SPAIN AND THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN - IS THERE POPULAR SUPPORT?
I was shocked yesterday to see a brief report stating that two Spanish soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan. Immediately, I checked the article concerned as I have a Spanish friend serving in Afghanistan and I was worried in case he was one of those who had died. Thankfully, it seems he was not – but I can only imagine the horror his wife must have felt when she first heard the news.
Of course, like most people, this prompted me to wonder (again) why on earth Spain is involved in Afghanistan which is a country in which Spain has, to the best of my knowledge, no economic interest. Neither does it have any historic relevance or strategic value. In fact, just about the only connection between Spain and Afghanistan is the fact that Al Qaeda are (or were) based there. This is relevant, of course, because it was Al Qaeda who perpetrated the terrible bombings in Madrid on the 11th March 2006.
However, unless I have got everything terribly wrong, the war in Afghanistan is against the Taleban and is therefore about regime change – albeit a ‘positive’ one should Afghanistan ever truly embrace a Western style democracy.
In any event, a recent poll showed that 82% of the Spanish wanted Spain to withdraw from Afghanistan where there are some 1,500 Spanish troops mostly based in the east of the country around Herat. This suggests that most Spaniards consider the war as pointless as me – despite the brave efforts of all the allied troops serving there.
Certainly, the few Spaniards that I have spoken to about the war are bemused about Spain’s involvement. The only reason for being involved that they have come up with has been that Spain’s presence is important as a show of solidarity with NATO which Spain joined in 1982. I suspect this is the real reason for Spain’s involvement combined (perhaps more importantly) with an effort to appear US friendly. In terms of real politic this is probably understandable but does the cost really justify this? I rather doubt it…
Nick, I claim to write with some insight into this mess. My father was seconded into the Indian Army from Royal Corps of Signals for Partition and served along the Afghan border, in what became Pakistan. My mother was nursing ditto. I have been involved myself – see below. It’s a family business. I still follow it closely.
In the 1980’s the majority of Afghans were united in their bid to throw the Russians out and remove the puppet Communist regime of Najibullah. Very few western journalists got into Afghanistan at all and none for any more than a few days, during this period.
Because nothing was coming out from the non-Communist perspective, The US State Dept set up a media agency in Peshawar, NWFP, Pakistan to report the war with western journalistic non-partisan discipline. For 9 months from April 1998 I was the photographic consultant.
It was staffed by Afghans. Reporters [trained and advised by a radio journalist from Boston, Mass], video cameramen [trained and advised by a film maker from San Francisco, CA] and photographers [trained and advised by me] were sent into Afghanistan with Mujahiddin combat units to report the war from the Muj front. The resulting material was sent back to media agencies like Reuters, AFP, Visnews etc to syndicate to the world’s news desks.
But even then, the infighting amongst the Afghan factions [or political parties, as the US optimistically called them] was bitter and intense.
Afghanistan has always been a problem. In the 19c is was the setting for ‘The Great Game’, the struggle between Britain and Russia. For the Brits, control of the western borders of Imperial India, for the Russians access [amongst other things] to a deepwater port on the Indian Ocean.
The situation now is far more serious and very dangerous. Pakistan is a nuclear power. So is India. These two countries are in a state of barely contained confrontation. The conflict over Kashmir continues to claim lives, as it has since Partition. The fate of Afghanistan will dictate the stance of Pakistan towards its enemy, India. If Afghanistan falls into the hands of factions implacably opposed to Hindu India & The West, Pakistan will, short of US-led invasion, go the same way. Hard liners in Pakistan will then be tempted to strike at India with nuclear weapons. There are those in Pakistan who are determined to do this.
But, because of the presence of NATO forces, extremism is being held at bay whilst a creaking, fragile, fragmented political process continues in Afghanistan and a far from robust and trustworthy regime operates in Pakistan.
Whilst I was there, Zia ul Haq declared martial law, which included the subordination of constitutional law to Sharia law. I sent a cutting from a newspaper to the women who ran The Photographers’ Association offices in London: “Women axed in TV ads.” They meant ‘from TV ads’ but, from what women in Afghanistan have been subjected to under fundamentalist dictat, it might as well have been for real. Three days before I left, Zia was assassinated. Some time later, the key stabilizing figure amongst the factional leaders, Ahmed Shah Masud [The Lion of The Panshir] was assassinated by a couple of guys ‘interviewing’ him in his tent. The explosives were packed into the shell of a video camera…
It was bad, Now it’s worse. As one of the victims of a roadside IED, a British Army major said, “If we don’t do this job here, we’ll have it to do at on the streets home.” 9/11 NYC, 7/7 London, 11/3 Madrid and others prove his point.
It’s natural that citizens of countries that have personnel in Afghanistan should question their involvement when their people take casualties. The alternative is far worse.
Chris
What an excellent and fascinating response and I do hope others pick this up and run with it. It is certainly a complex and emotive subject that requires airing properly.
Incidentally, I also was in Afghanistan (both in 1989 and 1993) and saw, first hand, a state that was in a state of total disarray. However, I strongly feel that the policies of the allies have been clumsy and ill-conceived to the point of being crass. Meanwhile, lives on all sides have been lost whilst hatred has been bred that will take generations to cure…