My appearance on Canadian talk show to discuss the Afghan war

[Amir al Ghaznavi]

http://www.ctstv.com/michaelcoren/?vidID=20828

considering my opinion isnt too popular here in Canada, I was under fire, but I think I held my ground well


feedback is welcome

[din]

salam. dr sha jawab di wrki. im proud of you. der sh jawab di warkri. wry nice answr we ned ppl like you.

manna.

[Ghorzang]

It looks like you did a good job. It is very important to lobby for our self..

[Amir al Ghaznavi]

i went toe to toe with the former canadian ambassador to afghanistan and former number 2 at the un, chris alexander

he claims during this talk that sarajudin haqani was never in kabul...i couldnt respond...is this true?

[Admin Khan]

Assalam-Alaikum.

Greetings Amir al Ghaznavi,

I think your interlocutors made many outrageous and absurd claims. Kandaharis happy? They must have been living in a cave to make such an outrageous claim. In general, I think you had a pretty strong argument but you just didn't have enough time to elaborate on it.

You should have touched upon the fact that all NATO did was bring crooks to Afghanistan. Dostam? Rabbani? Are you telling me Hamid Karzai is all we have to offer? All we have had is corrupt Northern Alliance officials who don't represent Mazar-e-Sharif nor do they represent Kandahar. And all they are doing is ruling Afghanistan with an iron fist. They claim "Kandaharis are witnessing an improvement" and that is not true at all. Nearly every Kandahari is stressed because if they don't follow what Ahmad Wali Karzai says, they will be either tortured or dead.

Mark my words, had the USA brought people who had a geniune concern for their population, many would have not been bumping heads, the same way they are right now. We have political instability because the largest ethnic group is marginalized. Why didn't you mentioned that the very same ANA they are mentioning has little to no Pashtun representation? Pashtuns are victims of exoneration, when you have the largest ethnic group witnessing torture, can you blame them for joining the Taliban? It's evidently visible that many in that talk had a pejorative attitude with Taliban integration, but it's the only way out of this problem. Pashtuns are going to continue joining the Taliban when you have provinces like Ghazni who have 0 Pashtun representation.

I think you did an amazing job, and I am extremely proud of you.

[afghan]

you have done a great job. great points have been mentioned.

[Amir al Ghaznavi]

Assalam-Alaikum.

Greetings Amir al Ghaznavi,

I think your interlocutors made many outrageous and absurd claims. Kandaharis happy? They must have been living in a cave to make such an outrageous claim. In general, I think you had a pretty strong argument but you just didn't have enough time to elaborate on it.

You should have touched upon the fact that all NATO did was bring crooks to Afghanistan. Dostam? Rabbani? Are you telling me Hamid Karzai is all we have to offer? All we have had is corrupt Northern Alliance officials who don't represent Mazar-e-Sharif nor do they represent Kandahar. And all they are doing is ruling Afghanistan with an iron fist. They claim "Kandaharis are witnessing an improvement" and that is not true at all. Nearly every Kandahari is stressed because if they don't follow what Ahmad Wali Karzai says, they will be either tortured or dead.

Mark my words, had the USA brought people who had a geniune concern for their population, many would have not been bumping heads, the same way they are right now. We have political instability because the largest ethnic group is marginalized. Why didn't you mentioned that the very same ANA they are mentioning has little to no Pashtun representation? Pashtuns are victims of exoneration, when you have the largest ethnic group witnessing torture, can you blame them for joining the Taliban? It's evidently visible that many in that talk had a pejorative attitude with Taliban integration, but it's the only way out of this problem. Pashtuns are going to continue joining the Taliban when you have provinces like Ghazni who have 0 Pashtun representation.

I think you did an amazing job, and I am extremely proud of you.

walaikum salam wrora

believe me i wanted to say so much more but the structure and time wouldnt allow for it

the one canadian doctor actually denied there was pashtun marginalization

i actually did mention in the show that there is very little southern participation in the ana

on an interesting note, after the show i was asked by the ambassador where i was from in afghanistan

i told him i was from ghazni

he said where in ghazni

i told him Andar

and he all of a sudden went quite...cuz he knows what Andar is...one of the worst districts in all of afghanistan

so i said to him "so i hope you understand why i have the position that i do"

and he said yes, he understood

[BarakzaiAbdali]

http://www.ctstv.com/michaelcoren/?vidID=20828

considering my opinion isnt too popular here in Canada, I was under fire, but I think I held my ground well


feedback is welcome

You did wonderfully. However, the issue rests with your top notch honesty and even-handedness. You were up against two mouth pieces of NATOs presence in Afghanistan that were there to make sure all the truth you told would be neutralized with the same fallacious arguments that the Neocons make on this side of the border make to continue our presence there as well. It is hard to be so honest when confronting folks that have an agenda as opposed to a scholarly motivation like yours.

