of Kabul his other victims during the four long years were from Hezb-e- Islami and its supporters and other Pashtun groups. His fighters, the so called Mujahideen (thieves) even stole pillows, mattresses and televisions set from the citizens of Kabul.

He is the man with little or no morality at all. I am sure there will be horse trading in the coming days and Abdullah Abdullah will surely sell his voters to be part of another disabled and corrupt regime and this time his justification and excuse will be the Afghan National Unity. He will not give any consideration to the feelings of his supporters and those who voted for him.

Afghans including presidential candidates, Political Analysts and other experts are complaining that last week’s elections were marred by serious fraud, in contrast to the international community’s assessment that voting was fair.

But to those closer to the process, the elections were characterised by widespread fraud, intimidation and violence, to the point that many seriously questioned the legitimacy and credibility of the results and any future President and his government. For the west to come up with such conclusion that the elections were fair, are scared of their people back at homes. The most recent ABC/Washington Post poll held (13-17/08/09) found that more than 51 % American do not support their government in Afghanistan. Also recently the Independent UK based Newspaper poll revealed that 57% of the British people want their troops out of Afghanistan immediately. So Mr. Obama and the UK which is a tool for the US administration have to lie about the real situation in Afghanistan to deceive their masses back at homes by saying that progress have been made there.

So the Afghans voted but do not know for what they have voted for. I suspect if anyone in Afghanistan voted because of the policies of their favourite candidate. They purely voted for whoever their ethnic leaders told them to vote for. Hence Karzai asked Dostum to deliver him the Uzbek vote. Abdullah Abdullah relies on the Tajik vote, Karzai on the Pashtuns. Afghanistan is a more divided country now than it was before the election and once more the race card is played by imperial powers such as the US, UK, and NATO to divide the Afghans to make it easier for themselves to continue the illegal occupation. Any little hope of optimism and democracy which were there before the election is now gone with the wind and that hope and positivity have vanished permanently by the illegal occupiers of Afghanistan.

Democracy is dead in Afghanistan no matter how much oxygen is pumped by the US, UK and NATO into its mouth. Afghans and the friends of Afghanistan are invited to take part in the funeral of Democracy in September after the result of presidential election. May God bless the Afghan Democracy and rest it soul in peace in the hereafter.

Mohammad N Asif

President, Scottish Afghan Exiles and

Exiled Afghan Journalist

Fake Political Theatre, not Election

Will it bring peace to Afghanistan?

The US and NATO watch in horror as their casualties sharply mount and they have nothing to show voters for the latest Afghan imperial misadventure but body bags and tantalizing mirages of Central Asia’s fabled oil and gas.

This Thursday’s presidential election in Afghanistan is an elaborate piece of political theatre organised by the west, especially America and Great Britain to show its citizens who do not support the war in Afghanistan but yet are told by their government that progress is being made there. The citizens of the world especially the Afghans already know who will win the vote. The candidate chosen by the United States and its NATO allies is clear to Afghans but the west still treat Afghans as stupid and try to stage a political drama which is based on lies and deceit in the name of democratic election and human rights.

The fake election will mostly be held in urban area, under the guns of US and NATO troops. Even in the urban areas votes have been bought in advance by different candidates. In many public election rallies millions of dollars were distributed.

If one candidate gives $10,000, then the other gives $20,000 and a third one offers even more. It has become such a lucrative and competitive business. I don't know where they get their money from.

