Afghan Commentary Post

 Here is a link to my recent commentary published by Stars and Stripes newspaper https://www.stripes.com/opinion/2024-02-25/ukraine-billions-loan-13115386.html

      Summary: Ukraine desperately needs U.S. assistance to stand against Russian aggression, and if the U.S. ceases such aid, it could embolden Vladimir Putin to seize more territory in Europe and perhaps even attack a NATO member, thereby forcing a U.S. military response. But billions of dollars’ worth of financial and military aid should not be free, but rather given as a loan.   Why Ukraine Should Be Given Billions, But Only as a Loan By Wahab Raofi In his book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman wrote that “the world is an interconnected economic integration, which supersedes ideological and political differences, and no player would likely dare to jeopardize that arrangement.” Then along came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is not one of the NATO countries. The U.S. has no obligation to defend them. But for several logical reasons, U.S. taxpayer money is being sent by the billions in hopes it can help save Ukraine from Russian aggression. Th...

  By Wahab Raofi While Pakistan's recent election may not meet all Western standards of perfection, it certainly serves as a demonstration of democracy in action. Its ramifications could potentially influence its neighbor, Afghanistan, particularly if the Pakistani military relinquishes its subtle support for the Taliban. Among the various forms of battle, a war of hatred, suspicion and envy is just as pernicious as battles fought on traditional fields. This is precisely the conflict ongoing between the Afghans and the Pakistani security establishment. Afghans accuse their neighbor Pakistan of pursuing a duplicitous policy toward the Afghan people. While ostensibly endorsing democracy and elections within its own borders, Pakistan is alleged to support the Taliban, a group seemingly disinclined to let Afghans go to voting polls to select their leaders. Pakistan held elections amidst political, economic, social and political scandals that led to the imprisonment of former...

By Wahab Raofi In an op-ed in the New York Times, Kathy Gannon writes that America should go back to Afghanistan and open its embassy in Kabul to get re-engaged with the Taliban and society. I understand her perspective; it’s rooted in her sympathy for the hardships faced by the Afghan people, whose pain and suffering she covered for the past four decades as a reporter. The reality necessitates an approach that prioritizes the interests of the United States’ values and the welfare of Afghan people. Opening the embassy in Kabul is not one of those. Instead, it may inadvertently strengthen the Taliban's iron-grip on power that neither Afghans nor the community of the free world espouses. I believe that re-opening the U.S. embassy would be seen as a recognition of the Taliban regime that no other country has accepted, and it’s for good reason: This group is widely regarded as extremists, rejecting the will of its people to hold free elections, violating human rights, crackin...

  This article is published by the Orange County Register and its sister newspapers By Wahab Raofi   The Israeli response to Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on its people and territory on October 7, 2023, could not have been a simple verbal condemnation or warning. It had to be a counterattack, for anything short of that would likely encourage further attacks from Hamas. The Iranian-backed Hamas attack involved a murderous rampage, killings and kidnapping of Israelis ranging from 10-month-old babies to an 86-year-old senior, as well as the reprehensible acts of raping Israeli women . Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goals are to destroy Hamas, bring hostages home and get re-elected. I concur with his first two aims, but the inhumane way the war on Hamas has been executed is not justifiable. Such a strategy carries the risk of fueling not only antisemitism, but also potentially creating a security threat for Israel’s ally, the United States, from Muslim ext...

   This article is published by the Stars and Stripes The Taliban Has Declared Jihad on Women’s Rights; It’s Up to the Rest of the Free World to Save Them Women in Afghanistan are in dark days. They suffer from widespread injustices and are deprived of their rights. It is our moral obligation to stand in solidarity and come to their rescue. By Wahab Raofi   During a speech after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, Kofi Annan, then the Special Representative of the United Nations’ Secretary-General, said: “Today, in Afghanistan, a girl will be born ... But to be born a girl in today’s Afghanistan is to begin life centuries away from the prosperity that one small part of humanity has achieved. It is to live under conditions that many of us in this hall would consider inhuman.” That was more than two decades ago, but sadly, the same holds true today for girls and women in Afghanistan. As global attention remains fixed on Gaza and Ukraine, it is cru...

  Pakistan’s Mass Deportation of Afghans Fuels Instability The expulsion of immigrants might make the country even less secure. by  Wahab Raofi For many decades, Pakistan was generous toward Afghan refugees, taking in those who fled the country’s civil wars, the 1979 Soviet invasion, the U.S. incursion in 2001, and the Taliban takeover in 2021. SPONSORED CONTENT Recommended by What if diplomacy fails? Strategy game simulates political scenarios Geopolitics simulation My brother and I were among those who fled our Afghan homeland to Pakistan after the Soviet occupation. Pakistani people warmly welcomed us. We were considered “golden refugees,” a term given to those fleeing communist regimes. I was fortunate to have my refugee status approved, which allowed me to move to the United States.  Today, however, Pakistan is flooded with  3 million  Afghan refugees, and their lives are in peril. As of November 1, Pakistan began a mass deportation of illegal immigrants. T...