SV: SV: Plight of Buddhist art

[Lars Martin Fosse]

rohan.oberoi at CORNELL.EDU [SMTP:rohan.oberoi at CORNELL.EDU] skrev 28. februar
2001 11:00:
> Since Dr. Fosse has decided to comment on a political issue on which I
> am at least as qualified as he is, I would like to point out that
> anyone who laments the (undeniable) folly of the Taleban authorities
> in seeking to destroy such a striking part of their country's history
> as 'the folly of religious fanatics', without commenting on 'the folly
> of Pentagon fanatics' who funded, armed, and trained Mujahideen thugs
> for their anti-Soviet crusade in such such numbers as to make the
> country unlivable (a circumstance without which a gang like the
> Taleban could not have come to power) and who then sought to isolate
> them and starve the people of Afghanistan, instead of taking any of
> the more constructive actions that Washington's undoubted degree of
> responsibility for the present crisis of the country would warrant (a
> circumstance without which the Taleban might not have taken such
> extreme positions) lays himself open to very justifiable charges of
> hypocrisy and Western ethnocentric prejudics.

Oh, my goodness!!!

Since I, too, believe I have read a few pages on Afghanistan, let me point
out a number of points:

First of all, the Afghans started their fight against the Soviet intrusion
quite early in the game. The fight against the Soviets was not "invented"
by the West, although it certainly was exploited by the U.S. The Afghans
were cast in the role as "monster killers", they were supposed to do to the
Russians what the Vietnamese, helped by the Russians, had done to the
Americans in Vietnam (and they largely succeeded). However, the basic fact
is this: The Soviets tried to impose a communist regime on a population
that resented this attempt. In the face of armed opposition, the Soviets
consciously chose to destroy the country, including the vulnerable water
systems, kill several million Afghan civilians and chase other millions
away. The terrible situation that Afghanistan has today is partly the
result of Soviet policies, the self-destructive behaviour of Afghan leaders
and the callousness of the U.S. and other Western countries, which dumped
an enormous amount of arms in Afghanistan during the war, but pulled out
and ceased to show any interest as soon as the Soviet Union had been driven
out.

As for responsibility, it has to be distributed. The Afghans cannot be
blamed for trying to liberate their country. However, they can be blamed
for in-fighting, tribalism, and religious fanaticism which are not
conducive to restoring the country. The Soviets must take the main
responsibility for destroying Afghan society and its vulnerable economy.
The West must take responsibility for not helping (enough) after the war
was over. Let me remind you, by the way, that the Taliban are relative
latecomers. The Afghans that received American help (through Pakistan,
which manipulated the situation according to its own needs) in the eighties
were not quite so extreme as the Taliban.

Are you suggesting that the West should have allowed the Soviets to occupy
Afghanistan unopposed, by the way? I am not entirely convinced that India's
generals would have been comfortable with the Soviets firmly established in
Afghanistan. That would put them uncomfortably close to India, and if I
remember my Kautilya, there should be at least one country between yourself
and your ally.

Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,
0674 Oslo
Norway
Phone: +47 22 32 12 19
Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45
Fax 1:  +47 22 32 12 19
Fax 2:  +47 85 02 12 50 (InFax)
Email: lmfosse at online.no