People of Afghanistan need West’s help to survive
By Lethbridge Herald on January 19, 2022.
Editor:
We watch on television with heartbreak a million children in Afghanistan are grossly undernourished, many dying daily from starvation.
They have harrowed ittle faces, large haunted eyes, bones sticking out of their pale, wrinkled skin and swollen bellies due to prolonged hunger. I wonder what is their fault.
This is not just an Afghanistan crisis. It is a tragedy of humanity. We are all linked, interconnected through human bonds. How can we stand by and just watch or change the channel?
I have not heard of any action being taken by the Western powers to help the Afghans. They seem to have washed their hands off Afghanistan.
Twenty years ago the NATO forces, led by the U.S., had marched into Afghanistan to drive the Taliban out and save democracy in that nation. They spent billions of dollars on the unwinnable war. Today, the same Western nations are not prepared to spend million dollars to save Afghanese people. Why?
Because the West has imposed sanctions against the newly founded Taliban government. Have sanctions ever been successful in bringing about changes that we desire? No!
What sanctions actually do is to harm the citizens and make them suffer. The Taliban are not being punished by the sanctions. They are comfortable, have plenty of good food, clothing for the winter, shelter, money and power .
The Western powers must arouse their compassion and humanity and start negotiations with the Taliban to create conditions for supply of food and clothing to the starving and shivering Afghan people and their children.
Organizations like UNICEF, Red Cross, Oxfam and other food agencies would be ready to execute the task .
The whole of humanity is a part of us. We cannot be happy if millions out there are suffering and we have the knowledge that given enough will, we can help.
A fraction of money that NATO spent in saving democracy in Afghanistan can save millions of hapless Afghans from untold suffering and pain .
I know that we are suffering from the COVID crisis here at home but but we must realize that Afghan people are going through a much greater tragedy.
Ramma Sawhney
Lethbridge
15-14
Good heavens, the WEST has been in Afghanistan for over 20 years trying in every way to help establish democracy, human rights, schools and more BUT Afghans didn’t buy into it and now they have the Taliban. It’s time we stopped meddling in other countries affairs and let them determine for themselves what they really want. Continually playing the role of rescuer does not help. Now Afghans have the Taliban and they are crying for help. And of course its *Western* help they want – always Western help. IF the West would open it’s doors, most of their country would empty out and make a bee line for the Western world; for a free ride. The western world is what it is because over the centuries we have fought for democracy, freedom of speech and so on. Bringing in a people that hold an archaic ideology dear to their hearts is risky and irresponsible. Better that we leave them where they are and let them self determine and *fight* as we have for whatever ideals they believe in. And, IF we give help it should be from the safety of our own country; we should not ever put our people on their soil and subject them to the horrors of their war.
Sad reality is that many people there need help,but with the talibanners in control they would abuse and misuse anything in the form of aid.
what has the illegal afghanistan venture cost to date – measure it in trillions of dollars and countless lives upended and ruined? recall the propaganda, where a sick child was pandered to the cameras for the world to see – brought to canada for a specialised operation with great fanfare, even as the child cue-jumped the long line of canadians already too long waiting their turn here. yes indeedy! the grandness of western civilisation was going to be brought to afghanistan, at all costs, even it meant bringing the relative handful here.
we had no business there – the usa had no business there – and neither did the ussr before that, and the ongoing host of other nations committing crimes against humanity in that country over the ongoing decades. need one be reminded of the adage, clean up your backyard…?