"Harmful Western Activities"
The Taliban today attacked the offices of Counterpart International, an American NGO, in Kabul, Afghanistan. As is their method of operation, the attack commenced with a suicide bomber breaching the front gate with other armed attackers moving in behind and entering the building.
The Taliban Spokesperson in claiming responsibility for the attack claimed Counterpart was involved in “harmful Western activities inside Afghanistan.” He described the group as a “U.S. network” — indicating it was singled out because it is an American-led organization. He went on to say that Counterpart employed “40 to 50 foreign advisers” who he said had worked in “various aspects of brutality, oppression, terror, anti-Islamic ideology and promotion of Western culture.”
I have worked in Afghanistan for ten years for various NGO’s funded by the U.S. government (and other Western governments) designing and implementing nation-building programs after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. As such, I was part of a “U.S. network” that was involved in “harmful western activities inside Afghanistan” and the “promotion of Western culture.” These “harmful activities” included: supporting elections, promoting women’s’ rights, establishing rule of law, building the capacity of government, working with religious leaders to promote tolerance, and supporting higher education.
For the past 150 years Afghanistan has been subjected to repeated “harmful Western activities” beginning with the British invasions of 1842 and 1880 followed by the “westernizing reforms” of Afghan King Amanullah in the 1920’s to the communist revolution and Soviet occupation in the 1980’s. The most recent and sustained assault of “harmful Western activities” started after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and has continued to the present day as part of the whole “nation-building” exercise funded and implemented by a coalition of Western countries.
Quite honestly, all of these “harmful Western activities” have failed miserably, whether its military interventions or the naïve attempt to change Afghan culture and society from the outside by imposing superficial Western institutions and values, as Counterpart was accused by the Taliban of doing.
Afghan culture and society is at war with itself to determine what it will be and what values will guide it into the future. It is indeed “harmful” to intrude on this process. Afghan’s themselves can only decide what their country will look like. This has been and will continue to be a painful and violent process, but it’s only made worse by the outside meddling of U.S.-funded organizations like Counterpart International and the dozens of other western organizations working inside Afghanistan, no matter how well-intended.