Their responses were pretty much: "The taliban are a fringe group because we say they are... they intimidate people because we say they do... etc."

You, my friend have entered the halls of honor inhabited by Matthew Hoh, Michael Scheuer, Dr. Paul and his son, as well as other folks who speak truth to power.

Look to be maligned pretty quickly for being so honest unless you are able to maintain the composure and speak in the same fashion as Scheuer.

You were beginning the argument regarding the massive number of troops actually needed to stabilize Afghanistan and just how incredibly short we fall of it, which was an excellent point. They were loathe to allow you to expand on it.

Here are two excellent quotes from Scheuer, in Marching Towards Hell that I am sure you have in that intellectual database of yours:

"And when during the presidential debate campaign one heard Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama pledge to send two more US brigades to Afghanistan to 'finish the job' one had to wonder if either man or his senior advisors ever looked up a map of the country. There about 6,000 soldiers in two US combat brigades and probably only half of them ar combatants--shooters if you will. Afghanistan is as big as Texas and shares a 2,600 km border with Pakistan. The Taliban can use about a third of Pakistan's territory--the Pashtun tribal region--for safe haven, training, and launching operations against NATO forces...When then could the two senators have been thinking? Were they both ignorant of geographical facts? ... Or were they simply trying to put off delivering to voters the news that saving Washingtons Afghan nation building project would require 200,000 or more troops and then would still have only the slightest chance of succeeding?

"Then, too, we have conducted the Afghan war with startlingly cavalier disregard for geographic realities. It is a country that is as big as Texas... how many troops do the US and NATO have in Afghanistan to defeat an accelerating insurgency? About fifty thousand at this writing. Yes, no kidding, fifty thousand. And in that total there are contingents-- Germans and Danes, for example-- whose rules of engagement make their primary tasks school-building, police training, and well digging, not combat mean to kill insurgents. Even among the national contingents most aggressively fighting the Taliban... the number of support personal today must be a larger percentage of the total force than was the case with the 120,000 man contingent that the Soviet Union fielded.... It always has surprised me that no one in the US media ever asks the US secretary of defense of charman of the joint chiefs of staff what the 'tooth to nail' ratio is for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, or in Iraq for that matter. I suspect that the actual number of combat troops that can be fielded on any given day is only the fraction of the fifty thousand man total and smaller than the reciprocal total for the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and their allies."

Your comments on Pakistan and its motivations were even handed and extremely astute.

However, I would only beg to differ on the current status. For all intents and purposes, the Afghan war is lost as opposed to a stalemate. Whether we leave in waves or all together tomorrow, the inevitable conclusion is that America has given Osama Bin Ladin and Mullah Omar the gift that keeps giving: an insurgency that can pick off the Western powers' soldier-children one by one. They need not hit the US and Canada on the homefront when they can continue to kill Americans and Canadians at their own pace right in their backyard.

Best of Luck for your future. If there is anything we can do to help you, send us a line.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

i went toe to toe with the former canadian ambassador to afghanistan and former number 2 at the un, chris alexander

he claims during this talk that sarajudin haqani was never in kabul...i couldnt respond...is this true?

By the way, its an honor to have you around. I did not know your affiliations previously and look forward to learning from you. I am amateur at this national security and security study stuff, its more of a hobby for me. Its good to know we have a tactician around.

[Admin Khan]

walaikum salam wrora

believe me i wanted to say so much more but the structure and time wouldnt allow for it

the one canadian doctor actually denied there was pashtun marginalization

I know, he was really speaking nonsense. I mean, I understand there is an improvement but you should have mentioned that Kandahar University is hardly functioning. You should have asked him about the importance of education,

You:"How important is education?"
Dr:"Very".
You:"Why is Kandahar University still struggling? Why are you spending millions in nonsense projects, such as building swimming pools for people in Arghandab[Yes, they are building swimming pools for the locals]don't you think developing educational institutions is more important?

