rambling with the forces in caubul -using cartoon propaganda to sell the us:isaf occupation by peter...

8/8/2019 Rambling With the Forces in Caubul -Using Cartoon Propaganda to Sell the US:ISAF Occupation by Peter Torbay

1/9

is active in international d

writes for Arakozia Publishing Surghar W

working along with Arakozia on media ca

forthcoming bookDiminution and Develo

final publication approval by Algora Publis

Rambling with

Using Cartoon Propaga

Afghanistan is the perfect neo

baby, and a perfect neo-conservati

is a joke going around in politicalWe are spending ourselves into o

a command joke in the US military

How did we get into this emergen

cost-creep, now a $160 billion/yea

I will suggest in this article that th

occupation has failed to achieve it

stated objectives in Afghanistan,

America waits for the Global Wa

paroxysm to end before the US ecrebuild, that as Americans we at le

Afghan peoples restoration of thei

not reconstruction of their homes a

Its more than simply strategic ob

situational analysis. The US:ISA

standup central authority in Kab

up by an Afghan Army and provin

isfundamentally flawed! If you wa

clear prognosis, look at our neighbTheir government, army and provi

are powerless to control the interna

cartels, rampant kidnappings and

Their economy is in ruins. Thats A

evelopment,

ekly, and is

paigns. His

pment, is in

hing, NY.

the Forces in Cau

da to Sell the US:ISAF Occup

-liberal tar

ve lab rat,

circles, as,blivion, is

these days.

y funding

blowout!?

e US:ISAF

officially-

and while

on Terror

onomy canast owe the

dignity, if

d lands.

ectives or

model for

l, propped

cial militia

nt a crystal

r, Mexico.cial militia

tional drug

executions.

ghanistan.

But first lets define, what is A

Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone,

Account of the Kingdom of Cau

Afghanistan in 1808-10, one

behalf of the British East I

describes, Taujiks, Hindkees,

Burrukees, Poormoolees, Si

Awauns, Paruanchehs, Hindo

Shulmanunees living there a

of the melting pot which Af

already become under Shah D

monarchy fully organized byyears before USA achieved its i

Afghanistan was an historically

ul

ation

fghanistan?

in his epic, An

bul, mission to

undertaken on

dia franchise,

Cohistaunees,

dehees, Juts,

os, Deggauns,

s an indication

ghanistan had

rranis rule, a

1747, some 30ndependence.

stable nation!


2/9

Then why does Western media to

Afghanistan with passive, jingoist

failed state, corrupt dictatorshipmafia? Self-proclaimed realpol

pundits should be imaging a Lon

Dresden Fire Storm, even New

Thirty years of foreign occupatio

war deliberately destroyedthe Afgh

Like the quip goes: 'subject, verb

The real failed state is the state of

War on Terror, whose military san

to kill or capture Osama bin Laden

al-Qaida sanctuary in the Afgh

That was State-Defense slogan,

in Afghanistan until we capture

Laden! So we are now obliged to

Bin Laden Corpse Cult with tithe-

and indefinitely occupy Afghanist

Colonialists, while the insurgency

under our hegemonic sanctuary fr

The colonial framework Britain c

which Ben Hopkins terms in The

Modern Afghanistan as the "El

episteme', in subtle ways went on t

own concept of Afghanistan, a

from English preoccupation with c

dating back to the AD 1600s,

pointedly refers to in works of Indi

historian Jyotsna Singh:

In her book, Colonial Narrativ

Dialogues, Singh introduces and

post-colonial model to describe

modern English encounter with

(as well Afghanistan). Singh begin

with an invocation of the trope of

deployed by European writers to de

lands and cultures as open and r

constructions of the cultural other

ay refer to

slurs as a

or narco-itik media

don Blitz,

iroshima.

and civil

an state!

, 9/11.'

our Global

tions were

and deny

n region.

e will stay

or kill bin

orship the

tax dollars,

an as Neo

is growing

amework.

onstructed,

akings of

hinstonian

shape our

nd derives

olonialism,

hich Aune

an political

es/Cultural

develops a

the early

ogul India

s her study

discovery

pict distant

eceptive to

.

