A Viable—and Perhaps the Only—Path to Lasting Peace in Afghanistan

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock and the Washington Post (Simon & Schuster: New York, 2021)

Afghanistan was thrust into the international media spotlight and public consciousness in August, when the United States and its coalition partners fled the country as the Taliban walked into the presidential palace, establishing itself as the ruling authority. While Afghanistan may finally be free of outside military occupation, Afghans are still suffering the deadly consequences of 40 years of U.S.-led subversion and war. Today, tens of millions of mostly poor and rural Afghans are at risk of dying due to lack of food, with the United Nations estimating 97 percent of people could be below the poverty line by next month. This is all largely a result of international sanctions and the United States freezing Afghanistan’s sovereign assets.

Despite these dire conditions, however, U.S. media outlets have moved on from Afghanistan after declaring it a colossal “failure” and publishing military and government officials’ memoirs and accounts of “lessons learned.” Encapsulating this kind of shortsighted thinking is long-time Washington Post reporter Craig Whitlock’s first book, The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War. While the author delivers a thorough chronological history of the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan from the U.S. perspective, he largely fails to criticize the war aside from what has already been known for the entire history of this settler-colony: That its ruling military and government officials lie in pursuit of their narrow self-interests.

Of course, with a title as such, the book has received many comparisons to the Pentagon Papers, the leaked reports on the U.S. war on Vietnam that the New York Times published in 1971. Beyond the title of the book, Whitlock is clearly inspired by what has often been lauded as a great show of strength for the U.S. “free press”: Revealing systemic lies the highest ranking U.S. government and military officials have told throughout a war that had no clear objectives. If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

If the reader is aware of this history, along with the other U.S.-waged or -backed wars across the globe today—in places like Yemen, Syria, Somalia, and now Ukraine—much of what is presented as revelatory may seem obvious. This is not to take away from the importance of the “Afghanistan Papers,” the nearly 10,000 pages of once-classified material, made publicly available courtesy of Whitlock and the Washington Post. Nor is it to deride the significance of the injustices that the U.S. government and military have inflicted upon Afghanistan and the region. Rather, it is to make the point that while the elites in Washington continue to hold much of the world hostage in what’s shaping up to be the most violent imperial decline in history—with nuclear ramifications that could bring about an end to life as we know it—this is a story that is becoming all too familiar.

That politics in the United States is a game for the elite—who are willing to do and say anything to maintain their power—is more common knowledge than Whitlock may think. This is evident with that only one-quarter of people in the United States say they trust the government. With this in mind, many readers will not be surprised to learn the Pentagon fabricated stories to justify the long war in Afghanistan. That military commanders made grandiose claims of the “progress” they were making on the battlefield. That consecutive White House administrations allowed for cycles of escalations and different iterations of the war to continue. And that elected officials—both Democrats and Republicans—have always come together at times of apparent bitter divides to direct the public’s attention away from such wars.

With that said, Whitlock misses an important opportunity to specify that—despite this seemingly impenetrable web of lies, deceit and deception—it is not so much the fault of the U.S. public for not being more aware. A majority are poor or working class, an entirely different class to Whitlock’s own. Nor is it that they are a docile group of sheep that can persistently be misled, as he frequently makes it seem. In fact, the vast majority of the U.S. public, struggling to make ends meet and living paycheck to paycheck, seem acutely aware of the levels of sophistication to which the U.S. government will go to pursue the narrow material interests of an elite few in Washington.

The issue does not lie in ignorance, which—following Whitlock’s logic—is something this book should have addressed. What prevents people from stopping the next U.S.-waged war is the same capitalist dictatorship in Washington that everyday Afghans have been made to bear for 40 years. It is the same class leading the war on poor and working-class people in the United States, marring any chance of popular democratic action against such wars.

Whitlock is clear that with the source material he relied on to craft his narrative, the book is by no means a definitive history of the war. Regardless, this narrow framework has the effect of placing Afghanistan—along with its rich history, culture and people—in a vacuum. In spite of the book’s thoroughness and detail, by the book’s final chapter, a reader with no prior knowledge of Afghanistan would be left with much to learn of the ongoing war, if economic sanctions are considered the next phase of the U.S. war on Afghanistan.

While Whitlock and the Washington Post have clearly gone to great lengths to make thousands of pages of once-classified Pentagon documents not only public, but digestible to the average reader, an important connection that could have further raised the reader’s consciousness was missed. Since it’s a story that’s been told before, what could possibly be missing from what has been lauded as the “definitive U.S. history” of the war?