Government workers - supposed to be impartial but they have actively and illegally campaigned for candidates. There is evidence that some people working for candidates have deliberately tried to influence the outcome of the presidential election by offering bribe. The BBC reported that voting cards were being sold in the capital. An Afghan working for the BBC went undercover, posing as a potential buyer. He was offered 1,000 cards on the spot. Each one would cost about $10 (£6). We were given some samples as proof of what was being offered. They are all authentic with the name, photo and home details of the voter on them. This is just happening on a small scale and the bigger scale is not thinkable. Over half of Afghanistan is under the control of Taliban and other opposition groups by day and 75 percent by night. There is no doubt that the Afghans are voting this election but the big question is who will be counting the votes? The entire election and vote-counting election commission are financed and run by the US and UNAMA. Thousands of Afghan mercenaries hired by the US will police the polls and intimidate voters. The Afghan American poppet media are busy promoting the American candidates. Taliban and other resistant groups vow to fight the sham election, which it calls a tool of foreign occupation. Many other nationalist and tribal groups who are rightly fighting the illegal invasion are excluded but General Abdul Rashid Dustom who killed 3000 prisoner of war is allowed to return to Afghanistan and declare his support for Karzai. Also is allowed General Fahim who is the running mate of Hamid Karzai and whose hands are still wet with the blood of innocent Afghans. In fact, all parties are banned including Hezb-e-Islami, Taliban and the Haqani group but yet individuals are allowed to run. This is a favorite tactic of non-democratic regimes, particularly the US-backed dictatorships of the Arab world. President Hamid Karzai’s main opponent are Abdullah Abdullah, fronts for the Russian and Iranian-backed Tajik Northern Alliance. Technocrat Ashraf Gani is another supposedly leading candidate. Both men are expected to get high positions in any new government formed by Karzai. Their primary role is to give the impression of an electoral contest.

The northern Tajiks and Uzbeks, traditional foes of the majority Pashtun, are in cahoots with Russia, Iran and India, all of whom have designs on Afghanistan. They continue to dominate Karzai’s faltering regime. The majority Pashtun are largely excluded from power. When the Soviets occupied Afghanistan from 1979-1989, they held fairer elections than the US-run votes. Of course, the Soviet’s man, Najibullah, won, but at least dissention was voiced. In Washington’s stage-managed Afghan votes, real opposition is excluded. The US used the same trick in Iraq’s rigged elections.

Much has gone wrong in Afghanistan. The insurgency is resilient, security has deteriorated, coalition casualties are rising, NATO's performance has disappointed, Afghan authorities are by turns incompetent and corrupt, the situation for women has worsened, poppy fields are in bloom. In the last week, Kabul has been struck by two car bombings, while mortar shells landed near Hamid Karzai's presidential palace.

Afghans do not want this election but the US, UNAMA and NATO want to hold it no matter what it costs. According to the Washington Post newspaper survey which revealed that more than 60 percent Afghans want reconciliation with resisting groups. According to the SKY TV news survey, more than 57 percent of the British population want their troops out of Afghanistan immediately. This election will cost more than $240 million but peaces will not come and many more innocent British soldiers will die and of course more defenceless Afghan will be killed too. Why young innocent British soldiers have to die for an American war. Why innocent Afghans have to be killed for sins of Al- Qaeda and Taliban

We do not need this political theatre and drama in the name of election and democracy. The people of Afghanistan know you very well and you can not deceive them again and again. This is just a black spot in the name of democracy.

Mohammad N Asif

Exiled Afghan Journalist

President, Scottish Afghan Exiles

CAN NATO WIN IN AFGHANISTAN?

Please watch live Press TV debate between Mohammad N Asif (Exiled Afghan Journalist) and other TV pundits. To see the debate please click on the video below

IS IT TIME TO BRING THE BRITISH TROOPS HOME?

Please watch the live Press TV debate between Mohammad N Asif (Exiled Afghan Journalist) and other high level panalists. Please click on the video below to watch the debate

THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN - LIVE TV DEBATE

Please watch live Press TV debate between Mohammad N Asif (Exiled Afghan Journalist) and other high profile penalists.

Please click on the link below to see the debate

http://larawbar.org/article.php?id=7402&date=2008-11-30

ASYLUM PROTEST AT THE HOME OFFICE

Mohammad N Asif took part in an early protest against the Home Office to stop the early dawn raids. To see the video please click on the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDyYTxSBjPA&feature=PlayList&p=E8050BA2BC6434DE

Scottish Afghan Society Slams the BBC

The Scottish Afghan Society Slams the BBC for not airing the DEC appeal for the people of GAZA.

To watch the videon please click on the linl below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py-r-lfhK3M

AFGHANS DEMANDED THE TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN

The Afghans In Scotland demanded the troops out of Afghanistan. A protest was held infont of the American Consulate in Edinburgh to demand the full withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan. Mohammad N Asif (Exiled Afghan Journalist) led the protest.