What is important for Singh is

of discovery allowed the Britis

privileged epistemological pos they could claim new kno

could then be re-constituted

binaries of civilized / barbaro

modernity and Christianity / he

These binaries, as they app

travel writing of India, constitut

imagination which discovers

demarcations of identity and

binaries such as civilized and

So who is civilized and who is

extensively detailed in my D

Developmenthow US:ISAF in

its own trope, that of the faile

can only be saved by occupatio

then resource exploitation, m

self-help redevelopment, whil

Taliban insurgency as Islamof

justification for a continued o

an inexorably growing US war

how the trope

to gain a

ition, wherebyledge which

s the colonial

us, tradition /

thendom.

ar in English

e a colonizing

new lands via

difference

barbarous.

arbarous? Ive

iminution and

asion employs

d state, which

n, pacification,

squerading as

e it demonizes

ascist Jihad in

ccupation, and

ppropriations.


3/9

In preparation for that prolonged occupation,

war propagandists laid out their plan described

in a US Army War College thesis by Peter L.

Burnett Jr., titledInformation Operations:

During the initial attack against Afghanistan,

the Afghan peoples views of America were

negative primarily due to a lack of knowledge

the people possessed regarding the attack. The

Taliban government and the leadership of al-

Qaida tried to convince the people of

Afghanistan that America was attacking thereligious faith of the Afghan nation. The

Taliban government and the al-Qaida

networks goal was to gain the support of the

Afghan population, the political will of the

people, and to promote hatred toward any

American effort in Afghanistan.

"Using PSYOP as a tool, America was able to

reach the people through leaflets, food,

broadcast coordination, use of coalition

forces, and good deeds to prove America

was not attacking their religious faith, but was

attacking terrorist activities. The PSYOP

efforts cast a brighter light regarding

Americas efforts in Afghanistan, regardless

of Americas efforts or explanation.

The problem with that is we believed our own

PSYOP! Americans are being led to believe

their own myths. An RT News stream from AlJazeera citing CBS News, says, Corruption

is the biggest enemy in Afghanistan. Its much,

much bigger than the Taliban. Its much,

much bigger than al-Qaida.

Corruption, of course, isnt an insurrectionist

movement. You cant drop Hellfire missiles

from loitering UAVs on corruption, like you

can on an Afghan wedding party. You cant

clear and hold as ~28% of Afghan nationalincome is skimmed for bahksheesh! And you

cant rebrand ballot-stuffing as certified and

legitimate, ...even for the leading contender.

My point is not to belittle the US:ISAF effort,

even with the now $1 trillion in unfunded war

deficit that our children will have to refinance,

but to emphasize what Hamid Karzai himself

warned before his 2004 election the problem

of corruption. Ashraf Ghani made the samepoint in 2009. Customs tax levies are being

skimmed, perhaps 1/3rd never reaching Kabul;

looting of public lands by provincial and

security officials is in 1,000s ofjeribs every

day; imports are denatured, in the raw quality

of Afghan fuel; construction and purchase

contracts are awarded to government cronies

in the Karzai State media and primary industry

monopolies; and of course, the drug cartels.

International drug cartels have taken ~$560

billion out of Afghanistan in eight years post-

Taliban, (before which poppy growing was

prohibited), according to Ghani. Of this, $18

billion was skimmed off by drug warlords in

the Group of Twenty Families, and the

Kabul Administrations Group of 100.

National Security Emergency Funding

$0

$50

$100

$150

$200

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

(Bs)


4/9

We have conflated the Taliban wit

and confused the Afghan peoples

jihad. We have dug ourselves a grand poured $300+ billion dollars

time for a visceral rebranding cam

for ourselves, and for the Afghan p

The essence of good branding is

high expectations with your cust

consistently meeting them. The ea

attempts by US:ISAF for OEF-A

demanded that our Afghan cons

over fellow Afghans, war heroesUS:ISAF occupying armies, in ret

greenbacks, saying, Render unto

due and well throw you a sawbuc

and well carpet bomb you ... have

The flaw in that PSYOP was that

2/3rds of Afghans arefunctionall

Confronted by a happy-up leaflet

Afghan unity, rural Afghans had n

it said or meant, they apparently tcoalitions dove of peace logo,

an Afghan map, was a coupon for a

Were missing a big propaganda o

Where the US and Soviet Union s

employed cartoon and cinematic

during and after WWII to indoct

populations towards the war effort

front, they employed gross exagger

h al-Qaida

ith Islamic

at big holeinto it. Its

paign, both

oples.

