CORRESPONDENCE.

• Author: SMITH, HAYDEN
• Position: Letter to the Editor

Sir,

I would like to thank Geraldine Canham for offering a more balanced view of the current situation in Afghanistan (vol 26, no 2). She raises many interesting points and thoughtfully answered most of my outstanding questions. It is also obvious that she has had practical experience in the country, and knows first hand the complexities of life on the ground there.

The questions I raised in my original letter were intended precisely to provoke a more balanced argument to the tired pro-Moscow/anti-Islam slant that often pervades Russian journalism. Peter Vasilieff suggests that I lack political knowledge on Afghanistan (vol 25, no1). Being a PhD candidate in Russian-Islamic affairs, I find this rather amusing. I may lack some understanding of the details in this particular case study, but I am fully conversant with the broad theoretical concepts involved in Islamic security matters and practical conflict resolution. Furthermore, since Afghanistan is such a remote region, I seriously doubt that anybody can actually claim to know all the details of the conditions in that country.

Vasilieff also did not address the questions that I posed regarding the position of the Taliban, and their mindset. In my view a more precise knowledge of their mindset (not foreigners' opinions of it) is an absolute prerequisite for conflict resolution. In peace negotiations it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to offer an olive branch in the one hand, whilst simultaneously holding the gun of overt contempt in the other. It is true that we may not approve of their methods, but this gets us nowhere in attempting to forge a meaningful peace in what is rapidly becoming `their' land.

Finally, I found Vasilieff's comments to the effect that I `liked' the Taliban both absurd and inappropriate. I merely offered an alternative perspective in the cause of political analysis. It is not a matter of `liking' the Taliban, or anyone else for that matter. It is simply an attempt to understand the Afghan conflict and the agents involved in it. From what I know, all sides have committed atrocities in this war, and no-one is walking away with clean hands.

As for Moscow being a neutral arbiter in this conflict, this is also dubious, to say the least. The fact is that Russia does not have a good record when it comes to dealing with Muslims. I also have to make the distinction...