History is written by the winners... all of them.

May 2007 – The supposed peace in Afghan
istan (since the invasion was over after a few weeks 5 years ago) has been the context of many more deaths for the Taliban, Afghanis and coalition soldiers. Wave after wave of terrorist attacks by the Taliban insurgents have randomly caused terror for the troops there. From RPG rocket launches on convoys, aircraft and bases to the harmless looking child concealing an explosive; military powers are rather helpless when faced against unorganised and marginal attacks. These cowardly acts are marginal only since they are not a concentrated effort at killing all “invaders” or at destroying established coalition bases but are rather an attempt at pure and simple terrorism as a means of intimidation. In terms of human loss, each casualty has been the opposite of marginal, devastating and bone-chilling for families and nations alike. Since the entrance of coalition forces, major contributors to the “peace initiative” in Afghanistan, apart from the very busy United States, have been Canada with a reported 54 fatalities, England with a reported 41 fatalities and Spain with 82 reported fatalities (62 of which were from a plane crash of relieved soldiers over Turkey).

If you have followed the news as I have, you have not seen headlines such as “Afghanistan on the verge of peace”, “Taliban drop arms and begin talks”, “Canadian soldier brings a 24 case of Molson beer to Taliban headquarters – hostilities over”. We rather see headlines about a friendly fire incident, increasing political and economic anarchy for Afghanis and the unwavering resolution of the “evildoers”. Despite the grim state of headlines that you might expect, these always announce crushing victories of the coalition against the terrorists or the hope of a better tomorrow. The thing is, the same thing can be seen an Al Jazeera TV about the Taliban. They declare great victories when a child has killed two Spaniards or with a grenade or hit Camp Kandahar with a rocket, injuring several British soldiers. They also parade slogans of hope for their cause.

Yes, CNN, FoxNews, The BBC, Reuters and the Associated Press dwarf the media conglomerate of Al Jazeera but the state of the matter is that both media forces reach hundreds of millions of peoples and Al Jazeera reaches the ones that are really impacted and influenced in the Middle-East. If history is written by the winners, it is here being written by two different victors of the same conflict.

Not to cheapen the proposed topic but a historical parallel is inescapable. The very first written peace treaty that we know of is referred to as the Treaty of Qadesh. In 1214BC, The 19^th Egyptian Dynasty (The famous pharaoh Ramses the 2^nd) ended a dynastic war with the Hittite peoples of Anatolia (modern day Turkey). Wars between the two had been fought long and hard over a common border holding many natural resources, Coele-Syria (modern day Lebanon and Israel). You can see how this region has had it rough for much longer than anyone can remember. The obvious parallel with the current media dichotomy is that we have two copies of this treaty. The Egyptians, especially under Ramses II, were great scribes and raging histrionics so we have many surviving inscriptions, carvings and papyri of their gracious and merciful offer of peace towards the defeated Hittites. On the other hand, The Hittites of Anatolia were eradicated by a demographic shift in the 1100s BC so little is preserved. Nonetheless, a single copy of the Treaty of Qadesh has been found and deciphered to say that their merciful Hittite leader demanded and obtained an advantageous peace offering to the defeated pharaoh. Everyone wins!

Jokes aside, our soldiers are still dying for a peace that the Taliban fight, the Afghanis don’t want and the Middle East is very skeptical about. Furthermore, civilians are used as peons for the intimidation game and the Taliban are convinced that they are fighting for the most virtuous and righteous reasons.

No end in sight…unfortunately. Although this commentary in no way states that the efforts of the coalition are futile, they are also in the conflict for the most virtuous and righteous of reasons. It is a worthy cause that should, from this point of stalemate, emphasis the dialogue with the terrorists. We do not negotiate with terrorists, usually, but these people will most likely take power by fear and force as soon as the coalition leaves so they must be part of the reconstruction process.

This blog is dedicated to my father who has served and could serve again for the coalition, to the parents of my friends that serve in Afghanistan and to the soldiers that died for peace.

(Pictured: Temple Abou Simbel of Ramses II, Army insignias of the UK and Canada)

End.