stablishing

mers, then

rly PSYOP

essentially

mers turn

at that, tourn for US

Caesar his

; resist US

nice day.

more than

illiterate!

promoting

idea what

hought theampant on

pigeon!

pportunity.

uccessfully

ropaganda

rinate their

and home

ation of the

enemies physical features, an

black-and-white images their i

world domination; as US:ISAopportunity as a beards, butch

meme and looming Jihadi Cali

Frank Capra's Why We Fightp

series convinced Americans to

but nowhere is that home fron

represented today; this Glob

Action on Islamic Jihad is a 6

bite, no need to get up off your

passive vein, Afghan political c

primarily with satirical pers

within the overweening theme

That Afghan sense of humor i

which they cut through their

despair, as in their adherence to

distilled into

ntent of total

does at everyers and birqas

phate threat.

opaganda film

oin the Allies,

t thematically

l Contingency

-oclock sound

couch! In that

artoonists deal

nality politics

f corruption.

s a knife with

wilderness of

Pashtunwali.


5/9

Here is the issue: China and the So

whose populations were also largel

successfully mobilized through

propaganda campaigns, using bann

cartoon) and cinematic animation

accomplish truly unprecedented r

the face of far, far worse wartime c

In Afghanistans case, their populalargely illiterate, but there is no p

campaign to mobilize them in supp

the Karzai government, nor US:I

the Afghan peoples activated, and

gendarme are only in it for the afgh

Marc Herold, in his Afghanistan A

Space, argues to the same point, th

in Afghanistan is one of clearing

viet Union,

y illiterate,

remendous

r (patriotic

medias, to

sistance in

nditions.

tion is alsoropaganda

rt! Neither

AF, wants

ANA/ANP

ani.

An Empty

t our war

nd holding

the resource space for systemat

and US:ISAF has no intention

doling out from a $100 billionsbeyond bigger prisons, bigger

trucking contracts to warlord m

But what if that fails? What if

Karzai now ~50% of Afghan ai

work, and corruption begins to

and human services as the do

reconstruction becomes just

rampant looting spreads and

left just another drug cartel sho

Secretary of State Clinton, sp

to AIPAC before the Israeli-Pa

Talks, made that same coge

Hegemony is a stasis, unwinna

inexorable long march of demo

Lets look at some propaganda

Online streaming video (digitiz

at the University of Pennsylvan

Afghanistan, taken before So

in 1979, clearly shows a pastor

untroubled, untrammelled villa

ic exploitation,

whatsoever of

year franchise,ases and more

afia monopoly.

the US gifting

funds doesnt

drag on health

inoes fall, the

a hollow joke,

Afghanistan is

oting gallery?

aking recently

lestinian Peace

t observation:

ble against the

raphics.

artoon ideas.

ed film) found

ias archive on

iet occupation

al land with an

e life.


6/9

Afghan boys riding on burros, and

reading. Above them, a didactic A

Who wouldnt ask, What do theLearn to Read, evoking in every

desire for knowledge. Mission acco

National Geographic archives of

husbandry and artisanal crafts, pr

occupation, show Afghanistan as

Central Asian economy, but 2/3rds

are so young they have no memo

peace or prosperity. Soon that

better times will be lost, as the elde

If we mobilize Afghan peoples n

homeland issues, diminution of th

Wahhabist Warm War might tak

future rehabilitation of a stable a

Afghan society would inevitably re

benefitting tens of millions of war r

Art becomes memory. This art s

and educate the people, inspire the

progressive freedoms and also mar

jihadi reactionaries. Better than

store obsession with technology,

by the lack of quality schools

teachers in Afghanistan, is the op

reawaken human dignity using visu

along with emotion-laden language

one clearly

rabic hook.

ords say?Afghan the

mplished.

agriculture,

cticed pre-

a thriving

of Afghans

y of either

emory of

s die off.

w towards

US:ISAF-

place, and

nd ordered

ommence,

efugees.

ould unite

truggle for

inalize the

our candy-

self-limited

nd trained

ortunity to

l scaffolds

heuristics.

