One should not take it for granted that foreign military presence in any country of the world is tolerable because the objectives may be benign and the performance compassionate. The latter two words are easy to utter but difficult to practice. That is why the US administration has come up with the slogan of the need for winning over the hearts and minds of the occupied people. But its conduct has not matched its goal.

At the outset of its military campaigns, the United States promised and was hopeful of a quick in and out intervention with no or very minimal casualties in human life and especially zero or very few casualties to its own troops. But the campaign dragged on and the US military presence continued to linger. A complete pull out date could not be determined as it is conditional to the improvement of situations to the degree that local governments would be able to sustain power, and run a democratic system at par with international norms. Achieving of this goal in the developing world, even under normal conditions, is hard, but when conditions are unstable and peace is a distant hope, arriving at the goal would take an undetermined long period of time during which the US military has, out of necessity, had to stay on in Afghanistan and perhaps Iraq.

Therefore winning over the hearts and minds of the people become important. This column has several times in the past touched on the issue and has said that unless the conduct of the military meets democratic norms of the United States people, its military will face enormous difficulties convincing the world that it is a liberator and not an occupier.

The mal-treatment of prisoners in Iraq is now universal knowledge, but the story of an Afghan police colonel as reported in New York Times on May 12, 2004 brings to light the urgency of devising of a strategy to concentrate on promoting compassion rather than hate. New York Times writes: "A former Afghan police colonel gave a graphic account in an interview this week of being subjected to beating, kicking, sleep deprivation, taunts and sexual abuse during about 40 days he spent in American custody in Afghanistan last summer. He also said he had been repeatedly photographed, often while naked."

The colonel, Mr. Nabi Siddiqui was arrested under suspicion that he was a member of the Taleban movement. He was not. According to him he was tortured in ways that are not only offensive to all human beings, but also and especially to Afghans. He says he was insulted repeatedly when his women folk were called names and his honor ridiculed.

Other reports suggest that abuse of prisoners have been systematic and only now the procedures of treatment of prisoners have been reviewed. All of this point to the fact that no matter what period of history we live in, the victorious forces are may commit excesses, even against the rules, in relation to the conquered. This should stop and instead efforts should be made to win the people with expressions of love, affection and kindness and extension of hands to help in efforts for the well being of the needy and for the dressing of physical and mental wounds of the occupied people. Occupation must be temporary and as far as possible well defined in time.

Using the term occupied in Afghanistan may or not be pertinent as at least the country has a government that emanated from a democratic process of sorts. The transitional government has a mandate that it is reportedly busy implementing. Its president Karzai, who is directly, helped in the execution of his job by the US Ambassador, Mr. Zalmai Khalilzad, runs the government of Afghanistan. Yet the US Ambassador was reported as saying that to the best of his recollection there was no incidence of the kind reported to either him or the US military in Afghanistan. This was a big surprise to those who follow the news and are aware of at least four score cases of abuse that had been reported since the beginning of the US military operations in October of 2001. The United Nations and the Red Cross periodically publish reports of their findings and also communicate the same to the US authorities.

On the other hand, president Karzai, under whose guard the US military conducts arrests of the Afghan citizens and conducts interrogations of the prisoners, has never visited any of the many US military bases or the prisons in these camps and has kept a distance between himself and the US military operations that have resulted in the arrest and interrogation of Afghan nationals. One would have expected the head of the transitional government to take a keen interest in the affairs of the US forces operating in his country and its treatment of the citizens of Afghanistan. He should have had a say in the treatment and interrogation methods of the Afghan prisoners by the US military. Unfortunately, he has not touched cases involving his nationals arrested by the US military. Among these was a police officer from Karzai's administration wearing the uniform of his police and bearing an official ID from his government.

To make possible the notion of winning the hearts and minds of people, the US military should try not to pose as an arrogant force of a superpower because of its access to the most advanced weaponry and military technology, but should acknowledge the rights of the people and work together with them to achieve the common goal of defeating terror and injustice. In this difficult game, pieces such as the US military and civilian authorities, ranks and files, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, and the Afghan president of the transitional government should all participate so that the American effort to maintain democracy and justice for all is achieved. President Karzai should take a strong position regarding the US military operation in Afghanistan and should get involved in all aspects of the US conduct in his country. Otherwise, to the detriment of the notion that he is a sovereign leader, history will remember him the leader of an occupied land. 5/15/04