Afghan children are being taught with U.S.-funded textbooks explicitly written to exclude four decades of war in an almost self-satirizing attempt to “bring people together.”
“There is no mention of the Soviet war, the mujaheddin, the Taliban or the U.S. military presence,” reports the Washington Post. “In their efforts to promote a single national identity, Afghan leaders have deemed their own history too controversial.”
When state-funded indoctrination books whitewash entire swathes of relevant history, societal problems don’t simply go away. They’re compounded. Afghans are suffering on a daily basis from war and yet the U.S. and their Afghan “education” wardens appear to have decided to keep children ignorant of the causes of their country’s troubles.
Attempting to erase four decades of history is something extremely beneficial for the criminals, thugs, and extremists that have terrorized the country in that time. U.S. officials and the Afghan Ministry presumably want to prevent Afghans from knowing that the Soviets invaded and slaughtered perhaps over a million Afghans, or that the U.S. helped spur extremist jihadis to power, or that the Taliban forced a delusional brand of religious savagery on the people, or that the U.S. has committed extensive atrocities and war crimes throughout ten years of military occupation. Lucky for the Russians, Americans, and Taliban.
“Our recent history tears us apart. We’ve created a curriculum based on the older history that brings us together, with figures universally recognized as being great,” said Farooq Wardak, Afghanistan’s education minister. “These are the first books in decades that are depoliticized and de-ethnicized.”
Depoliticized, de-enthicized, and de-factized. The curriculum, which was “reviewed” for “inappropriate material” by people the Post calls “U.S. military cultural advisers,” is anathema to education. It does the opposite of what education is supposed to do, instead keeping Afghans ignorant and doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, never having learned from them in the first place.
Ah the Japanese method of making sure that there is no History of what went on, What goes with the old adage we need History so out Mistakes are not Repeated!
I live in a city that was Bombed by the Japanese during WWII, Darwin! We frequently have Japanese come here that didnt know that Japan and Australia went to war, or that Japan was the Aggressor.
lol, our government is becoming a satire of the Big Brother government in Orwell's 1984 … revisionist history
What do you mean "is becoming"? Our government's been a satire for at least the last 20 years.
p.s. the soviets were invited by the government.
because the secular government at the time was trying to fight a civil war against the american backed mujahedin
americans have been changing history for a while now…
palistine- never existed,
iran-global super power,
france -never fought a war, ever.(and certainly never help any country gain its Independence.
mexico, constantly trying to conquer the united states
somlia – just can't manage with out our help
north korea – lucky for us we manage to stop them from occupying California for now…
uzbekistan – known for their delicious boiled meat
cuba – did you know they torture people!
i can go on but i get bored
you must have read 'The Ugly American' and its sequel 'The Ignernt American'
Im still waiting to find out when "palistine" or "palestine" ever existed IN ALL OF HISTORY. Surely you can find its currency or flag or a leader or two.
I have a Postage Stamp that is from Palestine would like me to post it to you ? I guess someone was printing Stamps back in the 1930s as a joke maybe? I also have a world atlas from 1935 which has on it Palestine as a country Funny did you miss that part of history or you are just another Zionist Moron Trolling the forums. I saw the later accurately fits your description.
thats right i forgot no piece of land with continuous inhabitants can be considered anything until a centralized state monopolizes currency and erects a bureaucracy
If you close your eyes you cannot see the Sun. Then you would ask if it ever existed.
The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty: The Husaynis, 1700-1948
By Illan Pappe
Paul you forgot the USA, France, UK and I think Canada won the WWII. At least that was my feeling when our newspapers and all newspapers in "civilized" world were writing few years ago about the 60-eth anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. Some heavy remaking of history was going on then too.
Oh. So that's why they're there. Same reason they're here.
Well, so apart from cameras for everyone in case they get to witness occupiers p–sing on daddy, a nice humanitarian aid package should make ubiquitous some heavy duty desktop publishing.
US + Military + culture? There's an oxymoronic notion. Good thing America's paying for this, fuel's not cheap in Afghanistan.
"In an effort to bring people together, American history books are removing all mention of the Civil War, slavery and Jim Crow." Think of the problems that would create. Why are blacks disproportionately in poverty? It wouldn't be because of generations of institutionalized discrimination, We would just have to assume it was something genetic.
All history is propaganda…………… Occupations…??? "friends helping friends"… The good news is that in primitive places like Afghanistan, their oral history will always trump the foreign occupiers written whitewash calling itself THEIR history…….. Because Afghans at both ends of the political spectrum will know better, both educated and peasant Afghans will know what REALLY happened to them…… and there is NO real middle class to lap up the lies ……… Oh well HA…. Ha…ha.. They are trying to hide the obvious, that Afghans don't suffer occupations kindly……….. Especially infidels sticking their hands down the woman's birka…… How will this all end…?? What will be the fate of these books when the occupiers depart……??? Most likely they will warm their hearts as fuel for the fire in winter…….. The Imans will be the historians for the masses, not NATO…!!! It's just more wasted money (and lives too) in pursuit of Neocon delusions of grandeur and global conquest……….More lies from our unequivocal masters,,,,,,,,,,
" The Imans will be the historians for the masses"
that is a recipe for disaster. Secondly if you find these efforts to whitewash funny then you better check out the muslim historians.
can’t ya just see the orwellian edit rooms inane conversation as they scrap over the latest variated update to doublespeak, good knewz brother, yer dictatorial adjecated exspression has just made a big diff in “the eastern medaterrianeans'” traffic patterns aka matrix, zionistically fabricated lIvE
Funny, I dont recall Antiwar ever having an article about the racism, xenophobia, brainwashing, whitewashing/revisionism/complete denial of history, violence in Arab textbooks.
You can find plenty of articles on such subjects on other websites.
And if the point of posting such a disingenuous 'Fair & Balanced' comment like that is simply to satisfy your own warped morality I'd still suggest you try another website. The internet is a big place.
the difference is countries white washing history in its own text is one thing
a foreign military occupation whitewashing its intervention in said state is another
Whatcha worried about, John? If they keep making misteaks, Barack da Bomber'll just keep our troops there and that'll keep them Afghans from making any more misteaks.
Only 40 years erased? Whew…at least they'll still get to read Kipling… http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard_K…
It is not just Afganistan, everyone at home in the United States should know that the primary symptom of a conquered people is to not know its history. Mr. Glaser does great disservice to Afghan history and our understanding of it: "presumably want to prevent Afghans from knowing that the Soviets invaded and slaughtered perhaps over a million Afghans…" Afghanistan had an indiginous Communist revolution in the 1970s and the new Government INVITED the Soviet Union to enter the country! Any "slaughter" that took place was in the context of a war that was organized, armed and funded by the U.S..
Why not? That's exactly what they've done in the US. Remember, Injuns bad, we white Christuns, good! They've probably done the same thing with the Afghan books and portrayed themselves as the saviors. Hubris is the Empire's most prevalent valuable.