Its important to recall the Isla

Afghan peoples served the Dur

for two centuries prior to the an

whose pogroms inured the Afg

(anti) religious interference in t

Re-emphasizing individual pi

faith in God, as against the Tal

oppressive mullahs and reactio

could marginalize jihadists, w

warring against the Islamic fait

That approach of promoting lit

social mores of Pashtunwali, t

which guides everyday life i

counters the lure of easy mon

enabled by the narco-mafia dri

reaching up to the highest level

international drug purveyors.B

propaganda campaign with her

The Chinese Socialist Educati

propaganda poster format was

Central Party attempted to

peasant class against any retur

or the emergence of capitalis

draw like the Afghan drug t

ic faith of the

ani aristocracy

ti-God Soviets,

han peoples to

eir commerce.

ty and direct

iban dogma of

ary Wahhabis,

ithout directly

itself.

eracy with the

he moral code

Afghanistan,

ey in poppies,

ing that trade,

s in Kabul and

ut it requires a

oic vision.

on Movement

devised as the

inoculate the

to feudalism,

, a monetary

rade today. If


7/9

Afghan cartoonists like Bashir Bak

motivated to create this heroic

propaganda, what might that lookChinese models from poster media

promoting agriculture and industria

A well-made and heroic propagand

breaks down great, complicated c

even children or non-literates can

and presents this new reality in

captivating way. Probably the m

propaganda poster in history, until

that of the young Chairman Mao,fearless revolutionary, full of charis

But President Karzai doesnt enjo

Maos charisma. He fought as a

agent in Peshawar and Quetta, at

joining the Taliban as their UN A

No heroic figure there, just a savv

And if Afghans held reverence for

Mohammad Zahir as a central figu

reverence must have died during tof occupations and civil war, and

with the Shahs demise in 2007. U

charismatic leader seizes the hel

US:ISAF cant wait until 2014),

strategies for Afghanistan should n

personalities, (everyone versus eve

on the collective memory as a form

Economic survival is a primary c

war radically changed the AfghanGiving attention, fame and recog

particular person may cause other

turn against them, even when t

disagreement. Likewise, turning

individual leader may provoke oth

sympathy and support. The best

this is now that British and Ame

outlets have turned against Presid

his weaknesses and lack of le

htiari were

home-front

like, usingcampaigns

lization?

a campaign

oncepts so

nderstand,

n exciting,

st popular

Obama, is

shown as ama.

Chairman

expatriate

one point

mbassador.

politician.

their Shah

ehead, that

e 30 yearseen buried

less a new

, (and the

ropaganda

ot focus on

ryone), but

r empire.

oncern and

ersonality.nition to a

relatives to

here is no

against an

er peoples

xample of

rican news

ent Karzai,

dership in

curbing corruption was replace

renewal of popularity among A

There is another reason to avoi

and emphasis abundant pride;

prohibits idolatry. You cant tu

street in the US without seeing

on a cross, or traverse an urban

Asia without some smiling Bu

reliance gave Mao a great lea

promoting his political agenda.

experience with the cartoon sla

Mohammed (pbuh) bears outpropaganda with wild-eyed sai

patriarchs, ...just focus on natio

As the Chinese art form advan

workers to Produce more! Co

d by a sudden

ghans!

d hero worship

Muslim faith

n down a side-

Jesus hanging

square in East

ddha, and that

advantage in

But the Danish

der of Prophet

a caution: nonts or bearded

al pride.

ced, exhorting

tribute more!


8/9

during the Building the People's

phase, high-quality propaganda e

determined collective will becaIt may be the Chinese Great Lea

time period which has the greatest

mine for Afghanistan propaganda

primary emphasis mellowed from

beyond collective will, to abundant

Imaging Abundance is a powerfu

use in Afghanistan today, ust as t

Attraction wealth propaganda a

millions of faithful adherents in

Weekly broadsheets providing fo

posters are used in campaign adve

theres no organized effort to m

Afghans towards that collective me

though the Karzais already consol

Republic

mphasizing

e popular.p Forward

potential to

when the

the heroic,

pride:

l model for

he Law of

cumulated

the West.