Please click here to see the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh04YVT8b3w

THE SAD VOICES OF AFGHAN CHILDREN WHO LOST EVERYTHING UNDER THE AMERICAN AND BRITISH BOMBS

No mother to feed me,
No father to teach me,
No friends to greet me,
As the bombs killed them all,
No one to care for me,
Only despair for me,
No food in my tummy,
No sweet family call,
Lam alone in this Place, in the great sandy lands,
With warriors of tribes burning statues’ hands
Through the smoke crowded sky there is nothing to see,
And down on the earth it seems there is no one but me

Why kill and be killed for the lies of others?

While trying to put the finishing touches to my article eight more young British soldiers lost their lives for lies of Bush, Blair, Obama and Brown. Nearly two hundred British soldiers died and more than 80,000 innocent Afghans are killed for no obvious reason other then lies, lies and lies and more lies.

After 9/11, Afghans welcomed the international community with open arms. Many were optimistic and hoped for a better tomorrow. Yet EIGHT years later, the promised 'Marshal Plan' has not yet been delivered and the relationship with the West is now at a turning point as innocent Afghans mostly Pashtoons are killed by indiscriminate US-led and British air raids.
The sad fact is that the West has yet to comprehend two important realities: First, the Pashtoons are the foremost victims of terrorism and extremism in the current conflict. Second, for the last three decades, the Pashtoons population has suffered immensely.
The crisis in Afghanistan has been a slow-motion disaster. This was not the case in Iraq where guerrilla warfare against the US occupation erupted within weeks of the American occupation. In 2001 the Taliban appeared to have been swiftly and decisively defeated in a campaign in which the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance (War Criminals) advanced with the support of the US air force directed by small teams of American Special Forces on the ground. Prior to the conflict, critics of American intervention had warned that Afghanistan was a notorious graveyard for foreign armies. They recalled that it was in the Kabul Gorge just east of the capital that an army of British and Indian soldiers were slaughtered by Afghan tribesmen in 1842.
Afghanistan is often promoted as the enduringly justifiable, and winnable, war. But this is not the case. This is the fifth Afghan War. The first Afghan War was in 1838, when the British invaded to make Afghanistan part of the Indian empire. The Afghan barons and warlords did not resist as it is the same today. It was the ordinary people who rose up under the leadership of the village mullahs and slaughtered a whole British army. The British were defeated.
In 1878 the British invaded once more. Again the warlords did not resist, and there was another Muslim popular uprising. The British left, but kept control of Afghanistan's borders and foreign relations. That was the second Afghan War. In 1919 came the third Afghan War. The Afghan army marched towards India, and the British surrendered before the Afghans lit a fire of Muslim revolt across the subcontinent. The Afghans had built a tradition. They fought invaders under the banner of Islam, and they won and I am sure it will be the same again.
In 1978 there was a Communist coup by Afghan army officers. The Communists had support in the cities, but little in the villages, where most people lived, and where the ordinary Afghans led anti-Communist revolts. The current resistance will win the fifth Afghan War, as they won the four before. But the extent of the killing, maiming, and permanent devastation of land and society depends in part on what we do now, here, in Britain to stop the war in Afghanistan.
If good intentions ever paved a road to hell, they are doing so in Afghanistan. History rarely declares when folly turns to ¬disaster, but it does so now. Barack Obama and his amanuensis, Gordon Brown, are uncannily repeating the route taken by American leaders in Vietnam from 1963 to 1975. The best thing about the Great Depression is that it warned against another.
Vietnam began with Kennedy’s noble 1963 intervention, to keep the communist menace at bay and thus make the world safe for democracy. That is what George Bush and Tony Blair said of ¬terrorism and Afghanistan. Vietnam escalated as the Diem regime in Saigon failed to contain Vietcong aggression and was deposed with American ¬collusion. By 1965, despite Congress scepticism, American advisers, then planes, then ground forces were deployed. Allies were begged to join but few agreed – and not Britain. The problem with conflict is that the way we describe it does not necessarily conform to reality. We think in terms more appropriate to a bygone era: by the desire to seize, destroy or conquer. The present war in Afghanistan is a case in point. We have been encouraged to believe that with the application of sufficient military force, backed by some state building, victory can be achieved and the country can be transformed into a modern democratic state after the western ideals.
The thousands of US troops, backed by their British allies, who have fanned out into Helmand province are propelled by two equally flawed ideas. The first is that the Taliban can be defeated in a conventional sense. The second is that by displacing the Taliban's activities during the run-up to August presidential election a political space can be created that will legitimise the corrupted Hamid Karzai government which the West has for so long, and so obviously, propped up. The August Presidential election in Afghanistan will be over soon and the US and UK are not be able to maintain their position in the south especially in Helmand Province. We are sure that the Taliban will be back soon after the election and this time they will be more organise and stronger than before as the US and UK are not sincere in their promise.
If the campaign in Helmand appears purposeful at all, it is because the west choose to make it seem so through a combination of how it is presented (depictions of military maneuvers devoid of real meaning), and because for too long west especially Britain have uncritically accepted that the end is achievable - in Gordon Brown's words, "democracy must win".
The reality is that the war in Afghanistan is increasingly aimless and lacking in coherent strategy. Brown's notion that a strong Afghan state can be quickly forged is contradicted by the nature of the competition for power inside Afghanistan: between Kabul and the regions; between the Pashtu-speaking south and the rest of Afghanistan; and between weak state institutions and powerful social affiliations.
The Afghans have been told that we are bringing “democracy and freedom to your country and fighting a war on terror. However, if a fair and democratic election was held in Afghanistan in August this year I am certain that those opposed to the American and NATO occupation of Afghanistan would win a landslide victory. We the Afghans are like any other people on Earth do not like being bombed, shot at and militarily occupied by foreigners who have little or no understanding or respect for our culture, history and religion. From the Afghan perspective we are resisting foreign invaders and fighting for our independence and freedom. We have not gone to the west and attacked you but instead you have come here and occupied our country. We are not the invaders but it is you who are killing and destroying us in our own country. Till today not even one Afghan is found to around the western world to be involved in any sort of terrorist activities but in fact those who attacked you are your close friends and allies who feed you with oil and gas, so why on earth bombing us when we have done no harm to you.

