Special Section: Terrorist Attacks on America

Featured in the Monterey Herald on 9/23/01

In every human tragedy, after the initial shock and sorrow, the unavoidable question is: Why? While the display of such sentiments is true for natural tragedies, it is more pronounced in situations such as the horrific terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

In the midst of the anger that is gripping the whole of the American nation, the question remains: Why would a group of people desire to kill thousands of innocent people from every walk of life and commit suicide in the process?

The other immediate question is: Where do these horrible people live, so that we can go after them and try to prevent another attack against our country?

Here I will address the second question, since in the immediate future it is most important to rid the world of this cancerous cell. Only after that can we look for cures and preventive measures.

The last conflict of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union managed to outlast the superpower rivalry and has created a political black hole in the geographical area that was once occupied by a state called Afghanistan. The quagmire in which Afghanistan finds itself today has led observers and commentators to ponder how it can be possible that the country, which in the eyes of the outside world was once synonymous with irrelevancy, has become central to so many relevant global security and human rights questions since the Soviet invasion of 1979.

Indeed, before 1980 the Oxford English Dictionary described "Afghanistanism" as a term that connoted a malady encouraging the pontification of problems far distant while conveniently ignoring the home front. The Soviet invasion, however, changed the etymological course of the term "Afghanistanism," and the tragedy of last Tuesday has brought Afghanistan to the center of what President George W. Bush has described as the first war of the 21st century.

The last battle of the Cold War began on Dec. 25, 1979, when Soviet troops reached Kabul, Afghanistan. The direct Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan ended when the last unit of the Red Army left Afghan territory on Feb. 16, 1989. The United States, seeing the occasion as an opportunity to "bleed the Soviet Union," poured in some $4 billion to $5 billion in overt and covert military aid to the Afghan resistance, known as the mujahideen.

The micromanagement of the massive financial and military assistance was left in the hands of Pakistan. The U.S. investment paid off over and beyond its initial expectations, as it not only bled the U.S.S.R., but it bled it to death, without the loss of a single American life.

From 1992-96, various groups battled one another in every corner of Afghanistan. In the ever-shifting alliances and frontlines, the country was transformed into decentralized fiefdoms ruled with increasing brutality by warlords. Moreover, with the absence of a common enemy, the national liberation struggle gave way to an ethno-sectarian war.

Another legacy of the Afghan war was the influx of foreign fighters, mainly from Pakistan and Arab states. In 1996, the Taliban, with direct military and political support from Pakistan, conquered most of the Afghan territory and invited Osama bin Laden and other Arab radicals to establish terrorist training camps. Pakistan supported and organized the transfer of some of these trainees to fight in its war against India in Kashmir.

What is to be done today is a question that cannot be answered with one answer, nor should the American people expect that the junk left from the Cold War in Afghanistan can be cleared in a single military operation.

A myopic view that by militarily eliminating the Taliban and the camps of Osama bin Laden, peace and the rule of law will return to Afghanistan and the problems of terrorism will disappear, is sure to result in an augmentation of the present troubles in the region. A careful consideration of the long-term effects of chaos in Afghanistan will reveal to each and every state in the region that the limited benefits that they are currently reaping from the present situation will be minimal compared to the benefits of having an Afghanistan ruled by law.

Amid our sorrow and anger, we as a people, should urge our government to look at a multidimensional response to the attacks against our land. Cleaning up the mess left from the last conflict of the Cold War is just the beginning.