r news and

rtising. Yet

obilize the

mory, even

idated their

own State-approved media a

need to use propaganda, as lo

protects him. That should not st

As the situation exists, US:ISA

supporting a corrupted national

Kabul, and building a mercena

to protect it. The national gov

off of resource royalties and

trade import tariffs, drugs and

Micro-scale humanitarian acco

village schools, borehole well

cant solve the crisis of an ecollapse, millions living in tent

tens of millions living without j

No matter how often our US St

hectors that the Afghan presid

were certified and legitimate

and certified, a likely outcom

compromise with thejihadis, t

diminution of US:ISAF occupa

colossal political vacuum, fraug

Ahead of that 2009 election,

companies were ready to set

disseminate posters and broads

in the country, at a saturation ra

week and for as little as $1.0

on media proposals that I was

We hold the power to pre-em

vacuum now, providing cartoon

propaganda, in order to re-anim

peoples towards voicing their

instead of passively accepting t

being subsumed by Talibs an

America holds arguably the b

system in the world, the mos

media and most highly develop

yet weve shared none of it wit

at a time when they need it the

m. He has no

g as US:ISAF

op us trying.

occupation is

government in

ry police force

rnment thrives

landlord taxes,

aid baksheesh.

plishments of

s and latrines

tire society ins on alms, and

obs or income.

te Department

ntial elections

and legitimate

is for Karzai

en the gradual

tion, leaving a

ht with peril.

Afghan media

up, print and

eets anywhere

te of 100,000 a

apiece, based

involved with.

tively fill that

and cinematic

ate the Afghan

own dialectic,

he Karzais, or

d Wahhabists.

st educational

t sophisticated

d propaganda,

h Afghanistan,

ost.


9/9

The US has already spent nearly $

deficit war dollars building simula

villages at CAMOUT RG-220,nine Palms Marine Base, Californi

empty concrete buildings filled wit

castoffs, make-believe market stall

trucked-in actors and catering tr

US:ISAF troops can practice killin

The Afghan peoples social culture

deconstructed from traditional agr

to a conservative Islamic Wahhabi

mobilize them against the form

Now they are bereft of any cultural

We should demand that of the $

slathered around for GWOT, that

Administration invoke the 1% for

Law, and mandate $1.6 billion of t

for cartoon and/or cinematic artw

Afghan peoples, produced by the

talents of Disney, Industrial Light

James Cameron, Peter Jackson, an

Afghans living and working in the

All that collective talent could p

distribute Afghan collective memo

cartoon poster media that would

viewers weep, and put the Taliban

73 million

ted Afghan

t Twenty-, a prop of

GoodWill

, staffed by

cks, where

Afghans.

was totally

rian norms

t stance, to

r Soviets.

memories!

160 billion

the Obama

Public Arts

at be spent

ork for the

remendous

& Magic,

expatriate

US today.

oduce and

ry film and

ake world

o shame.

This land is Afghanistan - I

pride of every Afghan

The land of peace, the land o- Its sons are all brave

This is the country of every t

of Baluch, and Uzbeks

Pashtoons, and Hazaras - T

Tajiks with them,

Arabs and Gojars, Pamirian,

Nooristanis

Barahawi, and Qizilbash - A

andPashaye

This Land will shine for eversun in the blue sky

In the chest of Asia - It will r

the heart for ever

We will follow the one God -

Allah is great, we all say, All

Like much of 21st Century A

new Afghan national anthem,

new national leader and new

Minerals Laws, were crafted byimposed on the Afghan people

the anthem were written in W

and the music was composed in

language of the anthem is Pash

that of the Taliban, and not spo

We have the talent to resto

Dream. To paraphrase Gregory

in his novel, Shantaram, the ch

between hating the Taliban anAfghan peoples, (though neithe

to do with 9/11), can beco

school morality tale of helpin

Or we can be remembered like

lumbering, top-heavy Goliath,

and economy soon disintegrate

bankrupt blowout of police-stat

The choice is still ours!

is the

f the sword

ibe - Land

rkman and

lso Aimaq,

- Like the

emain as

We all say,

ah is great

ghanistan, the

even as their

ydrocarbon &

US:ISAF then. The lyrics of

shington, DC,

Germany. The

to, the same as

en in Kabul!

e the Afghan

David Roberts

ices we make,

forgiving ther had anything

e our Sunday

the helpless.

the Soviets, a

whose culture

d in a morally

kleptocracy.

rambling with the forces in caubul -using cartoon propaganda to sell the us:isaf occupation by peter...

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