A poll published in the Globe and Mail last year showed that Afghans want the fighting to end, and they support negotiations with the Taliban. The Globe and Mail said; “Despite the enmity toward the Taliban, 74 per cent [of Afghans] said they supported negotiations between the Karzai government and Taliban representatives as a way of reducing conflict. Afghans are no different from the west when it comes to desire for peace, freedom and independence. If the West was invaded and their government overthrown, their infrastructure destroyed, land poisoned with depleted uranium, with tens of thousands being killed, hundreds of thousands wounded they would resist the invader. You would fight the invading army even if they claimed that they were bringing “democracy to your countries and said they were “fighting terrorism.”

One hundred and Eighty four young British soldiers died for the lies of Tony Blair, George Bush and now for the latest deception of Obama and Brown in Afghanistan. We the Afghans offer our condolences and prayer to their loved ones who are and were deceived by the lies of their governments. The Afghans deaths are not even recorded and their blood does not matter to the WEST because the Afghan blood has no value and it is cheaper than the blood of the west in their eyes. It is being estimated that between 30,000- 80,000 innocent Afghans are killed by the illegal invaders of Afghanistan.

We the Afghans are fiercely independent. We defeated the British Empire at the height of its power and defeated the Soviet Empire too. And now we are defeating the American Empire and its allies and it is clearly a war that the west cannot decisively win. I am not a supporter of the Taliban but would like to insist that if the Northern Alliance who are only a bunch of War Lords, Thieves, Thugs, Rapists, Mass murderer and Drug trafficker are part of the government and are living without prosecution. The Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami led by Engineer Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Haqaani group and many others who resist the illegal occupation have every right to fight for a place to live in Afghanistan. They are also the children of Afghanistan and have the right to be in their country and the government must recognise this and should try to reach to them for a political settlement.

