Reports from a number of central and eastern provinces of Afghanistan indicate establishment of a grassroots movement against Taliban's tyranny. They further report successes achieved by the movement in a number of villages from where Taliban have been expelled. This is a new and welcome development.

Military of the most modern dimensions, not by one nation but by a large coalition of nations numbering more than forty, was not able to produce peace and bring security to the central Asian nation of Afghanistan. Many have tried and are still trying to find the reasons for this failure. Very few if any have pointed to the flawed policies and plans in conducting the costly war on terror fought for over a decade and efforts for establishing real peace there. Even fewer people have mentioned the fact that the war was conducted without involvement of the people of Afghanistan and unfortunately in many instances because of the collateral damage or ill-planned tactics the civilians became casualties and victims. This, in the course of the decade, pushed the people away from the military and even from their own government that could but was not able to coordinate the course of war.

The government by itself did not and could not be effective as it shared power with a huge international military fighting a war on its land on their own rules without respect to the authority of the government. Thus the president who was claimed to have been elected through democratic principles remained a leader in name when it came to the issue of war on terror. This tore away the nation from its government and leaders further as on the one hand corruption ate deep into the matrix of the society and the government remained impotent as to relieving the pressing problems of the people that included in addition to corruption, unemployment, poverty, foreign intervention by greedy neighbors and regional and international powers on the other.

This column has consistently referred to the need for a non-military solution. It has consistently referred to using education and the use of the mass media of communication to enlighten the people as to distinguishing their real enemies. This will empower them to participate in the war against the perpetrators of reaction, discord and enemies of progress and development. In the absence of government initiatives and its failure to find workable solutions to the problems of insecurity, recently a grassroots movement has started to take shape in the provinces of Ghazni, Logar, Paktya, Nangrahar, Kunar and Laghman. It is reported that in a number of villages in these provinces that are located in central and eastern parts of the country villagers themselves finding Taliban schemes of burning girl schools, health centers and damaging of the infrastructure together with acts of terror in the form of suicidal attacks and planting of road side explosive devices and mines, to be against the greater interests of the country and its people have joined hands to launch an armed movement they call the National Uprising Movement. It is also reported that their movement has scored successes against the Taliban and have resulted in the expulsion of Taliban elements from the villages.

While the movement needs time to expand and score further successes in achieving security in their respective areas reclaiming freedom from Taliban and their threat, it has to be noted that it wants to keep its distance from the government of Afghanistan and wants not to rely on governmental arms and assistance. The reason it has given is the inefficiency and impotence of government to the degree that the participants of the movement believe whatever is touched by the government turns into evil. This is definitely an F-mark for the central government of Afghanistan that has not been able to enjoy the trust of its own people.

However, a mass campaign via means of mass media of communication will be very effective in exposing the real threat of the Taliban and the insurgency, advertising the bold action of the members of the movement in the aforementioned provinces and encouraging the population at large to ponder over the real facts. As it is, one hardly finds any reference in the media to the reactionary ideas of Taliban, the ignorance of its one-eyed mullah leader who even in religious terms cannot be considered a religious scholar as he has never published any research or work on Islam and the schemes of Taliban that have produced nothing useful for the country except injuring its infrastructure, putting its population under threat of severe and unreasonable punishments and killing its innocent sons and daughters.

Therefore this movement can eventually be part of a remedy that is devised by the people for the people and put into action by them without the influence of any foreign power or foreign interest. Other parts of such a remedy would have to be worked out by the national and international powers and would definitely include methods of verifiably halting foreign intervention in the affairs of the country by its neighbors and its enemies everywhere and means of unifying the nation under principles of equality and patriotism, thus paving the grounds for a prosperous Afghanistan that would be enabled to utilize its vast economic assets. 08/28/2012