And I am sure he would have understood your stance on this issue. I think the problem is that you were not well-versed with Kandahar, and all those Canadians knew a lot more, and by them mentioning districts of Kandahar, I am sure the viewers might think they actually "know what they were talking about". I beg to differ though, when the very same Kandahar has no functioning educational institutions, how do they expect to witness this "enlightenment" era? There are many more examples, but I really wish they could have gave you more air time.

i actually did mention in the show that there is very little southern participation in the ana

And I also love how you mentioned Pakistan's role in all this, you made many of your interlocutors ponder over what you were saying. Good job on that.

on an interesting note, after the show i was asked by the ambassador where i was from in afghanistan

i told him i was from ghazni

he said where in ghazni

i told him Andar

and he all of a sudden went quite...cuz he knows what Andar is...one of the worst districts in all of afghanistan

so i said to him "so i hope you understand why i have the position that i do"

and he said yes, he understood

You did great, you held your stance very well. And, you positioned yourself in a strong argument, however, you could have easily refuted everything they said about Kandahar in very simple terms.

Kandahar city has electricity for 5-6 hours per week.
Kandahar city has 1 'proper' university(college) and it serves over a million people since nearby students of Helmand also attend KU.
Kandahar residents are unhappy with Canadian presence because they don't understand their culture or way of living.

And you should have told them that it's not all about Kandahar, it's about the south. The South is uneducated because they have no schools. The south is resisting against you because they have witnessed you throw a ton of bombs and wipe a local village of Kandahar city off the map!

And if they don't buy your argument, you can ask them to take a camera to Kandahar, and interview the locals of the city. There are many videos that support your claims.

[کیش]

Good job.

I hate how non-Afghans act like they know more about Afghanistan then Afghans themselves.

The sirajuddin Haqqani talks were fake. siraj denied that. But, it's not your fault because that what the media said.

[Admin Khan]

Also, next time tell the local PF'ers about this. I am sure many of our think tanks here like BarakzaiAbdali, Pir_Rokhan and his likes would have helped you polishing your argument.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I know, he was really speaking nonsense. I mean, I understand there is an improvement but you should have mentioned that Kandahar University is hardly functioning. You should have asked me about the importance of education,

You:"How important is education?"
Dr:"Very".
You:"Why is Kandahar University still struggling? Why are you spending millions in nonsense projects, such as building swimming pools for people in Arghandab[Yes, they are building swimming pools for the locals]don't you think developing educational institutions is more important?

And I am sure he would have understood. I think the problem is that you were not well-versed with Kandahar, and all those Canadians knew a lot more, and by them mentioning districts of Kandahar, I am sure the viewers might think they actually "know what they were talking about". I beg to differ though, when the very same Kandahar has no functioning educational institutions, how do they expect to witness this "enlightenment" era? There are many more examples, but I really wish they could have gave you more air time.
And I also love how you mentioned Pakistan's role in all this, you made many of your interlocutors ponder over what you were saying. Good job on that.
You did great, you held your stance very well. And, you positioned yourself in a strong argument, however, you could have easily refuted everything they said about Kandahar in very simple terms.

Kandahar city has electricity for 5-6 hours per week.
Kandahar city has 1 'proper' university(college) and it serves over a million people since nearby students of Helmand also attend KU.
Kandahar residents are unhappy with Canadian presence because they don't understand their culture or way of living.

And you should have told them that it's not all about Kandahar, it's about the south. The South is uneducated because they have no schools. The south is resisting against you because they have witnessed you throw a ton of bombs and wipe a local village of Kandahar city off the map!

And if they don't buy your argument, you can ask them to take a camera to Kandahar, and interview the locals of the city. There are many videos that support your claims.

I would be surprised if the Canadian government, now as dominated by imperialists and interventionalists as the US government, has not noted this interview and given our friend here some undue trouble for being so frank.

[کیش]

Also, next time tell the local PF'ers about this. I am sure many of our think tanks here like BarakzaiAbdali, Pir_Rokhan and his likes would have helped you polishing your argument.

Yea, I didn't know some members here have positions to debate on Live TV.

[Admin Khan]

I would be surprised if the Canadian government, now as dominated by imperialists and interventionalists as the US government, has not noted this interview and given our friend here some undue trouble for being so frank.

Can you elaborate? I didn't quite get what you meant.


I think we should conduct our own little round-table. Me, BarakzaiAbdali, and a few other locals who reside nearby us should meet up.

I don't mind funding your trip down here to the east coast Amir al Ghaznavi.