It is time that the west especially the US and Britain leaders use common sense and follow the wishes of the majority of Afghans and the wider world that see no-good purpose in the war in Afghanistan. It is time to work towards a political solution, to help rebuild Afghanistan for the Afghan people and end a futile destructive war before it is too late. Afghanistan should be left to Afghans to decide their destiny and the invaders must leave Afghanistan immediately. This is a golden opportunely for the UK government to save the lives of young British soldiers and innocent Afghans by withdrawing from Afghanistan without any further delay. More than 68 percent of the British population want the troops to come home immediately and also more than 70 percent Afghans want them to go. The UK Defense Secretary and Defense Chief of Staff are propagating lies once more by saying that Britain is winning the war in Afghanistan. Please Mr. Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) listen to majority and practice democracy before you preach to Afghans.


Mohammad N Asif

Exiled Afghan Journalist and
President, Scottish Afghan Exiles

Protest/Press Conference

Press release: Embargoed till Thursday 14th May 2009 at 10am.

Press conference/protest called by The Scottish Afghan Society

Venue:
Outside the U.S. Consulate General Edinburgh, Scotland
3 Regent Terrace
Edinburgh EH7 5BWDay/Time: Thursday 14 May 2009, 10.00am



Confirmed attendee’s include:
Sandra White, SNP MSP
David Hayman, Actor and Director- Spirit Aid
Stop the War Coalition

Others invited
Pauline McNeill Labour MSP
Rose Gentle - Military Families

The Stop the War Coalition will launch its national petition to get the troops out of Afghanistan.

The petition wording is as follows:
Nothing the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, and the destabilisation of Pakistan arising from the NATO military intervention in the region and believing that only the Afghan people themselves can generate a political solution to their country’s problems, therefore demand that the government commence the withdrawal of all British military forces from Afghanistan.

Contact for further information:
Mohammad N Asif, Chair, Scottish Afghan Society – 07779573331-nmasif@hotmail.com

Notes to the editors
The war in Afghanistan was supposed to have been won without firing a shot. Today over 160 British soldiers are dead. Countless thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed and millions are refugees.
Another US air strike killed 147 civilians in the Farah province in Afghanistan, another promise by the Pentagon to "investigate".
Obama's troop surge in Afghanistan, -- adding another 21,000 troops -- will bring more death and destruction and ensure a steady supply of "collateral damage".
The Bush "war on terror" has been rebranded as "overseas contingency operations" by the Obama administration but everything remains the same.
Gordon Brown, visiting British troops in Afghanistan, said, "Afghanistan and Pakistan are the breeding ground, the crucible of terrorism. A chain of terror links these areas to the streets of many of the capital cities of the world."
He's right of course. The more terror the US and British armed forces rain down on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the more the victims who survive will be driven to acts of desperation against the perpetrators.
103 times more people have been killed in Iraq & Afghanistan than in all terrorist attacks between 1993 and 2004. So, who's the terrorist?
There will be no solution to terrorism until America and Britain end their occupations of mass slaughter and destruction in other people's countries. Which is why the 2009 Stop the War national conference voted to step up its campaign for a total withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan and for the restoration of Afghan sovereignty within international law.

End.

THE TWIN IDIOTS OF AFG-PAK WAR

The Twin Idiots (Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Asif Zardari of Pakistan) went to Washington to meet the man who is responsible for the killing of Pashtoons on both sides of the Durand line. Villagers dug dirt graves Wednesday to bury what the international Red Cross said were dozens of Afghans — including women and children — killed in American bombing runs. A former Afghan government official said up to 120 people may have died. On the other side of the border more than 40,000 people have so far fled from clashes between the army and militants in Swat, officials’ say. Fighting erupted on Tuesday night in Mingora, Swat's main town, where the Taliban defied a curfew, they add.

The Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the deaths only unacceptable but does not have the guts and courage to tell the American clearly and bluntly that they must stop or otherwise leave our country. He was speaking only hours before his first face-to-face meeting with the American President at the White House. The current war in Afghanistan and Tribal areas of Pakistan is only against the Pashtoons.The death toll that has resulted from the 2001 illegal invasion of Afghanistan is estimated between fourty and eighty thousand. Indisputably, the overwhelming majority have been Pashtoons. This is unsurprising given that most resistance groups are Pashtoon and operate from Pashtoon areas; yet enormous numbers of Pashtoon civilians have also been killed. Air raids are indiscriminate and based on fatally flawed intelligence - the USAF have been effectively tricked, in several instances, into assassinating Pashtoon tribal elders by rival tribes or warlords who had deliberately fed them false information.

Only 3,500 innocent people died in 9/11 attack but more than one million were killed in Iraq and still no end to it. More than 80,000 were killed in Afghanistan and are still being killed. How much the US and its allies want to kill? How long America and Britain want to go on the killing spree? America and Britain has not apologised yet for the killing of Iraqis and Afghans but only has regret.

Mr. Obama and his predecessor both responsible for sidelining the country majority and have chosen to give power to a tiny minority (Northern Alliance) Despite comprising more than 50% of Afghanistan’s total population of 32m, the Pashtoons remain poorly represented at all levels of government. Whilst a number of ministers are ethnic Pashtoons, they are mostly coalition installed, pro-American, foreign nationals: Hamid Karzai’s links to US business interests are well documented; the defence minister and former finance minister are American citizens; the foreign minister, German; and the Interior minister, British - tribal Pashtoons do not see them as acting in their interests. Many Pashtoon parties are outlawed - not one is currently active in government - meaning that all Pashtoon ministers are therefore Independents, with little effective power. Real political power lies in the hands of the Northern Alliance warlords - many of whom have committed numerous war crimes, not least against the Pashtoons. From history we learned that Obama and his predecessors played the great game to create problems among the countries, armed tribes against tribes, nation against nation to safeguard their own interests. The Drone attack inside Pakistan has been intensified, and the genocide of the Pashtoon tribal belt continued unabated. Last year Pakistan finally closed camps that had housed Afghan refugees for three decades. During the past six months it's been forced to reopen them, this time for its own people.

Both Hamid Karzai and Asif Zardari are standing with Barack Obama but the big question is who is standing with the victims of the American and NATO bombing? No family has received an apology and compensation for the lost of their loved ones but only regret which can not heal the wounds of the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan but it only make them stronger to resist the illegal occupation. Asif Zardari is a very weak leader and has no guts to confront the Americans. Here he is with Wolf Blitzer.

“My government is not going to fall,” Zardari assured Blitzer as he sat with the cable news host in the Situation Room — not the one in the White House, but the one in CNN’s Washington bureau near Union Station. Blitzer directed Zardari to watch a presentation of the Taliban’s gains on CNN’s “magic map” plasma screen.
“Exaggerated,” Zardari said. “We’ve been giving them a fight.”
“Do you need American help?” Blitzer offered.
“I need drones,” Zardari said.
Luckily, Blitzer had some drone footage. “If you turn around over there, you can see some pictures,” Blitzer said. Zardari obliged. Next, Blitzer directed him to look at a video of a CNN “iReport” from a Pakistani College student in Florida. “Turn around and you can see him,” Blitzer ordered. Zardari, looking bewildered by Blitzer’s arsenal of plasma screens, obeyed.
“Are you going to send your troops in,” Blitzer demanded, “and clean out that area from the Taliban and al-Qaeda?”
“Most definitely,” Zardari promised Blitzer was satisfied. “Mr. President,” he said, “good luck.”
Hamid Karzai is no different than Zardari. The Afghan army and NATO forces are not able to fight against the resistance groups inside Afghanistan. The American, British and NATO rely on their air power as their ground forces are not capable of fighting the opposition. Every time a battle take place on the ground the Afghan President will urgently give a miss call to B52 and F16 to rescue them. It's too late now; the incompetent TWIN IDIOTS (Hamid Karzai and Asif Zardari) of this blighted land have made the things go beyond the point of no return.

Mohammad N Asif
Exiled Afghan Journalist
Chair, Scottish Afghan Exiles
nmasif@hotmail.com