By the book’s end, the average reader is likely to be left wondering why so many government and military officials were committed to lying about the justifications for the war and how it was actually playing out on the ground. What could have possibly been the driving force behind so many cover-ups and false narratives throughout? Could it be that the answer—either brushed aside or outright ignored by Whitlock and the Washington Post—has much to do with profit? Ultimately, Whitlock fails to answer the why question of the war, missing a crucial opportunity to provide a further clarity.

But, then again, that was not the book Whitlock set out to write. He delivers what has come to be expected from highly paid journalists at privately owned newspapers: A misleading narrative that U.S.-waged wars like those in Vietnam and Afghanistan only end when journalists like himself decide to put pen to paper. And not when the people living there—Vietnamese and Afghans alike—have no choice but to fight back.

This book is a vital resource that thoroughly details the atrocities U.S. government and military officials knew they were committing—and seemingly got away with—throughout the war on Afghanistan. Whitlock and the Washington Post certainly do not deserve condemnation for trying. But one can only hope that as conditions worsen for the poor in Afghanistan and the United States alike, Whitlock and the Washington Post will become stronger, more formidable opponents to future U.S.-waged wars. However, readers should be warned: Do not bet on that.

Patterson Deppen serves on the editorial board at E-International Relations, where he is editor for student essays. He is a member of the Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network. His writing has appeared in TomDispatch, The Nation, The Progressive, E-International Relations and other outlets.

Only after collapsing did Reshma Koli realize she had been working amid heat waves. The temperature had soared to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in April , but the only thing on Reshma’s mind was the monthly repayment of 3,000 Indian rupees ($38 USD) that helped her family meet everyday needs.

A 37-year-old farm worker, it takes her over 120 hours of bending and squatting in the fields to earn that money. An hour’s delay could cost her daily wages and incur interest.

While working in this scorching heat for over two months, all she had was a piece of cotton cloth wrapped around her head. Four fellow women farmworkers rushed to offer lemon juice as she collapsed. Koli then resumed her work in 20 minutes. But this is not a story of resilience.

“Even if we die, no one will notice. Every day, when we leave for work, we consider ourselves lucky if we return alive,” says fellow farmworker Akkatai Khot, 62, who tends to sugarcane saplings at a nursery in the Khutwad village of the western Indian state of Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district.

India witnessed the hottest March in 122 years. With temperatures several times crossing 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) in northern India, heat waves amplified the existing fault lines between the few well-off and the ignored, unseen and unheard—women farm workers.

‘If We Take a Break, What Will We Eat?’

Koli, Khot and over 500 women agricultural laborers in Khutwad couldn’t afford to take a minute’s break in the heat waves.

“Ever since the 2021 floods, we barely get work for 15 days a month,” Koli said. “So if we take a break here, what will we eat?”

The number of working days for farmers is declining in India’s flood-affected regions because of the fluctuating regional climatic patterns. For example, what followed after the 2021 floods in Kolhapur district was an extended dry spell, a sudden drop in temperatures, incessant rainfall, and now heat waves.

‘Relocation Should Be Last Solution’

The Maharashtra government has proposed a plan to move people from the flood-affected areas, which scares Koli even more.

“Where will the government relocate us when almost all the villages here are facing the same conditions?” she asked. “At least there’s farmland in this area. What if the relocated place has no source of earning a livelihood?”

For communities that rely on agriculture, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll suggested information on drought and flood-resilient crop varieties should be made accessible.

“Relocating should be the last solution because these events will further intensify in several areas,” he said.

After the floods ravaged Reshma Koli’s house in 2019, she started experiencing a severe headache that persisted for two months. From analgesics to indigenous balms, nothing helped. Then, one afternoon as she felt dizzy, she was diagnosed with extremely high blood pressure and was immediately prescribed medications that she says will continue for a lifetime.

Community healthcare worker Maya Patil explains why chronic illnesses are rising in rural women in flood-affected villages.

“After the floods, almost every family took out a loan, as there was no farm work for three months,” she said. “Now, with the changing climate, farm productivity is falling rapidly, and they aren’t getting enough work to repay. The wages have dwindled, forcing their children to join the workforce, and this adds more stress.”

National Family Health Survey’s latest report confirms her analysis.

It shows a 151 percent rise in hypertension cases amongst rural women in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district alone from 2015 to 2020.

Relying on Medicine to Labor in the Heat

With the onset of monsoon season, Ujjwala Chavan’s stress keeps mounting.

“Earlier, we waited for rain, but now every rainfall scares us,” she said. Chavan and her sister-in-law, Sampada—both in their 40s—collectively took out a loan of 400,000 rupees ($5,150) after the 2021 floods to sustain their joint family of more than 14 people.

Repaying this hefty amount had its impact. Chavan was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and Sampada with hypertension. Moreover, Chavan has taken a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug every alternate day for close to a year now. “If I skip this, I won’t be able to work because of the body pain and weakness,” she said.

