“..Interference by the U.S. in the internal affairs of Afghanistan has been a tragic chapter in our nation’s history.
Over three decades ago, there were social movements in Afghanistan to improve the standard of living of its people, to provide greater equality for women ..
.. and there was a functioning, if imperfect, democracy.
However the U.S., using subversion, weapons and money was able, as the leader of coalition of nations, to stop progress in these areas of human welfare.
In fact, the gains that had already been made were actually reversed.
By 2010 the economic and social status of Afghans has been set back generations; ..
.. women’s status has deteriorated to such an extent that the prevalence of self-immolation has increased among discouraged women ..
.. and there is no democracy now .. with the U.S. making major decisions as an occupying power.
With President Obama’s recently announced military buildup, our nation’s leaders are on the verge of doing the virtually impossible –
- making the situation even worse.
But the most cataclysmic aspect of this chronology of events is that the U.S. and the world are less safe ..
.. since the image of the U.S. in the world is that of the world’s leading military power ..
.. attacking possibly the poorest nation on earth.
Afghanistan in the late 1970s was a predominantly poor, rural and moderate Muslim nation.
Although they were second class citizens, women were allowed to unveil and had the right to vote.
From 1933-1978 women started to enter the workforce and become teachers, nurses and even politicians.
They worked to end illiteracy and forced marriages.
Most of these advances were mostly in Kabul, the most modern and populous city in Afghanistan ..
.. although in most of the rural areas women were treated as property.
In the 1970s Afghanistan also had serious economic problems, one of which the concentration of ownership of most of the land in the hands of tribal and religious leaders (mullahs).
Only 3% of the rural population owned 75% of the land.
Labor unions were legalized, a minimum wage and a progressive income tax were established .. and a separation of church and state was adopted.
Then, in the latter years of that decade various progressive and communist groups struggled over how to modernize Afghanistan and resolve these inequities.
Unfortunately, their efforts to introduce changes involved a degree of coercion and violence directed mainly toward those living in areas outside of Kabul where the vast majority of the population lived in mountainous, rural and tribal areas ..
.. where there was an exceptionally high rates of illiteracy.
Steps to redistribute land were initiated but were met by objections from those who had monopoly ownership of land.
It was the revolutionary government’s granting of new rights to women that pushed orthodox Muslim men in the Pashtun villages of eastern Afghanistan into picking up their guns.
Even though some of those changes had been made only on paper .. some said that they were being made too quickly.
According to these opponents, the government said their women had to attend meetings and that their children had to go to school.
Since they believed that these changes threatened their religion .. they were convinced that they had to fight.
So an opposition movement started at that point which became known as the Mujahideen, ..
.. an alliance of conservative Islamic groups..”
go to source/story>> America’s 30 Year War On Afghanistan  : Information Clearing House - ICH
