WikiLeaks Holds a Mirror to Afghanistan

Havoc broke loose a few days ago when WikiLeaks exposed the government negligence, inexcusable treatment of civilians, innocent lives sacrificed to security concerns and corrupt government relations characterizing the situation in Afghanistan. Actually, this release did not tell us anything new. Accounts of the war from 2004 to 2009 have already provided ample information on these kinds of incidents. Still, the documents and images released by WikiLeaks have had an unmatched affect. These documents shed new light on the dirty war that is becoming the norm in Afghanistan. It is unclear whether this will effect a change in the position of the political leadership, but it will no doubt affect public opinion.

They Could Count as War Crimes

A large number of human rights violations have been committed in Afghanistan. Furthermore, it is an exaggeration to say that some of these crimes could constitute evidence for war crimes. First of all, it is important to note that these releases have not only seen reactions from anti-war activists but have also precipitated passionate reactions from a large section of the international media.

Leaving aside the many crimes committed by the Taliban, the many stories of civilians killed by NATO irresponsibility is enough. Buses riddled with machine gun fire, the killing of a deaf man when he did not stop upon being called to halt, Polish NATO forces’ completely unjustified, revenge-motivated attack on a wedding in a village that had earlier been involved in an attack … the list goes on. In the documents, civilian deaths are a prominent fixture, but it is clear that most civilian deaths are never reported.

The releases cover the period just before Obama’s inception of the AfPak strategy. After the WikiLeaks release, the Obama White House condemned the leak, saying that it endangered U.S. troops and threatened national security. At the same time, this could be an advantage in terms of exposing Pakistan’s two-faced policies, of which the U.S. has previously expressed suspicion. In short, WikiLeaks has shown us the true face of the reality in Afghanistan. These images and documents stand in stark contradiction to Karzai’s portrayal of the situation in Afghanistan at the Kabul Conference. Despite the transparency of the situation, many Western media outlets continue to portray the situation in a misleading way. This is obviously no basis for the perception that stability and order is being won. In Afghanistan nothing is working. The increasing violence is a major obstacle to a return to normalcy. Every day we continue to see news of dozens of bombs and hundreds of deaths.