The ongoing heat waves have aggravated the existing medical conditions of several flood-affected women. Thirty scientists from the World Weather Attribution Network found climate change has made the current heatwaves in South Asia—especially in India and Pakistan—30 times more likely.

Despite drinking five liters of water daily, Sampada said she still feels thirsty and dizzy.

“I couldn’t understand what was happening,” she said. “There’s no alternative to facing a heat wave when you can’t make ends meet.”

In July, as the floodwater started reaching Khutwad from the nearby Krishna river, 10 farm workers—including Sampada—rushed to save over 800,000 sugarcane saplings.

“Meanwhile, floods washed away everything in our house,” Sampada said.

A split-second delay could have cost their lives as the water gushed speedily.

“In both of the floods, I collectively lost over a million sugarcane saplings, three sugarcane-bud cutting machines, and 50 metric tons of coco peat,” said Amol Mahatme, 34, the owner of the sugarcane nursery.

During the heat waves, too, several saplings couldn’t germinate, further affecting everyone in the farm cycle. Women farmworkers are the most affected, as they remain the least paid and most overworked.

Rising Chronic Illnesses

For the first time, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report mentioned climate change has “adversely impacted” mental health. It warns, “Mental health challenges, including anxiety and stress, are expected to increase under further global warming in all assessed regions, particularly for children, adolescents, elderly, and those with underlying health conditions.”

Dr. Madhuri Panhalkar, the only public doctor for 8,000 people in three villages in the Kolhapur district, has been treating many flood-affected patients. She says, “Even if the patients eat healthy food, that isn’t enough,” she said. “The stress levels are rising rapidly as the climate keeps fluctuating.” So Panhalkar is holding awareness sessions in the flood-affected villages, in an attempt to normalize conversations around mental health.

In 1990, non-communicable diseases (NCD) contributed to 37 percent of deaths in India. That figure almost doubled to 66 percent in 2019. Government figures reveal one in four Indians are at the risk of dying from NCD before the age of 70.

“We need gender-based village-level data on what kind of illnesses are rising rapidly in the region,” Koll said. “Then, based on this data, we can have early warning systems for health, also.”

In 2021, India lost 5.04 million hectares (12.45 million acres) of farm area to floods, cyclones, landslides, cloudbursts and other climate events. India has been experiencing 17 flood events every year since 2000, making it the second-worst flood-affected country in the world after China. This has impacted 345 million Indians, the equivalent of nine Californias.

An agricultural laborer for over two decades, Sampada said she had never experienced such devastation. But, with the rising incidences of heat waves, she has also experienced fading vision in her eyes, pointing to something serious. “If I go to a doctor, I’ll have to take a day off, which I can’t afford.” Women in sugarcane nurseries of the Kolhapur region are paid around $2 to $4 for 10 to 12 hours of work daily.

While medications have kept her going, she has been worried about overusing them and being unable to seek proper treatment in time. Her resort, though, can be fatalistic.

“It’s a dilemma, with suffering as the only answer,” she said, lifting over 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of soil on her head.

Sanket Jain is an independent journalist based in the Kolhapur district of the western Indian state of Maharashtra. He was a 2019 People’s Archive of Rural India fellow, for which he documented vanishing art forms in the Indian countryside. He has written for Baffler, Progressive Magazine, Counterpunch, Byline Times, The National, Popula, Media Co-op, Indian Express and several other publications.

“Far too many women are fighting—not only for their rights, but for the rights of all,” says Yomali Torres, an Afro-Colombian activist. The 26-year-old joined throngs of women in the streets of Colombia over the past month to demand an end to patriarchal oppression at the hands of a U.S.-backed neoliberal state.

Women’s presence in Colombia’s national strike—both as activists and as victims—has caught the world’s attention. Many have spoken out against police violence and sexual abuse during the current demonstrations. This, however, is not a new issue. Police, armed forces and illegal groups have used women’s bodies as weapons of war for decades. 

The strike, which marks its 1-month anniversary today, continues unabated. It started as a response to a tax reform project that would have devastated middle- and low-income households. Yet, this is not the core of social discontent among Colombians. This is clear as the strike continues, even after the president called on Congress to withdraw the tax reform bill. 

At the end of 2019, Colombia saw mass mobilizations of diverse sectors of society, who expressed their discontent with the government of President Iván Duque. Among the criticisms were his ineffective economic, social, and environmental policies, the lack of implementation of a peace treaty with militant group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the numerous assassinations of social leaders, among others. According to Colombian state agency Investigation and Accusation Unity (Unidad de Investigación y Acusación), 904 leaders were assassinated between December 2016 and April 2021. 

 

Gender Violence

Historically, conflict and social inequalities have most affected women. Violence and sexual abuse are commonly wielded to gain control over the territories women and their communities inhabit, as well as their natural resources. The High Commissioner for Human Rights released a document in 2005 indicating 52 percent of displaced women reported having suffered some type of physical abuse and 36 percent had been forced by strangers to have sexual intercourse. 

In a context of multiple violations of human rights—including extrajudicial killings, disappeared persons, torture, arbitrary detentions and use of firearms—gender violence continues to be deployed against the population during the national strike. Colombia’s Department of Protection of Citizen’s Rights has reported 106 cases of gender violence, of which 23 are acts of sexual violence.

With slogans such as “The revolution would be feminist, or it will not be,” “Not one less,” and “With me, whatever you want—but with her, nothing,” protesters have rejected violence against women, while drawing attention to gender inequalities.

One of the cases that has generated widespread indignation involved a 17-year-old girl from Popayan, who committed suicide after having been arrested by police. Before taking her own life, she wrote a statement accusing four members of the riot police of sexual assault. The girl had posted on Facebook police only released her after learning she was the daughter of a police officer.

 

Feminist Groups and their Demands 

Women have taken to the streets, demanding equal access to education, healthcare and employment. They have assumed leading roles as human-rights observers, front-line defenders and community organizers. As a result, human rights groups—formed mostly by women—have suffered acts of intimidation and violence. 

“We received death threats from the riot police. They told us they did not want us alive,” says Isabella Galvis of the Waman Iware Human Rights Collective. “At the moment, we do not have guarantees. They are using firearms during the protests, which is illegal under Colombian law.”

Feminist organizations move ahead despite the challenges, having organized multiple events. On May 10, a coalition of 173 feminist groups presented a list of proposals during the current crisis. 

These proposals included: 

• A call for negotiation including all groups involved in the protests, 
• an exercise of justice regarding human-rights violations, and
• a universal basic income that prioritizes women affected by the pandemic, among others.

 

The Women Who Are Most Vulnerable to Inequalities and Violence 

Afro-Colombians and Indigenous peoples have been affected—directly or indirectly—by racism during the protests. Calí, the city where police have exercised the most repression, has experienced the highest number of deaths during the strike. It also has the highest concentration of Afro-Colombian communities, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics.

The high level of inequality puts Calí at the center of these protests. Afro-Colombian people contend with uneven opportunities in the areas of education, healthcare and employment. That means the reforms the government has proposed would strongly affect Afro-Colombians, and women in particular. 

“We are here commemorating Afro-Colombians today. We want to fight for our future and our rights,” explains Maria Niza Obregón, a 17-year-old Afro-Colombian girl, who supports the protests. “We want to live, not to survive.”

A clear example of this was the fate of the government’s health reform, which sank after the first 20 days of protests. The regions with the highest concentration of Afro-Colombians and Indigenous peoples also have the poorest health systems in the country, according to a report by organization Así Vamos en Salud. 

Yomali Torres, a 26-year-old member of Afro-Colombian human-rights and peace organization Cococauca, denounces the lack of hospitals and specialists in her territory on the Pacific Coast of Cauca. 

“If someone has chest pain, the patient has to be transferred to Calí or Popayan,” Torres says. “If we do not die, it is thanks to ancestral medicine.” 

Afro-Colombian women have been particularly outspoken during the national strike, especially in Calí. 

Torres condemns the violations of the rights of women, and of the Colombian population in general. 

“In one way or another, we are taking advantage of the strike to demand justice for all of the women who have been raped, beaten and disappeared,” Torres says.

The United Nations states Indigenous and Afro-Colombian women have been affected disproportionately by the violence derived from the conflict. “Among 3,445 cases of murder in Indigenous and Afro-Colombian individuals, 65.5 percent were women,” the UN reports. 

As a sign of indignation, the community of Guapi organized on May 7 an event called, “The Last Night.” With traditional cultural expressions, they commemorated those who have given their lives fighting for the rights of Afro-Colombians and the entire country. This celebration was carried out with artistic representations of graves and singing alabaos, or ancestral songs for the dead.

A month after the first call for a national strike, the different sectors of society are far from calling off the protests. This comes even as protesters’ blockades have generated a shortage of goods in certain communities. As Torres says, “We will not give up, because boats are not arriving with goods. Historically, we have felt hunger for more than 200 years. For us, this is not a real challenge.” 

Natalia Torres Garzon graduated with an M.Sc. in Globalization and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, United Kingdom. She is a freelance journalist who focuses on social and political issues in Latin America, especially in connection to Indigenous communities, women and the environment. With photographer Antonio Cascio, she founded the radio-photography program, Radio Rodando. Her work has been published in the section Planeta Futuro from El País, New Internationalist and Earth Island.